President Trump has declared that not paying taxes makes him smart. We have heard of large firms that have minimal tax burdens despite huge profits, due to loopholes that the prevailing Government are obviously aware of, and do little about. Tax was always a thorny issue.
Jesus in recent weeks, if we journey with the Lectionary, has arrived into Jerusalem in Holy Week, the week of the Passover. He’s subverted the Roman rulers normal arrival on a white steed, by riding a donkey. He’s upturned the tables within the Temple to really upset the Temple Leaders. Jesus has healed the sick and the lame, which must have further annoyed those leaders. The Leaders have demanded ‘By what authority are you doing this?”, to which Jesus doesn’t answer.
Jesus speaks to them in parables, first about a Vineyard, to which the Leaders seemingly condemn themselves. The Leaders are now scared of the reaction of the crowd – they seem to be crowd pleasers. The parable of the wedding banquet also doesn’t end as they had hoped.
Act or React?
The Leaders react to the situation, hastily, by seeking to arrest Jesus, get him out of the limelight, quieten him. An alliance of Herodians and Pharisees, not normal bed-fellows, is agreed, due to this common opposition. Jesus doesn’t change tack – he keeps condemning the leaders of the Temple – he’s eventually killed. Was his unswerving focus the reason for the crucifixion?
The Lawyer’s Question
This week we have arrived at Matthew 22:15-22, and it’s all about who is to pay tax… The question is prefaced with a phrase that speaks well of the person, before the question with two opposing possible answers is posed.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor?
This innocuous question is laced with so much history.
Back near to the time of Jesus’ birth, the ruler Herod Archelaus was in charge. A Jewish ethnarch, the governor of an ethic group, was found to be quite an incapable ruler. Hence Caesar Augustus disposed him in 6CE, creating the province of Judaea from Judea, Samaria and Idumea.
A new governor, Quirinius, was appointed who tried to establish new taxes but a rebellion was led by Judas the Galilean. The history of this event is somewhat biased due to the fact that Josephus, the author of the history, despised the Sicarians who he felt had played a hand in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70CE. Judas the Galilean was from Gamata and the leader of the Sicarians (sometimes referred to as the Zeolots) at that time. Tax was always a thorny issue.
How much tax?
These new taxes were significant, of the order of 50%, and additional to the other local taxes. These taxes weren’t considered to be going back to support the local community but to further the advances back in Rome. They weren’t popular at all.
In Luke’s account in Acts, Judas and another called Theudas are mentioned as those known as Messiah, someone with an expectation of creating national independence.
36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.
Acts 5:36-37 NRSV
Caesar’s Coin
“Show me the coin used for the tax” says Jesus.
This was by itself a leading question. They were in the Temple area where the only coins allowed were Temple coins. So what if the Leaders offer a Roman Coin? Tax was always a thorny issue.
Ehrman suggests that there is a discrepancy between the Synoptic Gospels in that Matthew is the only one which suggests a Denarius, the daily wage. The earliest text we have is the Codex Bezae (400CE) which does include Matthew’s wording. The Roman Coin would have around its edge inscribed “Son of the Divine Augustus”. Divine? In the USA their dollar bills have “In God We Trust”, although one suggestion was “We write ‘in God we trust’ upon the god we truly trust”.
These coins were of no value within the Temple, not the correct currency; possibly just as the Roman coin has no value in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The question remains for Jesus to answer. Jewish thought was that foreign kings had power over Israel only by permission from God. Taxes must be paid to Caesar because it is by gods will that Caesar rules.
If Jesus responds with that they shouldn’t pay taxes. they’ll arrest him; but if he says pay the taxes, that would alienate him from the people. Tax was always a thorny issue.
With whom do we place our Authority?
We have had this question before. Caesar was portrayed as a god, divine.
What or Whom could be doing that today for us? It may be better to focus upon the taxes we owe than look disparagingly on what others should be paying. Moreover, what might we ‘owe’ God?
Just as companies find loopholes to minimise their tax burden, what loopholes might we find to minimise our sharing of the burden for others?
Love your enemies. Renounce your wealth. Pay your taxes. Help the poor. Cure the ill (for free). These are the hallmarks of a left-wing, socialist politics. What Jesus wouldn’t do is allow the rich to get richer, give a free pass to the bonus-hungry bankers and invade one foreign country after another.
Mehdi Hasan, ‘Jesus was a Lefty’, https://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2010/12/jesus-god-tax-christ-health, last accessed on 5 Oct 2020
Supposedly Binary Questions
When we are asked questions with opposing possible responses what answers might we give when one answer might offend our followers and loses them, and the other puts us in jail…or worse.
Do you approve of this war? [1]
Yes…what of the violence, the unnecessary deaths?; or
No…So you don’t support nationalism, patriotism, our troops?
Do you believe that homosexuality is ‘lawful’ within the Bible? [2]
Yes…So you are a progressive, a liberal, contrary to some people’s perspective of the Holy Word of God?; or
No…So you are homophobic, denying that God’s love is for all?
As suggested by Revd Dr Janet H Hunt in her blog Dancingwiththe word.com, we may have also faced dilemma’s in our personal lifetime. Did we approve of the Government’s bombing of Syria where now we see so many refugees fleeing from the country? Were we agreeing to the update of the Trident Nuclear weapon, despite the obvious consequences if they employed it and also to the cost which impinged on other essential budgets? Have we stood silent on the lack of progress made with Climate Change over many decades?
What do we owe the ’emperor’?
Is this passage seeking to relate to that clear connection between what we earn and the provision of social services in our local community, the health care for all? Between us and humanity, not ourselves. It’s we not me.
And now …for us?
In Genesis 1:26-27 we are made in God’s image (<<–great blog site). We are like that coin, but with God’s impression deep within us. Hence we do what we are called to do, and that sometimes makes us different. To blend in is to acquiesce to the current diktats. That’s whom we have our authority in.
So we seek to be vulnerable as was the Son in the Vineyard, for the marginalised as Jesus was at the Wedding Banquet. Collectively we can support one another as we journey, being mutually accountable in love, seeking, sharing to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus.
[1] I have flown in support of the first Iraqi War (1990), the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts (1997+). I have also supported the military in terms of scientific analysis with the response to the Kuwait invasion in 2003. My answer is No.
[2] Wholeheartedly of support of all LGBTQi individuals for God made them and all of us wonderful. Psalm 139 refers. A post from Dignity and Worth, and from the TDOR service at Todmorden.
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