This Reflection is taken from the Sunday Devotion written by this blogger for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on October 18, 2020
Matthew 22:15-22
The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
REFLECTION
+In the Name of our loving and life-giving God+
In today’s lesson, we have two opposing camps collaborating to set a trap to discredit Jesus based on the issue of whether, according to Judaic law, it was lawful to pay taxes imposed by the Roman emperor. The two camps were the Pharisees who saw paying taxes to the idol-worshiping Roman emperor as an affront to their sense of piety and the Herodians, loyalists to the Herodian dynasty, who served the interests of the Roman Empire. If Jesus said Jews should pay taxes, he would be seen as a collaborator with the Romans. If Jesus said they shouldn’t, he would have been considered a threat to the Herodian rulers and a rebel to the Romans. In their collective minds they were presenting Jesus with a no-win situation, or so they thought.
They should have known Jesus’s disinterest in the importance people placed on money; especially, after he overturned the money changer’s tables in the Temple’s precinct the day before this encounter.
Jesus wasn’t anti-money. After all, Jesus and his disciples kept a common (shared) purse. Jesus basically ignores the Herodian position on taxes and addresses the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who asked the question.
While the Pharisees saw paying taxes to the Roman emperor as an affront to their religious piety, they had no qualms about taking and using Roman currency. Neither did that have any qualms about the sketchy money trading business taking place in the Temple precincts where Roman coins were traded for Temple currency because Roman currency was considered a defilement of the Temple’s sanctity.
They should have seen it coming when Jesus asked to see a denarius, the lowest common coin used by everyone throughout the Roman Empire to conduct business and pay taxes.
They should have seen it coming when they had this pagan coinage (this affront to their sense of piety) in their personal possession and presented a denarius when Jesus asked them to show him the coin used “for the tax.”
In a well-executed pivot, Jesus once again turned the tables when he asked whose image was on the coin.
They should have seen it coming when they answered, “the emperor’s” but they didn’t until Jesus said, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus took what was intended to be an “either/or” conundrum and turned it into a “both/and” solution.
Money is something we humans created as tool to assign and measure the value of things and people. In the eyes of God, the value of a person is not determined by the wealth a person has or doesn’t or the wealth a person can generate. The Pharisees knew this when they said, “Teacher, we know that you… teach the way of God …and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.”
Indeed, the whole of God’s creation is not to be valued by the wealth it can produce for our use or the price tag we place on it, but rather its value is in the simple fact that God created it and the it reflects the glory of God.
“Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and give to God what is God.”
While Jesus’ disinterest in money was made clear to both the Pharisees and the Herodians, what left them “amazed” was finding themselves in a conundrum; confronted with something much larger than the issue of the emperor’s tax. They found themselves confronted with what God requires, but instead of wanting to hear more about that, they walked away.
They knew that the emperor only wanted the coins stamped with his image on it to meet his requirements. They also knew that God requires much, much more, which leaves us with the question:
What does God require of us?
The prophet Micah put it this way, “He (God) has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” [Micah 6:8]. This Trinity of Requirements was not in the forefront of the minds of those who questioned Jesus about paying taxes and, to this day, it is frequently placed on the back burner when any issue involving cost and the use of money is brought up. All we have to do is consider the Covid Crisis the world is in to see the health of the economy being pitted against the health of individual people.
“Giving to God what is God’s” on a personal level means giving our total selves to God. Collectively, as humans living on this earth at this time, it means taking care of each other and what God has created out of thankfulness for the abundance of life.
We are entering into a time in the Church Year when we talk about The Trinity of Stewardship; the giving of our time, talents, and treasure. This stewardship trinity is largely focused on individuals committing some of their personal time, personal talents, and personal treasures to their church or denomination to help meet budgeted expenditures. These are all good and necessary pursuits in helping meet the needs of the Church throughout the world.
Perhaps the biggest challenge, however, is not how this Trinity of Stewardship impacts our personal lives but how it challenges the religious institutions we support. What is the Church’s responsibility to the Trinity of Stewardship? How is it responding to the Trinity of Requirements?
Institutional church systems are necessarily good at pointing out the importance of individuals and families giving their time, talents, and treasure, but often without explaining how such systems, themselves, respond to the Trinity of Requirements. Like the Trinity of Stewardship, the Trinity of Requirements is often presented as an individual’s responsibility. If we give some time, offer to do a few things around our local church or for our congregation, and some throw money in the plate, we can be led to believe we're good to go as far as what God requires of us.
What is less accentuated, particularly on the local church level, is how the Trinity of Stewardship is being met by our local churches and the level of commitment local churches give to the Trinity of Requirements:
How are churches using their time and treasure?
What are churches offering as talents (their ministries) in and to the communities they reside in?
Are they directly aimed at promoting justice?
Are they directly aimed at demonstrating and encouraging the practice of kindness?
Are they directly aimed at forging pathways in which we and others can humbly walk with God in the beauty of God's creation?
Many of the larger mainline denominations, including the Episcopal Church, are much better at focusing their overall ministries on justice, practicing kindness, and forging pathways to walk humbly with our God, but what about our local churches? Where do they fit in? Where does my church fit in?
It is not a matter whether individuals and families should support our local churches with their time, talents, and treasures. They should and they do. It is a matter of having a vested interest in ensuring that what the Lord requires takes precedence in our church’s ministries and practices. The Trinity of Stewardship and the Trinity of Requirements is not, and should not be solely aimed at individuals as much as it must be the aim of the churches they belong to.
All of us know churches need money to keep the lights on, to pay its salaried and part-time staff, and fund its various ministries. All of us know we need to volunteer our time and offer our various skills and abilities to serve. That’s been drilled into us from the first day of Sunday school, but that is only one side of the proverbial coin.
Giving to God what is God’s is both a collective and personal responsibility and we should not separate the two. It’s a “both/and” response to what the Lord requires. In general, people have no problem getting involved in and giving to what is experienced and seen as beneficial and productive. It is when people experience the benefits of church life in their lives that they will find themselves saying with the psalmist,“What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows [to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God-nw] unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people” [Psalm 116].
* * * * * * * * * *
God of peace, whose impartiality is made known in the abundance of your creation, strengthen our will to use our time, our talents, and our treasures to fulfill what is required of us. Help us to do justice, instill in us the love of kindness, and guide us along the path of humility that we may ever walk with you by giving of ourselves to your service, through Christ our Lord. Amen
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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