“What To Give To Caesar”
The place of government
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Text: Matthew 22:15-22
Of all the literary forms, the two genres that I enjoy the most are poetry and spy novels. Now, for those of you who know me, the former will come as no surprise. I love poetry. Very often on a Saturday afternoon in preparation for the next day I will read a piece of poetry, for there is something inspirational about it. It ignites the imagination and it fires up the creative soul. Who cannot read Amelia Opie or Maya Angelou or Robert Browning and not come away with something that fires the imagination?
Just yesterday, when reading from Browning's collection, I turned to the great poem Rabbi Ben Ezra. As I get a little bit older, those opening words give me such hope and solace. The opening stanza is glorious. Let me share it with you:
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God see all, nor be afraid!“
Wonderful words: The best is yet to be. Not only do I get inspired by poetry such as this but I also love a good spy novel. What a leap it is from Browning to John le Carré, mmm? Yet there is something about spy novels that sparks my imagination and intrigues me. There is something compelling about an insidious person who is trying to undermine authorities and powers. There is something intriguing about covert operations, about entrapment and about revelations. Something about spy novels always makes you wonder what the conclusion will be and what the means really is and what's really going on. For there is a power in hiddenness. There is a power in mystery. There is a power in preventing people from knowing certain things, and spy novels keep you guessing.
I would like to suggest to you that our text today from the Gospel of Matthew is very much like a spy novel. For what we have here is someone whose enemies are trying to expose the mystery and hiddenness of his activity. There are those who are trying to undermine what this person who is keeping what he is doing hidden, by exposing it and letting the world know what it is before the mission is ever completed.
Of course, the spy in this case - the hidden one - is Jesus. There are those trying to expose Him, to bring Him out into the open, to humiliate Him so He can no longer do His job. You can feel the tension in our story as Matthew sets it up. The scene is set and it's very clear.
Those who are seeking to entrap Jesus are of two types. On the one hand the Pharisees, who are the religious leaders of his day. The Pharisees have an antithetical relationship with the governing power of Rome that is oppressing their nation so they can't stand Roman authority and are concerned they will be co-opted by Roman power. On the other side, there are the Herodians, living their lives under the shadow of Roman power. They are living under the protection of Rome's authority and many of them are actually making a good living, actually rising to power, able to govern because the Romans allow them to do so.
Now, these two groups conspire against Jesus in a most insidious way. They actually come to Jesus and ask Him, in a classic Socratic way, a question that whatever the answer might be would cause Jesus great trouble. They ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?“
Now, I must say that I sat on the edge of my seat yesterday when a member of my family was preparing our tax return. (Only the wise ones should do that.) I was wondering, “Oh, Lord, when I make out this cheque to the Receiver General, is there anything in the Bible that would prevent me from having to send it? Surely, Lord, there is something here in the words of Jesus that can help me in my time of sorrow and grief.“
Friends, there ain't. So, I tucked it in the envelope, put on the stamp and cried at the mailbox. I paid my taxes.
I thought about that and I can see why Jesus must have felt uncomfortable. He couldn't win. If He had answered this question by saying “No,“ He would have immediately been arrested for sedition. He would have been undermining Roman authority and power and that would have ended His ministry. Likewise, if He had said “Yes,“ He would have been disloyal to His people. It would have appeared that he was siding with the Herodians and supporting the work of the oppressor. So He couldn't win.
So, what did Jesus do? Well, as usual, He was different. Right out of Jerry Maguire, the movie, He says, “Show me the money.“ In other words, let me have a look at what you have in your hands. I know you are trying to fool me. Show me the coin. Now, the coin in question was a denarius, which was worth about one day's wage of a Roman legionnaire, minted in Tiberius and made of silver.
They represented something more than simply currency and coin. They were the means whereby the oppressed people would pay their taxes in the currency of the oppressor. In other words, the denarius represented the submission of people to the power of Rome.
Jesus then asks, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?“ On one side would have been a picture of whoever the emperor might have been, whoever the Caesar might have been. On the other side would have been the depiction of the same emperor, but in almost sacramental robes, with the inscription: “Kurios Caesar,“ - “Caesar is lord.“ Again, a reminder to the occupied forces that they were in fact, occupied, that Caesar was their supreme ruler.
Jesus looks at this and then He says something that, if it is mysterious in the least, is mysterious in the greatest. He says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.“ In other words, He did not answer with a yes or a no. His aphorism was as two-sided as the coin - it was brilliant.
There have of course been some who throughout 2,000 years of Christian history have interpreted what Jesus said as a principle or model for church-state relations. Jesus has been used to justify almost all manner of authorities on earth. I would like to suggest to you that that is a false reading of what Jesus was doing here. Jesus was not setting a principle for church-state relations, and I have to disagree with even some of the greatest theologians, like John Calvin and others, who have used this passage to justify the relationship between the church and the state. For indeed, this passage has been used in many ways to justify different regimes and governments.
You can imagine that under the persecution of the great emperor Diocletian, the Christians would have wondered what on earth Jesus had in mind when he said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's,“ when in fact the power of Rome was putting them to death by the sword. Likewise, you can see that they were perplexed when Constantine Christianized the Roman Empire, when the empire and the religion were so closely attached they wondered what it meant to “Give to God what is God's.“
You can imagine that people have used it for their own purposes. For example, when Charlemagne was crowned in the eighth century, you can imagine what people thought about the pope saying, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's,“ when he was actually crowning the emperor. There have been popes such as Pope Gelasius who believed in the two swords: the sword of heaven and the sword of earth. He took this passage and united the two pieces: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and God what is God's,“ but on the assumption the papal power had control over both.
You can see why those who ascribe to the divine right of kings to govern questioned this passage. They asked, what does it mean to 'Give to God what is God's when in fact the monarch had the divine right to govern in all things?
You can see why it has been a subject of debate. For those who believe in a civil religion, somehow faith in one's country and faith in God, are exactly the same. When you give unto Caesar you must then be giving unto God, and vice versa. Likewise, you can see how perplexed are those who believe in civil disobedience, in standing for justice in the midst of tyranny. They question how they can possibly give unto Caesar, and they wonder whether Jesus' words meant anything at all.
People are confused by this passage, because what we have done is interpret it in the light of what has followed from Christ. What we have done is interpret Christ through the eyes of 2,000 years of our political history, and we have read into this text our own particular political, social and economic values. We need, I believe, to stand back for a moment and try to understand what Jesus was saying within the context of His time. Because, as I'm going to suggest, this is the most radical interpretation of what Jesus said, and the only one I believe that's sustainable for you and I, living in the modern world.
I say this because I think Jesus was deliberately cagey. He was not trying to state a principle. He was dealing with the problem of two forces trying to derail His ministry, trying to expose Him, trying to belittle Him and prevent Him from doing God's work. I think, in my reading of this text, that Jesus was in fact dismissing the coin: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's.” Just give it back to them, pay the flipping taxes! Go ahead, it really doesn't matter, give it to Caesar, but “give to God what is God's.”
Notice the emphasis. I would suggest to you that when you look at Jesus as a Jew, talking to Jews, in the light of Jewish history this is the only thing that makes sense. After all, from the very beginning of the people of Israel, Moses went up against a tyrannical power, Pharoah and said, “Set my people free.” In other words, the people of God and their mission will always be superior to the tyranny and the powers of the world. No way of being co-opted.
Likewise, about 150 years before Jesus, and this would still have been in the immediate memory of the people to whom He was speaking, there had been the Maccabean revolt against the Assyrians. When the temple in Jerusalem was defiled and the people of Israel were subjugated, Judas Maccabeus and his family rose up in 165 BC to make the temple sacred again. They took up arms against the infidel in order that their land be free.
Jesus is speaking in the midst of that context and I believe (along with N.T. Wright) that He is saying, without any shadow of a doubt, to these people who are trying to entrap Him, “What I'm going to do is revolutionary. It's going to be unlike anything that you have seen before, but it is nevertheless going to be God's will and God's purpose.” Jesus believed Psalm 96, that states that all the nations of the world will be subject to God. He is not saying that people should justify the power of Caesar, He's saying that you pay your taxes, you give to the government, you give them their due, then just dismiss it. But you've got to give to God what is God's and ultimately that is the ultimate. You can see that Jesus is beginning a revolution. His revolution is not like the Maccabean revolt. It is not with military force. It is different - it is a revolution from above.
If you go and visit the Capitol in Washington you'll see a beautiful chapel with a Bible always open in the centre, and a stained-glass window that has always been subject to interpretation. Depending on your faith, how you look at it will determine how you interpret it. For this particular stained-glass window depicts George Washington kneeling before the seal of the United States and the eagle, the symbol of America. Many have found that disturbing. Depends on how you read it, I suppose. It could either be a sign that George Washington was a man of devotion and prayer and that the United States should be a country of prayer. Or, it could be interpreted as a symbol, a sign of the nation being the source of worship, of being the subject of adoration.
I think there is always a danger to interpreting it in the second way and that does not apply just to the United States, it applies to any country. There can be the worship of earthly powers, there can be the worship of idols, of governments, of countries. Jesus is making it abundantly clear in everything He says and does that His kingdom is not a parallel kingdom to Caesar's, that God's reign is not a parallel reign to some others. The aphorism is not of two equal theories: “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's,” it is “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but that should be subordinate to giving unto God what is God's.” That's the way the formula looks.
You can see this in the words of Jesus when He's about to be crucified before Pontius Pilate. He says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” In John's Gospel Jesus reminds Pilate that even though Pilate, on behalf of Caesar, is judging Him, “But if it were not for God you would not have the authority that you have.” Remember, even in your Roman power, that there is a power that is greater.
You see, earthly power, Caesar's power, is a coin. Caesar's power comes and goes as all temporal powers do. I've been thinking about that a great deal over the last few weeks and months as Canadians as a whole have become a bit more cynical about the political process and about those in power. We've become cynical about politics because of the report of the Auditor General, but we've become cynical in many other realms as well, and perhaps that's why I love democracy.
I think democracy is a wonderful way of ensuring that no power stays on top forever, no matter where it is or what it might be. You know, when you look at different governments and powers, wherever they might be in this world, they all to some extent ebb and flow. The Roman Empire did not last forever. There is no power on this earth that is sustainable in perpetuity. You give your taxes to Caesar right now for Caesar governs right now, but not forever. Even political parties come and go, as we've seen. They ebb and they flow. They merge, they go out of existence, they come back again.
I love how Theodore Roosevelt made light of political parties in a story (possibly apocryphal) two men debating their political allegiances. One of them asks the other, “Why are you a Republican?”
“Well, my father was a Republican, my grandfather was a Republican, my great-grandfather was a Republican, my grandmother was a Republican, so I'm a Republican.”
“That's about the most weak-kneed reason I've ever heard for anyone to belong to a political party! What would happen, for example, if your grandmother had been a horse thief and your grandfather a bank robber?”
The man said, “In that case, I'd have been a Democrat I suppose.”
All earthly powers are by their very definition fallible. They come and they go. They are important. Jesus is not saying avoid The political realm. He is not saying do not become involved in it: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's.” But, its proper place in the heart of believers is subject to God - God comes first. And that is why His revolution is from above and why He didn't want the Pharisees and the Herodians or anyone else to derail what He was going to do.
Because, lastly, it was a revolution not only from above, it was a revolution of love. Unlike Judas Maccabeus, Jesus did not pick up arms or lead His followers in an insurrection. He didn't need to. He gave them something far, far more powerful. What Jesus called His followers to do was to take up humility, to take up service, to take up sacrifice, to exist for others.
Oh, I think it is fair enough to say that many earthly powers begin their sojourn with good intentions and with all the right will in the world to struggle for others, but after time that very often evaporates. Not so in the case of Jesus - it was an existence for others right to the very bitter end. And that is why the cross of Christ is an affront to power. Not to any one ethnic group, not to any one nation, not to any race, not to any time, but for all time, to all power. The cross is a stumbling block. The cross is an affront. It is God giving Himself for the sake of humanity. It is the God of service and the God of sacrifice and the God of love.
Now, you can dismiss this if you want. You can say you don't believe it if you want. But you cannot deny that this is what Jesus did and for those who are wanting to entrap Him, Jesus would have none of it, because He knew ultimately that before the tyrant of Rome, before the power of the enemy, He had to lay down His life and thereby rise from the dead.
As Christians we are in many ways dual citizens. It's a funny place to be, to be in two kingdoms at the same time. It's strange to have to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and sometimes it's even costly. But, it is just as challenging and just as dramatic, but more powerful, to be a citizen of the kingdom of Christ.
This is true, my friends, whether you are in the middle of the anarchy of Port-au-Prince or whether you are in Washington or London or Ottawa. Whether you are in Baghdad or in the slums of Burkina Faso in Sierra Leone. Whether you are in Kiev or Calcutta, you have a citizenship and the citizenship is a mystery and it is hidden and it is in the heart. You are a citizen of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and you do not say, “Kurios Caesar” you say “Kurios Christos” - Jesus is my Lord. I ascribe to His kingdom.
Shelley put it so beautifully:
Tyrants and slaves are the shadow of night
in the van of the morning light.
All things are ultimately revealed by the light of Christ. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.