Lesson Focus:
Jesus
wants us to live as faithful servants of God while remaining active
participants in our country.
Catch up on the story:
We
have just completed looking at three parables concerning true obedience. Each of the three previous parables dealt
with characters that refused to respond appropriately to figures of authority
in the stories. Over and over again,
Jesus condemns the Jewish religious leadership for failing to or refusing to
responds appropriately to God’s call and guidance. What is clear is that the Jewish religious
leaders, because of their unfaithfulness, will not easily find a place in God’s
kingdom. At the same time, however, the
most unlikely kinds of people, prostitutes and tax collectors, will be invited
to the party. Even for these, proper
response is mandated.
Matthew
now turns his gospel from parables to a series of controversy stories. This week’s lesson is the first of these
controversy stories.
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
- What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
The Text:
The setting of this week’s passage is still the Temple
area. There seems to have been some
break in the action between verse 14 and verse 15, although the text does
specify how long. We can imply the break
because the Pharisees, who were part of the audience in the preceding passages,
have time to consort with the Herodians (See, Important Terms), so that they might trap Jesus. In verse 15 we get, “Then the Pharisees went
and plotted to entrap him…” The intent
of the questions Jesus will be asked, unlike Peter’s questions earlier, will be
to entice Jesus into saying something that will get him in trouble.
A bit of political context is important before we dive into
this passage. First, Israel is at this
time, a colony of Rome. There is an
occupying military presence as well local rulers who are mere puppets of Roman
power. As with most occupations, people
take up different sides regarding the advantages or disadvantages of being
under Roman rule. Some, who were more
apt to collude with the Romans, believed that the peace and rule that the
Romans provided were beneficial for the country. Others were staunchly against the Roman
occupation.
In Israel, feelings concerning the Roman occupations take on
religious overtones in addition to political ones. The question of supporting
the Roman occupation quickly came down to the rightness of paying taxes. Some believe that to pay the required tax was
tantamount to supporting and condoning an idolatrous and religiously debased
state, which endorsed emperor worship.
So, the revolutionary minded segments of Israel believed that it was
wrong to pay these taxes.[1]
In this passage, Jesus encounters both those who want to
support the Roman occupation, the Herodians, and those who don’t, the
Pharisees. Actually, the coalition that
brings this question about taxes to Jesus dose not consist of the Pharisees,
but the Pharisees’ disciples.
The Herodians and the Pharisees’ disciples gather around
Jesus and begin to butter him up. It is
likely that the Pharisees send their disciples because such glowing talk coming
out of their own mouth would seem disingenuous.
The questioners praise Jesus for his sincere teaching, which is in
accordance with God’s truth. They also
declare that Jesus shows regard to no one.
In other words, they believe that Jesus is not likely to change how he
will respond to a given question based on who is asking it. Jesus will speak the truth, regardless of
what people will think. His accusers are
right on that regard!
The questioners demand to know what Jesus thinks about
paying taxes to the Roman emperor. The
tax being referenced is most likely the “head tax” that was paid once a
year. The “tell us” of verse 17 is not a
casual request for an opinion. No, they
are asking for Jesus to make a definitive and authoritative statement on the
issue. They want to know if Jesus, as a
respected religious teacher, believes paying taxes to Rome is in accordance
with right doctrine. A yes or no answer
is what the Pharisees’ disciples and Herodians are looking for.[2]
If Jesus says that yes it is proper to pay taxes to the
emperor, he would be discredited among the people who regard him as the
messiah. Part of the people’s messianic
hope was that they would be freed from their Roman oppressors. If Jesus gives the green light to pay the tax
then, in some ways, he is legitimating Rome’s power. On the other hand, if Jesus judges that it is
not right to pay the tax, he makes himself out to be a revolutionary and an
enemy of the state. Rome does not deal
kindly with revolutionaries.
Jesus will not respond with direct yes or no answers. He knows their hearts and their
thoughts. Instead, Jesus asks that the
coalition to produce the coin with which it would be appropriate to pay the
tax. The group produced a denarius. An imperial tax, such as the one being
discussed, could only be paid with a coin that had been minted by the
empire. It is likely that the coin that
the coalition produced bore the image of Emperor Tiberius Caesar with the
inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus.”[3] At this time coins were used to help
encourage the practice of emperor worship.
The inscription on the coin obviously declares Tiberius to be divine, or
at least semi-divine. The coin amounted
to a portable idol because it bore the emperor’s image.
Jesus receives the coin, and then asks the group whose image
was on it. They respond, “The
emperor’s.” Note that their response indicates that the coin actually belongs
to the emperor. That the coin actually
belongs to the emperor is important for Jesus’ answer to the question. Jesus then tells them to give back to the
emperor what is his. The NIV’s
translation here is more precise, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s…” In
fact, the word translated as “give back” carries with it the added meaning of
debt payment. To “give back” implies
that the payment is in response to an incurred obligation.[4]
Here Jesus is counseling respect for the state. The state is an agent of God to provide
order, safety and justice for its citizens.
If we take advantage of the good things that the state provides for us,
then we cannot refuse to pay the taxes that are due. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, one of the church
fathers, commented on this passage, “For if there remain with us nothing that
is Caesar’s, we shall not be bound by the condition of rendering to him the
things that are his; but if we lean upon what is his, if we avail ourselves of
the lawful protection of his power, we cannot complain of it as any wrong if we
are required to render to Caesar the things of Caesar.[5]
Jesus will balance his statement about respect for the state
with his next breath. “…and to God the
things that are God’s.” You and I are
created in the image of God, and in some ways we are like the coin Jesus
requested to see. As we bear the image
of God and we are God’s possession. Our
life and image are not our own, so if the coin that belongs to the emperor
should be given back to him, how much more should our lives be given back to
God?
If Jesus was counseling respect for the state in the first
part of verse 21 then he is limiting our allegiance to the state in the second
half. The state, however, often seeks
more of us and from us then it is right for us to give. As Christians, our total and complete
allegiance belongs to God. There have
been and will be times, like Hitler’s Germany, where the state grossly
overreaches itself in regards to our allegiance. Bruner remarks that, “The state becomes
demonic in the measure that it asks for itself ‘the things of God,” such as
total commitment, unconditional obedience, or uncriticizing allegiance (e.g.,
‘America! Love It or Leave It’).”[6] When we are tempted to be Americans who
happen to be Christians, rather than Christians who happen to be Americans,
Christ gently calls us to give back “to God the things that are God’s.” A country need not call us to participate in
or condone mass genocide to become demonic.
The coalition of Herodians and the disciples of the
Pharisees are amazed by Jesus’ response, so they walk away.
Important Terms:
Herodians:
Matthew tends to label the religious leaders as Jesus’
opponents, whereas Mark emphasizes that Jesus’ opponents were both religious
and political. What then is the significance of Matthew’s use of “the leaven of
the Sadducees” in place of Mark’s “leaven of Herod,” or “the Herodians”? Some
have speculated that the Herodians were a political party composed principally
of Sadducees. Some have identified them with the Sadducees, and others with the
Boethusians, whose name more often than not was used interchangeably with that
of the Sadducees. The Boethusians and the Sadducees were indistinguishable
theologically, but the Sadducees were loyal to the Hasmonean dynasty, whereas
the Boethusians were attached to the Herodian house and consequently were
called the Herodians. Thus the Herodians had political affiliations with the
Herodian house and religious affiliations with the Sadducees. Along with the
Sadducees, the Herodians were men of influence—the aristocrats of Palestine.
Nevertheless during Jesus’ time the political differences
between the Herodians and the Sadducees were not as distinct because of the
marriage of the Herodian Herod Antipas to the Hasmonean Herodias. The Herodians
and the Sadducees would have been on the same side politically against the
Pharisees, the former being pro-government while the Pharisees were both
anti-Hasmonean and anti-Herodian. Congruent with this, Matthew 16:12 and Mark
8:15 represent the Pharisees and the Sadducees/Herodians as contrary parties
opposing Jesus.
In summary, the Herodians were also known as the
Boethusians. Theologically they were in agreement with the Sadducees, but
politically they were more pro-Herodian than the Sadducees. While the Pharisees
looked for a cataclysmic messianic kingdom to remove the present Herodian rule,
the Herodians worked to keep Herod’s dynasty in power.[7]
So What?
There
is a tension in the coalition’s question that is real for us today. What is our proper relation the country in
which we live? There is no doubt that
America is a great country, and we should all be grateful for everything we
have because we are citizens of this land.
We are blessed, often beyond our own ability to recognize. Rightly so, our country requires something of
us in exchange for all of those great gifts.
We must pay for the roads, bridges, utilities, police, fire protection
and ambulance services. It is
appropriate for us to pay for those things.
It is also appropriate to participate in our country’s political
process.
Yet,
often our country asks of us even greater things. Our country often asks us to be loyal to it
above any other loyalties. We are to be
Americans before we are anything else.
The American way of life is taught to us as something that is
sacred. The reality is that there is
nothing sacred about the American way of life.
When we go all in, allowing our national identity to shape us more than
anything else, we fail to give back to God what is his.
This
tension between giving to America what is America’s and giving to God what
belongs to God is not new, and it will not go away overnight. It’s a complex issue that requires our
collective dialogue about what it means to be Christians who live in
America. What is appropriate to give to
America? How do we faithfully live as
Christians in this country? We must deal
with these questions because the alternatives are not helpful. If we fail to grapple with these questions
well, we will either end up giving our complete allegiance to our country, like
some of the German churches did during the time of Hitler, or we shrink away from
the world and go into isolation, seeking to not be contaminated by the
world. Choosing either extreme will
cause us to live unfaithfully in a world where God has called us to be salt and
light.
Our
place in this world must be one of careful and thoughtful engagement with the
powers that be. At the same time, we
must constantly recognize that because we are created in the image of God we
belong to God and must give the entirety of who we are back to God.
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
a.
God
is not interested in giving black and white answers that do not take into
consideration our complex context. God
will not be trapped. Rather, God will
give us a way to live faithfully in the complex mess that is our world.
- What does holiness look like in this text?
- For us, I think holiness looks like finding a way to live at peace with and fully emerged in our world while at the same time living faithful lives to God.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
- We must find ways to be faithfully engaged in the political life of our country while faithfully giving our due to God. This requires that we constantly ask our selves important questions regarding what it means to be a Christian in America.
Specific Discussion
Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were
very unfamiliar with the story.
1.
The Herodians were a group of leaders who were loyal to
the pro-Roman government. The Pharisees,
on the other hand, were anti-Roman occupation that hoped for a messiah who
would rid Israel of the Romans. Why
would these two groups get together to question Jesus?
2.
The Herodians and Pharisees who question Jesus begin by
saying really nice things about him. Why
would they begin this way?
3.
Why might the question of taxation be a subject of
interest to the Herodians and the Pharisees?
4.
Why does Jesus want to know whose head is on the
denarius? Keep in mind that the Romans
encouraged emperor worship.
5.
Jesus tells the group to give back to the emperor the
things that are his and to God the things that are God’s. What does Jesus mean by this?
6.
Jesus seems to be suggesting that we find a balance
between our involvement with and commitment to the government and our
allegiance to God. How might we
successfully participate in our country while at the same time giving everything
that is God’s to God?
7.
Where does your supreme allegiance lie?
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew:
A Commentary: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28, Revised & enlarged edition
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 397.
[2] Ibid., 398.
[4] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene
Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies,
1996), 574.
[5] Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four
Gospels, Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew, ed. John
Henry Newman, vol. 1 (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841), 751.
[6] Bruner, Matthew, 400.
[7] Walter A. Elwell and Barry
J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the
Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 972–973.
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