Bible Text: Matthew 22:15-22 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Stewardship | “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”  This is how verse 21 sounds in the King James version of the Bible.  I’m not sure how, but this verse is stuck in my memory in the King James.  And I must not be the only one, because believe it or not, the phrase, “Render unto Caesar” even has its own Wikipedia page!  It just sounds more authoritative than, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  But of course, the message is the same, and it is a very powerful message, indeed.  Matthew tells us that even the people who hated Jesus and were putting him to the test were amazed by his wise and concise answer.

Let’s think for a minute about why this was such an amazing answer.  First of all, no one likes taxes.  Am I right?  Can I get an “Amen!” on that?  We don’t like taxes, and neither did people in Jesus’ day.  But we pay them, because if you don’t pay them, you get in big trouble!  I have a friend who did a little part-time work for her husband’s company one year at Christmas and made $770.  Except when the IRS read her W-2, they thought she made $77,000—and they sent her a very intimidating letter telling her she owed all kinds of taxes and penalties and interest.  She had done nothing wrong, but the fear that letter incited in her just about gave her a stroke!  Think how much more scary it would have been in Jesus’ day, where they didn’t have much in the way of due process.  Tax collectors like Zacchaeus were hated because they were often unfair, as well as ruthless, in their collection practices.

But fear isn’t the only reason we pay taxes.  We also have noble motives.  To a certain extent we don’t mind paying taxes, because we get a lot of benefits from them.  Our kids go to school, our roads are maintained, the national weather service warns us of coming storms, we have a military to defend us—regardless of our diverse political views, everyone agrees that some level of taxation is necessary and beneficial.  But for most people in Israel in Jesus’ day, their taxes didn’t provide much in the way of benefits for them. Most of the taxes went to expanding the Roman Empire, which translated into more opportunities for a select group, and greater oppression for everyone else.

Taxation had become a real ethical sticky wicket for the Jews in Jesus’ day.  Not only were the taxes an unfair burden on the poor, they also had serious religious implications.  There were temple taxes, which supported the Jewish religious structure.  That was fine.  But every person between the ages of 12 or 14 to 65 also had to pay a poll tax, which supported the secular government.  I suppose even Jesus was required to pay this tax.  But here’s the thing:  to the Jews, only God was king.  Israel was supposed to be a theocracy.  God alone is king, and God alone is God.  But now that they were subject to Roman rule, they had to pay taxes to Caesar, who considered himself to be not only king, but something of a god.  How could they pay a tax to Caesar without feeling like they were being disloyal and unfaithful to their one True God?

It’s interesting that Jesus got asked the question about taxes by two groups who didn’t normally get along at all.  The Pharisees resented Roman rule and hated the fact that someone other than them was in charge.  So normally they wouldn’t cooperate with the Herodians—the officials of Herod.  But it turned out, the Pharisees had something in common—how much they despised Jesus.  The Pharisees resented Jesus because he had spent the last three years challenging them for not being as righteous as they thought they were.  The Herodians hated Jesus, because they saw him as a threat to peace.  He was all about lifting up the oppressed—and the Herodians of course greatly benefited from people being oppressed!

So the two groups joined together to put Jesus to the test.  They were all hoping he would say, “You’re right.  You shouldn’t pay taxes to Caesar, because only God is king.”, and then get in trouble with the Roman officials for being subversive.  But for Jesus to say, go ahead and pay them, that would have been problematic, too.  Then the Pharisees could have charged Jesus with blasphemy for calling Caesar Lord.  They were asking with mean motives.  They tried to butter him up and say, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth,” but they didn’t really mean that.  They asked about taxation as way to trap Jesus and get him in trouble.

But we do believe Jesus is a sincere teacher.  We do believe Jesus alone has the words that lead to abundant and everlasting life.  And so we should also be amazed at his teaching.  Paying taxes and giving to the church are expressions of the fact that we are all citizens of two kingdoms.  We are citizens of our countries on earth.  We are also citizens of heaven.  We derive benefits from both, and thus have obligations to both.  I love how Jesus does not try to dismiss this reality.  He never says to stop being a citizen of your earthly country.  We live here, we should pay here.  But as we read the gospels, Jesus seems to be constantly reminding people that there is more to life than what we see in front of us on earth.  There is a spiritual realm that has the power to break through the ordinary of our days on earth and infuse them with the extraordinary.  The power of God is present and active and available to us, not just for the occasional miracle, but as everyday grace as well.

Our financial practices should reflect these realities.  Over thirty years ago, when Phil and I were engaged, our pastor gave us a few books to read in preparation for marriage.  I cannot recall the name of the book or the author who talked about money, but he said, “Give 10%, save 10%, and have as much fun as possible with the rest.”  Phil and I have not always been exact with the percentages, but we have never deviated from this principle: first, give to God; second, save for the future, short and long term; and third, have as much fun as possible with the rest.  I would recommend this principle to anyone.

But what about taxes?  Where do they fit in?  Believe it or not, I have had some pretty intense conversations over the years about tithing, and whether we should be basing our giving on our before or after-tax income.  I have always paid our taxes first, and then tried to give a tithe on what was left. Some of my colleagues have criticized me for that, saying I should give to God first, because God desires our first fruits.  God wants to be absolutely number 1 in our lives, and so we should give to God before we give to any other obligation or desire.

I don’t disagree with that in theory.  But I have always paid my taxes first because I am never going to pay even a penny to the government that I don’t have to.  As much as I appreciate the services our government provides, I really don’t trust they would use any extra money I might give them very efficiently!  It is my goal to pay what I legally owe, on time every time.  That is a finite amount, and I feel good when I get it paid and crossed off my list.  I willingly render unto Caesar that which is Caesars.

The second half of Jesus’ answer, though, to me is not a finite number.  “Give to God that which are God’s”—how could I ever put a finite amount on that?  How could I ever finish paying to God for what God has given to me?  Because of God’s love, I am going to live forever.  Because of a little local church in Towanda, Pennsylvania, I have had the blessing of knowing about and living in God’s love my whole life.  How could I ever put a dollar amount on gifts like that?  To me, giving back to God is something that never ends.

So that is why I pay our taxes first.  It’s a finite amount, and I’m not going to pay any extra.  I get it over and done with.  But when it comes to giving to God what is God’s—well, that is my whole life!  Theoretically, I should never want to stop giving to God.  Even when we have had rough patches financially and couldn’t give as much to the church, it still served us very well to have our lives orbit around the idea of giving to God as best as we could.

When we make honoring God with our finances a top priority, amazing things happen.  God provides.  And when God see that God has provided, our faith grows and we find ourselves able to trust God enough to give more.  At my first church, money was very tight, and one day we received a notice in the mail from the borough that they were re-doing the sidewalks, and every property owner was being assessed so much per foot of sidewalk.  Since the church was on the corner, we had a lot of sidewalk, and our assessment was $7,000!  The church did not have $7,000 in the bank period, let alone $7,000 extra for sidewalks.  But lo and behold, a few days later, the church got another letter in the mail, this one equally unexpected.  A woman who had been a member of the church many years back passed away, and she had decided to name Harriman Church as the beneficiary of her estate.  If we would go and help clean out her apartment, we would get the security deposit, plus whatever else she had in the bank.  So I got the trustees together, and we spent that Saturday cleaning out her apartment.  A week or so later we got a check in the mail from her lawyer, and guess how much it was for?  $7,000.

You can’t make this stuff up!  But despite years of hearing stories like that, I must confess that sometimes I feel I need to be guarded in my giving.  What if God doesn’t provide?  What if, instead of bringing me joy, the idea of giving brings me resentment?  What if I’m angry at my church, or even angry at God?  No matter what our level of giving, my guess is, we will have seasons of struggle around it from time to time.

I think part of the reason for that is that we have struggles about money in general.  Money is the source of a lot of anxiety—and conflict—for many of us.  The number one thing couples in American fight about is money.  It might be the number one thing churches fight about, too!  We are going to talk in the coming weeks about this reality, and how Jesus offers compassion to all of us who have stressed and struggled over money.

But for today, I would like to close with this reminder:  Jesus never asks us not to live in the real world.  Jesus knows we have needs and obligations that come from being citizens of earth, and living in physical bodies, and having families and needs and wants.  Jesus never asks us to pretend that isn’t real.  But Jesus came to earth, died on the cross and rose from the dead to prove to us that there is more to life than just what we can see.  There is an even greater reality available to us than what the “real world” offers.  And we are given the opportunity to participate in this ultimate reality each and every time we gather for worship, each and every time we take communion, and guess what?  Even every time we pass the offering plates.  We are given the opportunity to join with God in the sacred work of redeeming the world.

Jesus told the crowd to look at a coin, and see whose name was on it, and whose inscription.  The denarius, which was used to pay the poll tax, had Caesar’s name and inscription.  Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s.  But look around this room.  Whose name do you see here?  Our name, each of us, is Christian.  Whose inscription do you see?  Whose likeness?  On this All Saints Day we are reminded that God looks at us and sees Christ.  Let us render therefore unto Christ, that which is Christ’s.  Amen.