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Rev. Bill Pederson
Biblical Text: Matthew 22:15-22
The infamous phrase on United States’ coinage, “In God we trust,” did not always appear on our nation’s legal tender. The motto first appeared on U.S. coins during the Civil War, when Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase sent this instruction to the director of the U.S. Mint: “Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in his defense. The trust in our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.” (Homiletics, vol. 20, no. 5, page 63) Thus “In God we trust” was struck on our national coinage during the Civil War years and in 1956 Congress officially approved the phrase “In God we trust” as our national motto.
There is an irony in the phrase, “In God we trust” struck across the face of our nation’s coinage. The irony? Quite simply, we are prone to trust the coinage more than the phrase’s object; we trust in the money that we can see and measure more so than in God whom we cannot see and measure. Jesus understood fully that human beings are more prone to put their trust in money than in God and this is why Jesus used money and possessions to drive decisive points in a majority of his parables and Jesus had more to say about money and material property than any other subject, save one – the kingdom of God.
Today’s text from Matthew is one of many classical texts from the New Testament in which Jesus uses money to drive deep theological truths about God. There is absolutely no question in my mind that Jesus said these very words and in the Christian tradition’s transmission of them to the gospels, there has been little, if any, modification of Jesus’ original words. Here we find how brilliant and penetrating a teacher the historical Jesus was. As someone has noted, Jesus had the otherworldly ability to capture the world in an aphorism – a succinct, biting phrase. It does not get any more succinct and telling than this: “Give…to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (verse 21)
Matthew tells us that the Pharisees went behind closed doors to discuss how they might publicly trap Jesus, to discredit him, if not get him killed. After all, since arriving in Jerusalem, Matthew’s Jesus has practically gone out of his way to publicly disgrace the Jewish religious establishment of his day. It appears the Pharisees have decided in executive session that they will not try to best Jesus on scripture and religion. So they come at him with an equally charged, equally controversial subject – politics, and politics twin sister - taxes.
The Pharisees trot out their interns, not wanting to face Jesus publicly themselves. And along with their protégés, the Pharisees have arranged for a group of their political rivals to come along for the ride, the Herodians. Now the Herodians are Roman collaborators, supporters of Herod and his regime who rule at the behest of the Romans. The Herodians would gladly pay taxes to Rome so as not to upset things political. The Pharisees on the other hand represent the oppressed Jews who don’t like Herod and can’t stand the Romans. The Jews would like nothing better than to be told they do not have to pay taxes to Caesar. The stage is set for some political fireworks.
And after exchanging some patronizing pleasantries with Jesus, the political question is put, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” If Jesus answers Yes, you should pay your taxes to Caesar, the Jews would be scandalized and deeply disillusioned with Jesus since paying taxes to Caesar was considered treasonous to the Jewish state. If Jesus answers No it is not lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, then the Herodians (the Roman collaborators) will seek to kill Jesus for treason against the Roman state.
The trap is set. The tension high. There is no way out of this dilemma politically for Jesus. But Jesus is no politician. He is the Son of God. And like any dutiful son, he is going to protect the right of his Father’s household.
Show me the money, Jesus says to his detractors. They bring him a denarius. Jesus says to his questioners, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then Jesus said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Could Jesus possibly mean that there are two realms of power in the world, two loci of influence: that of the state, and that of God and neither the twain shall meet? Not hardly, and it would be dangerous to assume that this is what Jesus meant in this insightful, though small phrase. In the final instance, Jesus is making a deep and penetrating theological point here, not political. But in this political season of our nation, we can say something about politics here in passing. Jesus acknowledges the right of states to exist. Therefore Jesus tacitly agrees that those states have the right to tax their populous, which does include the people of God. Sorry Joe the Plumber, taxes are inevitable and can be levied reasonably by the state and should be paid by the populous, so, in the Reformed/Presbyterian understanding of things, the state will have the means and power to exercise the justice and mercy of God in society.
But a state’s right to exist and tax its populous is not Jesus’ final word here. Jesus is making a theological point that is so deep and thorough it leaves his adversaries speechless. In effect Jesus says there is a difficult discernment that must constantly be going on in the believer’s heart between what belongs to Caesar (as some things do) and what belongs to God (as all things do.) When Jesus holds up a coin with the likeness and insignia of Caesar imprinted on that coin and says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus is acknowledging that some things in this world belong to Caesar, but all things in this world belong to God. The ultimate power, the ultimate allegiance, the ultimate trust belongs to God, not Caesar. And the dilemma in the believer’s heart is the search for faithfulness in the giving of money to a state that demands, and the giving of money to a God whom we owe.
In effect Jesus is teaching that all things in this world belong to God, including money. Jesus is laying a deep foundation for the biblical stewardship of money. He is saying that believers must see money as an asset, a resource, for glorifying God. Yes, Jesus definitely acknowledges that the Caesars of this world have a reasonable claim upon the money at our disposal. But God has the ultimate claim upon money because money is an asset, a resource to be used in this world to bring about God’s justice and mercy. Christians cannot legitimately avoid paying reasonable taxes to a just and reasonable state. But we dare not avoid the ultimate reality that everything we have, including the money at our disposal, is to be used to bring glory to God.
We are at a fascinating crossroads in our nation’s history between politics and money. Soon we will elect a new president against a backdrop of one of this nation’s most precarious times economically. I heard on the radio this week that the Dow Jones has lost 8 trillion dollars in value over this past year – 8 trillion! That is a number so large I cannot even imagine it, though the result of that loss is already quite visible in many households and lives across our nation and this community.
For a people of faith there is no better time than the present one to challenge us in discerning what ultimately matters in life. There is no better time than the present one to look at coin or look at a paper bill and hold it and caress it and ponder, “Where does my ultimate trust lie?” In the metal or the paper or in the Caesar’s of this world whose images are imprinted on the tender? Or, does my ultimate trust lie in the God from whom all things come and to whom all things will return?
“And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” (verses 19b-21)
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