Bible Verses That Freak Me Out # 25 – Mo Money, Mo Problems - “Render to Caesar to things that are Caesar’s” – Mark 12:13-17

Happy tax day, everyone!

We all know Jesus hung out with tax collectors, even including a former tax collector in his group of twelve disciples. But what did Jesus say specifically about taxes? And what did He mean…

“And they (the chief priests) sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in a statement. And they came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and defer to know one; for you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?’

But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.’ And they brought one. And He said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ And they said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’”

A couple of interesting things about this passage:

1. The Pharisees and the Herodians were NOT friends. They teamed up in “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” move. The first group was anti-Rome, anti-Greek, anti-everything except the Law of God (as they perceived it). The Herodians, as you might could guess, were Herod’s posse. Big fans of Rome. Whatever straight answer Jesus gave “Sure, pay the tax” or “Don’t pay the tax” there was a group there to cry foul.

2. “You defer to no one and are not partial to any” – is their way of saying “If anybody doesn’t care what Caesar thinks, it’s you.” They are encouraging Him to get in touch with his revolutionary side.

3. You want to talk about taxation without representation? The first-century Jews were an occupied territory. Their taxes funded a government that was, in their minds, evil and idolatrous.

4. Speaking of idolatrous, most Jews regarded Roman coins as idolatrous. If the picture of the emperor weren’t enough, the inscription, which in this period probably read “Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus” certainly was. “Son of the divine?” Nice.

5. “Render” here means more than just “give.” It has the specific meaning of giving back someone something that belongs to them.

So, what does Jesus mean? Is Jesus teaching “separation of church and state?” That’s a pretty common interpretation – that Jesus is slyly acknowledging the temporary sovereignty of Caesar, but holding out the true sovereignty of God.

But there’s something else going on here, too. Jesus is saying “no” to a particular way of revolution, and encouraging people to say “yes” to His way. Not paying your taxes is not the way to conquer Rome, Jesus is saying. “Pay back Caesar what is his” may mean “the only appropriate thing to do with junk like this is send it back where it came from.” It may mean “God doesn’t want or need your money. If Caesar wants it, he can have it.”

“Render to God the things that are God’s.” What belongs to God? Who bears God’s image? How do we give that which belongs to God back to Him? Jesus answered those questions in His teaching, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection. That’s the real revolution.

Further reading if want to have your mind blown:
"Hard Sayings of Jesus" - F.F. Bruce
"Jesus and the Victory of God" - N.T. Wright
"The Politics of Jesus" - John Howard Yoder

Happy Belated Yom Kippur

Last Thursday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. This is a day for seeking forgiveness from God, and from others that you have wronged.

The date went along quite well with something I had been reading from N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop and one of my favorite authors. In “Following Jesus,” a collection of sermons and lectures on the broad theme of discipleship, he discusses the idea of sacrifice.

We modern Westerners, he says, have our own notions of sacrifice – a term used generally when people are encouraged to give up something for the sake of something else. But we are pretty far removed from what most humans through history have thought of sacrifice – the shedding of the blood of an animal, and sometimes people, for a religious purpose. Yom Kippur was a day of blood sacrifice for most of Jewish history, for instance.

The religious reasons for such a thing, Wright proposes, are two-fold.
1) By offering a symbol of creation to the creator, we remind ourselves of our place in the grand scheme of things. That is, we are below God and above creation, though still connected with both. The temptation to elevate ourselves to the place of God, and to use creation for our own selfish ends, is fought by offering a piece of creation to God.

2) The second thing is deeply rooted in humanity. We sense that something is wrong, and that in order to set it right, a price must be paid – a blood price.

The utmost sacrifice, of course, is to offer up ourselves, or own lives.

And then Wright makes a powerful statement: “The sacrifice of Jesus is the moment when the human race, in the person of a single man, offers itself to the creator.”

A Day of Atonement indeed.