Give to God the Things That Are God’s

[Our readings this week are Isaiah 45:1-7, Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13), 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, and Matthew 22:15-22.]

Our Gospel reading today continues Matthew’s description of Jesus’ activities during Holy Week. Today, we hear one of the most misunderstood statements Jesus made.

This is on Tuesday of Holy Week. Remember that Jesus has already disrupted the money changers in the Temple. Now the Pharisees and the Herodians approach him together in the Temple. The Pharisees are devout Jews, scrupulous in their observance of the Law. The Herodians, as their name indicates, supported the family of Herod, the puppet king appointed by Rome. It appears they were seen by most people, including the Pharisees, as Roman collaborators. That they appear to be working together is ominous.

Jesus was probably already on his guard as they approached, but, if he hadn’t been, their attempt to butter him up—“we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality”—would certainly have made him suspicious. In modern day language, this is when you check to make sure your wallet is still there.

Of course, this is a trap. When the Pharisees ask him, “Is it lawful”—does it comply with Torah—“to pay taxes to the emperor?” they think they have caught Jesus no matter how he answers. If, in front of the crowd, he says that it is lawful, then he will be seen as siding with the collaborators. If, on the other hand, he says that Jews shouldn’t pay taxes, then he can be arrested for treason and sedition.

Jesus’ response is simple but brilliant. He never answers the question (a frequent habit of Jesus). He asks them to show the coin used for the tax. They produce a denarius, a coin worth about a day’s wages for a laborer which had the image of the emperor, probably Tiberius, and a Latin inscription which translates “Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus.” To a good Jew, this description of the emperor as divine was scandalous.

And here we have the people who are trying to trap Jesus, themselves carrying a coin with this “graven image” into the Temple! You can be sure that the crowd would have noticed that.

It is here that Jesus says the famous words: “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and give to God, the things that are God’s.”

It is important to understand that Jesus was not trying to set up a separation of church and state, but avoiding a trap. Unfortunately, this is how this sentence has often been interpreted—that there is this compartment for the church over here and a compartment for the government over there and particularly, that the church should stay in its own box. Clearly, Jesus must be telling bishops and preachers to mind their own business.

This idea has been used to support some pretty awful concepts of loyalty to the state, including the loyalty of many German Christians to Hitler, although of course there were exceptions whose light will shine forever. Whenever someone tries to justify that obedience to the state overrides our obedience to God, you can be sure that this interpretation is at the bottom of it.

Instead of focusing on what is the emperor’s, let’s focus on what belongs to God. To an observant Jew like Jesus, the answer is simple—Everything!

As we hear in Isaiah today: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe: I the LORD do all these things.”

Everything comes from God and God has a claim on all of life and we are made in His image. Remember that when Jesus asked whose image was on the coin? The emperor’s image is only on a coin; God’s image is on every human life.

Even though the state—even a relatively gentle state as ours—seems to have a claim on much of our life, nothing belongs to the state. Everything belongs to God.

We are citizens of a kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, even while we are citizens of an earthly country. When the obligations of our two citizenships conflict, which do we honor first?

Jesus calls us to our true, ultimate and permanent citizenship. Our true citizenship will be at the heavenly banquet. As one writer has noted, the seating arrangements should be interesting. It is quite possible that a French Huguenot murdered in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre will be seated next to a Roman Catholic who may have been the murderer. It is quite possible that a Roman Catholic who was executed in England may be seated across the table from one of our Anglican forebears responsible for the execution. Most of the soldiers who slaughtered each other in our Civil War were Christians. Most of the Russians, Germans, Austrian, Serbs, Italians, French, English, and North Americans who slaughtered each other in World Wars I and II were Christian and undoubtedly will be gathered at the heavenly banquet. We are all citizens of that kingdom.

And if we really take seriously the claim that God is rightful Lord of the earth and all that is in it, over what is the emperor lord? Nothing.

When we say “Jesus is Lord”, we make a radical, liberating claim that nobody and nothing else gets to make. So when it comes to all worldly powers who would be Lord, whether it’s the flag of a nation, a cause, respectability and achievement, or a person who wants to take God’s place as Lord of our lives, understand that they have no rightful claim at all.