Trinity 19th
Trinity 19th Matthew 22.15-22
In the paper a few weeks ago I found an article which said that Britain had around 8,300 different instructions regarding different taxes.
This is 2,000 more then any other country in Europe or even the USA.
You only start to realise how complex out tax system is and how many different taxes there are when you run your own business, and then you start to realise what is involved.
A great deal of small businesses uses the services of an Accountant to help them trough the maze of taxation, for example when I was in business I use to see my Accountant every quarter to confirm that I had got my VAT returns correct.
To get your VAT returns wrong could see a visit from a Tax Inspector, which can end up as a very expenses mistake.
In today’s Gospel reading we have Jewish leaders launching an attack against Jesus by putting a carefully formulated question to Him regarding paying taxes.
They put the question to Jesus in public, with a crowd looking on and listening, their aim being to get Jesus to discredit himself using his own words in the presence of His followers and a crowd.
The Jews asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not”
There were, in fact, three basic taxes a man must pay to the Government of the day.
There was first a Ground tax, one tenth of the grain, and one fifth of the oil and wine that he produced. This tax was paid part in kind and part in money.
Secondly there was an Income tax, which was one per cent of a man’s income.
Thirdly there was a Poll tax; this tax was paid by ever male person from the age of fourteen to the age of sixty-five, and by ever female person from the age of twelve to sixty-five, it amounted to one Denarius, this is what Jesus called the Tribute coin. This is the tax in question.
The question which the Pharisees asked put Jesus in a very real dilemma.
If Jesus has said that it was unlawful to pay the tax, they would promptly report him to the Roman government officials for in sighting treason against Rome.
With Jesus’ arrest most certainly following.
If Jesus had said it was lawful to pay this tax, He would stand discredited in the eyes of his follows and the crowd.
Not only did the people resent the tax as everyone resents taxation, they resented it even more for religious reasons.
To a Jew, God was the only king, God was there sole sovereign, to pay tax to an earthly king was to admit the king’s kingship and thereby to insult God.
So to the Jews therefore to pay any tax to a foreign king like Caesar was wrong, and against their faith.
Whichever way Jesus might answer the question put to Him by the Jewish leaders, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not” He would lay Himself open to trouble.
The Jewish leaders thought that this time they had got Jesus, as He could not answer without upsetting someone.
The seriousness of this attack on Jesus is shown by the fact that the Pharisees and the Herodians combined to make the attack, for normally these two parties were in bitter opposition to each other.
The Pharisees were the supremely orthodox, who resented the payment of the tax to a foreign king as an infringement of the divine right of God.
The Herodians were the party of Herod, king of Galilee, who owed his power to the Romans and so was a glove puppet to Rome.
For once their differences were for a moment forgotten in a common hatred of Jesus and their desire to eliminate Jesus.
Jesus was not going to get caught out He was too wise for them.
Jesus said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites. Show me the money for the tax.”
And they brought him a coin.
As soon as a king came to the throne he would strike his own coinage, even a pretender would produce a coinage to show the reality of his kingship.
Coinage was held to be the property of the king whose image it bore.
And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” on the coin.
They said, “Caesar’s”
Then Jesus said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”
With his unique wisdom Jesus never laid down rules and regulations, that is why Jesus teaching is timeless and never goes out of date.
Jesus always lays down principle.
Here Jesus lays down a very great and very important principle.
Every Christian has a double citizenship.
A Christian is a citizen of the country in which they happen to live.
To this country they owe many things as a settled government gives us a peaceful place to live, with law and order all under control.
They also can give us education, medical services, provision for unemployment and old age.
This places a Christian under a debt of obligation as a Christian is a person of honour, and a responsible citizen.
Failure in good citizenship is also a failure in Christian duty.
Untold troubles can descend upon a country, an industry or any organization when Christians refuse to take their part in the administration of it and leave it to selfish, self seeking and unchristian people.
The Christians has a duty to Caesar in return for the privileges which the rule of Caesar brings to them.
A Christian is also a citizen of Heaven.
There are matters of religion and of principle in which the responsibility of the Christian is to God.
It may well be that the two citizenships will never clash, they do not need to.
But when the Christian is convinced that it is God’s will that something should be done, it must be done.
Or, if a Christian is convinced that something is against the will of God, a Christian must resist it and should take no part in it.
Jesus does not say where the boundaries between the two duties lie.
That is for a Christian’s own conscience to test.
Real Christians, and that is what Jesus here is saying, is at one the same time a good citizen of the country in which they live and at the same time is a good citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
St Peter in his first letter tells us to, “Fear God, Honour the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17)
