Sermon Tone Analysis

I love preaching on this text.

In my 6th year here at St. James and over my 16 year ministry career, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on this text in multiple settings and contexts.

I find the exchange here challenging and provocative.

And that’s just what the Scribes and Chief Priests are attempting to do with Jesus — challenge and provoke him.

Jesus has just finished sharing a parable about vineyard tenants and their faithfulness to the wishes of the master who employs them.

They take advantage of the employer’s absence and even go so far as to kill the land owner’s son in their resistance to caring for what was entrusted them.

Jesus has set the scene with this parable to highlight the nature of the systems of power to seek to undermine and control the real work of God among the people, specifically pointing to how the systems would lead to rejecting his message, the message of the cornerstone of God’s work, the Christ, who has come to share the good news.

And the religious leaders don’t like this.

So, as we hear in our text, they have started spying on Jesus, trying to trap him, trying to get him to slip up, pretending to be honest, but trying to get Jesus into trouble.

This kind of question they ask, about paying taxes, could certainly get Jesus into trouble.

It’s a set up — it’s a loaded question.

“Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

It’s a trick.

They all know the answers…there are multiple answers and depending on how Jesus responds, he will agitate one group or another.

Of course it’s lawful to pay taxes to the emperor — everyone knew that.

In fact, that’s a burden they would all have been frustrated about — at least the Jewish people under Roman occupation.

But it’s the law and you don’t mess with the law.

We’ve talked about tax collectors a bit these last couple of weeks.

They were despised by the people, seen as liars or thieves.

But, even though begrudgingly, this was the law of the land.

It’s the same in our context, isn’t it?

Think about this, if I were to ask you, is it lawful to pay your income taxes?

You might look at me with confusion — like…is there another option?

Can you just not?

We all know about schemes to cheat the system, to get out of paying, but they are still just responses to the settled reality — we are required to pay taxes to the empire.

And whether or not we trust the justice system in our country to address those who defraud the tax system, at the end of the day, we know we have to file our 1099, our 1040, pay our sales taxes, etc., etc.

So, again, this is a trick question — is it lawful to pay taxes to the empire?

But then, it’s a trick on the other side too…

They couch the question in a platitude — “we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

Jesus, we know that you honor the Torah, the religious law, and our faithful to its commandments.

We know you would never worship a graven image of an earthly figure.

We know that all you possess belongs to God, so you are faithful to give to the synagogue and the poor.

You see, the trap on the religious end is related to who has primary authority of our lives.

If Jesus answers the question with a “yes”, then he is saying that the Roman Empire has authority over him (and them) and this would agitate a whole different group of people.

In this time, there would be zealots and those who would protest Roman Imperial rule.

They are the ones who might resist paying taxes, resist deference to their power.

And to give homage using a coin with Caesar’s image on it — that is equated to giving worship to a false god.

Best not affirm this…right?

Again, let’s link this to our context.

Who is on the bills and coins you carry?

George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John F. Kennedy.

How about the cards you carry: VISA, Mastercard, Capitol One.

People and brands that represent the power of the empire.

People, who’s legacy tells a story about what kind of people we are supposed to emulate and venerate.

And brands that tell stories to make us feel comfortable with how they handle our resources and give us a sense of financial security.

Right?

So if we say yes, we pay our taxes, then there is the resistance narrative that tells us we are participating in imperial rule all over again.

And whether our popular culture resists that because of faithfulness to a religious belief or not, what it does say is that we cannot put these stories ahead of our own priorities, our own people’s needs.

Maybe you know the song from the Beatles’ White Album, “Tax man.”

I think this captures the resistance sentiment quite well.

Let me tell you how it will be

There's one for you, nineteen for me

'Cause I'm the taxman

Yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five percent appear too small

Be thankful I don't take it all

'Cause I'm the taxman

Yeah, I'm the taxman

I'll tax the street

(If you try to sit, sit) I'll tax your seat

(If you get too cold, cold) I'll tax the heat

(If you take a walk, walk) I'll tax your feet

(Taxman)

'Cause I'm the taxman

Yeah, I'm the taxman

The taxman will get what the taxman requires…my friends.

Jesus, as always, gives a masterful answer.

He both appeases and frustrates both sides of the conversation, both sides of the coin, as it were.

He asks for an object lesson, a physical example.

“Show me a denarius.

Whose head and who title does it bear?”

Show me a bill or a coin.

Who’s likeness does it bear?

Who does it belong to?

Who made it?

Who regulates your bank account?

Who sets the standards for credit and interest rates?

We know this conversation well.

So which is right?

Does our money belong to the empire or to God?

Jesus responds.

Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s.

And give to God the things that are God’s.

He perceived their craftiness…the text reads.

They were not able to trap him in the presence of the people, as it had been their intent.

Let’s say, just for a moment, that Jesus had been trapped.

Either he would have agitated the priests be giving Caesar the place of divine authority.

Or he would have angered the people by saying that the political authority of the occupier was justified.

But he does neither…or does he do both?

Instead, he gives this answer: Give to God what is God’s and Caesar what is Caesar’s.

So, what do we owe Caesar?

Well, lawfulness and taxes.

Submission.

Peace-ability.

Again, it’s helpful to look at our current context.

What do we owe the Empire?

This week, we owe our votes, our democratic participation.

We also owe taxes to upkeep roads and governmental systems and education and social security and all the rest.

It is part of the social contract we participate in as a collective people.

I’m not saying we should simply bow to the powers that be, but the reality is that they require things of us and we are wise to participate, at least to a degree, in our collective political life together by abiding by those laws that govern us.