Isaiah 45:1-7
Psalm 96
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
As a child, I grew up around a lumberyard that my Dad owned. It was a wonderful place to learn mathematics. While I was still in grade school I learned that you could calculate the length of a rope by multiplying the diameter by three and counting the coils. Lumber is sold in board feet, which requires a somewhat complicated calculation of multiplying the witdth by the length and dividing by 12. In those days, before the age of the electronic calculator, the men working at the counter would use an adding machine to come up with the answer. I learned how to do it in my head. It could always get a free pop when my big brother would challenge some old farmer that his little brother could figure up the board feet of the order in his head faster than he could do it on the adding machine. We always got a taker. So as the customer would recite his order my brother would write it down and I'd do the calculations in my head, as we went along. By the time the order was written down I usually had the answer. It always amazed folks.
When I was a young boy, maybe about 5, I also was fascinated by card games and odds. It was a great time to play war with my big brother. A little later my Dad used the card game 21, Black Jack, to help me learn my addition tables. But one thing I remember very clearly from that time was flipping a coin with my Dad or brother to see who would win. I'd get to call it in the air and then see if I had won. Needless to say for my Dad and brother, my brother was 6 years older than I, this got pretty dull, pretty fast, flipping a coin endlessly with me. I don't recall how it began but my Dad subtly changed the rules on the coin toss and offered me the option of playing "Heads I win, tails you lose." As a little kid I didn't really pay attention to his statement of the rules, and just went along with it. Then all of a sudden I began to lose every single toss. This went on for quite a while until I realized that I was quite literally in a no-win situation. Whenever I think of heads and tails on coins it brings this episode to mind.
In Gospel reading Jesus is confronted with a trick question. The Pharisees and Herodians are trying to place him in a no-win position. At the time the Pharisees were an important faction in the local community that refused to pay taxes to the Roman overlords. In many ways they were a more moderate reflection of the Zealots who steadfastly refused to acknowledge Roman domination, holding that God's chosen people could not be subject to an alien culture. As part of their opposition to the Romans, they refused to pay the Roman taxes. The Zealots and their allies, the Pharisees, were an important force to be reckoned with.
On the other hand, the Herodians staunchly supported Roman power and authority. The Herodians were supporters of the family of the Herods, the current ruler of which was Herod Antipas. They were maintained in power by their support of the Romans. Consequently, since the Romans were insistent that their taxes be paid, the Herodians supported them fully. The penalties for failure to pay taxes were frequently severe, and those publicly opposing payment could be considered as advocating a treasonous act. As a result, no matter what Jesus said he could potentially be assailed from one or the other camp, the Herodians or the Pharisees.
The question was a trap for Jesus. The Pharisees anticipated that he would support their position. In order to make the trap effective they brought along some of the Herodians to witness Jesus' dismissal of tax paying. Much to their surprise, he rejected the Pharisaical position but did not embrace the Herodian position. He deftly avoided taking a political position, but really left the issue open to each person, allowing them to determine what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar. The reply that Jesus gave them struck a balance between the two camps. He neither advocated nor denied the need to pay taxes but rather focused on the immediate reality of the issue. Since the coinage was that of the dominant state, the taxes paid in that coinage were to be respected. This particular moment in Jesus' ministries was not a parable at all, but a vignette of Jesus confronting his political and philosophical adversaries. As such an episode, while it becomes a teaching moment for Jesus, it was not one central to his message, but rather an incident that just happened to arise.
This is not the only instance where Jesus was confronted with trick questions in attempts to discredit him with one or another factions. In the version of this story found in Mark, it is immediately followed by the famous question about the woman who was widowed several times. It too was another example of Jesus' deft recovery in a difficult position. In the second story, Jesus was forced to respond to a trick question again posed by the Pharisees but in this instances destined to make him antagonize the Sadducees. The Jewish community of Jesus' time was divided among other things over the concept of the resurrection. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, the Sadducees did not and because of that they were "sad, you see?" Again the Pharisees thought that Jesus would support their stance, but rather he turned the question around on them. He remarked that God was God for the living, not the dead. The logical conclusion of Jesus' comment is that one should focus on the quality of one's spiritual life right now and not be bothered by postulating about the hereafter. He then outlined his main message, that we should love the Lord our God, and love one another as we love ourselves.
The historicity of the "render unto Caesar" story is as close to sure as anything about Jesus' life. It is included in all three of the Synoptic Gospels in nearly identical form. Moreover bits and pieces are repeated in the Epistles. All of which confirm its importance in the overall teachings of Jesus.
This Gospel reading, then, resulted from a chance event, was well recorded at the time, and continued to be an important piece of Christian teaching. Unfortunately that does not help us much at deciphering what exactly Jesus meant when he made that quotable quote. The event needs to be taken in the context of the rest of Jesus' teaching. There are two important threads that emerge when one considers the passage. One has to do with a general renunciation of the world and an emphasis on the transcendent. For Jesus the question of paying taxes was exasperating because that was exactly where he was not interested in debate. On the one hand he clearly wanted to avoid getting caught up in the doctrinal squabbles between the Pharisees and other theological camps of the era. On the other, he wanted to keep the focus of his ministry on important moral and ethical issues of the time. His disregard for the issue of taxes and of the acquisition of wealth in general is clearly demonstrated in another famous passage also from Matthew: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt. 6: 19-21)
The other feature of Jesus' teaching moment has to do with political authority and is clearly linked to his teachings on wealth. It is also a politically conservative point of view. The end result pops up in the letter to the Romans where Paul counsels: "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." (Rom 13: 1, 6-7) According to Paul's interpretation of the tax-paying issue, taxes are rendered to the legitimate political authority because all things under heaven and earth are subject to divine authority. While many of us today are satisfied to accept the status quo just because it is the status quo, this essentially conservative political stance was very important for the early Church, especially in light of political opposition to Christianity.
The theme of all things on earth and heaven being under divine authority is central to today's readings. The one theme that runs throughout the readings is the sovereignty of God. He is Lord of all! Isaiah reports his vision of God extolling the power of Cyrus, King of the Persians, seen as a tool of God to punish the Israelites. But central to the passage is that God anointed Cyrus for His purpose, granting him power and authority on earth, not for Cyrus' ends but for God's purpose. Cyrus, of course, was not a believer. He was truly pagan. Yet in the Old Testament his attack and conquest of Israel is seen as an act of God. Throughout this passage Isaiah speaks for God, proclaiming His authority over all, His power to create and destroy, and to reaffirm the status of the descendents of Israel as God's own forever.
The Psalm appointed for today is not far different. It extols the omnipotence of God, maker and judge of all things. The Psalm is one of the most beautiful, in both its English and Latin versions, and has found numerous musical settings. It praises the Lord for his handiwork and calls upon his creation to praise and bless him. It is hard for me to connect this awesome hymn of praise to the very mundane and almost sinister encounter described in the Gospel reading. In the Gospel reading Jesus is being set up for a disaster. His reply, however, reaffirms God as creator of all things. He created us all and in him we have our being. He created humankind and created our institutions. He uses political institutions to his own divine purpose, just as he used Cyrus to punish the Jews.
The story of "render unto Caesar," ends with a message that requires each of us to analyze what pertains to the mundane realm. Yet the mundane realm is as much a creation of God as is the spiritual realm. By calling us to analyze the mundane realm it is not so that we can exercise situational ethics (since politics is a dirty business we don't need to follow our ethical and moral constraints) but rather we need to bring to the mundane the same moral and ethical demands that we place on our religious life. Since God is Lord of all we need to ensure that God is in the political realm as much as in our dealing in Church. Several years ago I had the pleasure of teaching a book called Your Work Matters to God in the parish in Florida where we lived. The theme of the book was that no matter what your calling in the world your work is important to God. Since God is the creator of all things and he has a plan for His creation, each of us as workers in that creation have a part in the working out of God's plan. Consequently we need to bring to the workplace the same devotion, dedication, and ethical standards that we bring to Church. We need to treat our work as divinely inspired.
Turning once more to the Gospel, Jesus was confronted with a rather blatant trap. The Pharisees attempted to put him into a lose - lose situation: either alienate them and their allies, or alienate the Herodians and their allies. What Jesus did was to look beyond the simple issue they presented to the deeper, underlying theological issue. By examining not the surface issue of paying tax, but focusing on our relationship to things of the world versus our relationship to divine things, he was able to better proclaim his message and to demonstrate the clear difference between his message and that of his erst-while adversaries.
Whenever we find ourselves in a lose - lose situation, "heads I win, tails you lose," are we able to turn the die and discover the deeper underlying truth. As a little boy it took me quite a while. Today I have to confess I'm probably not much quicker. But by keeping our focus on God's message to us through Jesus, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we can't go far wrong. God is the Lord of all creation, even us.