For God or Country
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15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Introduction
This bible passage begins a series of questions that set to trap Jesus. Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into being disrespectful to the Government of his day, but the answer they got was asking them what was really important to them: the image on the coin in your pocket or the image of your king on your heart? Today at St Mary’s what is really important to you?
[Move 1] What is Caesar’s? This is the coin – a denarius, it had a picture of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar on each side. The words in Latin TICAESARDIVI AFGFAVGVSTVS on one side and PONTIF MAXIM on the other side – it means Tiberius Caesar Augustus on of the divine Augustus and Highest Priest. The emperor thought he was a god and wanted everyone in the empire to believe in his divinity. The trap was this: if Jesus said obey Caesar, it would look as though he was agreeing that Caesar was a god. If Jesus said the people should not pay their taxes, it would make him an enemy of the state.
When Jesus taught, he did not lay down rules (do this and don’t do that and you will please God and be saved). Jesus taught that we must know him (be in living relationship with him). With that relationship comes the principle that we as Christians have a dual citizenship. A citizen of UK and a citizen of kingdom of God. The £2 coins in my pockets has a Latin inscription ‘Queen by the grace of God.’’ On our coins we have the dual citizenship Queen and God. For the Christian we are dual citizens. A citizen of a country (UK) and a citizen of kingdom of God.
The tax (Matt 22:17) was levied by the Romans against the Jews when Judea became a Roman province. A bit like the Poll tax of the Thatcher years, it caused a bit of a stink (Judas the Galilean rebelled Acts 5:37).
So the trap is set. A loose/loose question if Jesus said no to the poll tax, he would have/been an enemy of the state and if he said yes he declares Caesar a god. In the end Jesus sent them off tail between their legs with an ambiguous answer teaching them about the dual citizenship idea.
Yes we are all citizens of an earthly kingdom which tries to provide for our safety NHS. Public services, (police/MOD) our education, transport, These services puts us under an obligation to pay our taxes to cover these costs i.e. to pay to Caesar what is Caesars for those welfare state provisions. To refuse to do this would also against our Christian duty of UK citizenship.
[Move 2] What is God’s ?
What does it mean to be a citizen of God’s kingdom? We also have a responsibility to God. The two need not clash. For every Christian we are citizens of both kingdoms but everything we do and are should have the image of our Lord Jesus stamped on it (we are made in God’s image and his image in us should touch everything – that is how he touches our world (thro your arms & legs, thro your love and compassion)
What is God’s is not governed by rules but relationship & principles. The 10 commandments are about loving God with heart soul mind & strength and neighbour as our selves.
Lets ask which image is shining through you, affecting all you do, is it Jesus shining thro?
The Christian citizen of IoW should always have that image of JC in your heart shining thro!
[Illustr] Maria Gomez, El Salvador, Baptist woman, P.S. teacher, active church member, active in the community, spoke v violence an injustice in El S in 1980’s. The people who knew her commissioned this cross, painted Salvadorian style to celebrate her life & Christian faith – an ordinary woman, teacher, at home, tending animals – Jesus shone thro her ordinary everyday faith. In 1989 as she came out of her school a van pulled up and dragged her inside, later that day the van pulled up and pushed out her body, tortured & shot 4 times. They commissioned a cross for her because Jesus and the cross shone through in her ordinary life.
To close I would like to ask a simple question – What shines through you? If you are a Christian does Jesus shine thro you. Even in adversity.
Jesus does not say where the boundaries lie for what is God’s and what is Caesars (or Theresa May).
Can we dream the dreams of being a people of dual citizenship with Jesus shining through?ake a difference in this day of every member ministry).
