Laying the Trap
The phrase that’s at the heart of this week’s scripture reading, “…Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s…” is one that most of us have probably heard before. It’s what Jesus tells the Pharisees when they try to entrap him into saying something treasonous – something they can hold against him, and take him to the Roman magistrates for.
They dress up their words in hollow compliments and cover them in sweet honey, calling Jesus “a man of integrity,” “teaching the way of God in accordance with the truth,” who isn’t “swayed by others.” But their intent is to try to get him to say that people shouldn’t pay their taxes. After all, if a faithful person’s only allegiance is to God, why should our labor, our money, our gifts of time and treasure go to the state?
It’s a seductive argument. Because no one really likes taxes, though we probably like the things they pay for. And for people of faith, who are often tempted to fall prey to “holier-than-thou” feelings, the idea that we should be exempt, we should be special, we are God’s chosen after all… well… you can see the appeal.
But that’s not what Jesus says.
His response to the Pharisees isn’t to blunder into their trap of twisted words. But he tells them straight out – the coins of commerce – adorned with the head of Caesar – these things are not of God’s realm. So give them back to Caesar. And give what is God’s back to God.
Jesus doesn’t give us permission to exempt ourselves from the law, from civil society, from the rules and norms that bind everyone else around us. For the Pharisees hearing this, they must have been sorely disappointed. Not because they think Christians or anyone else ought to be excused from the law, but because Jesus doesn’t take their bait. They thought to cast their lines and hook him in and instead, Jesus just doesn’t even flinch.
But I have a question about this text.
Why is it necessary for the Pharisees to set this trap at all?
From what we can tell, they had an uneasy, but cooperative relationship with the Roman authorities. I’m not sure if ‘collaborators’ is the quite the right word, but if they thought that someone was a threat to their own power, they certainly didn’t shy away from pointing their finger and letting Rome know that that person was a threat to the Empire as well. I’m sure the Roman civil authorities and the Pharisaic religious authorities found much to disagree about during their time in Jerusalem together, but as much as each one needed the other to secure their own power in the city, they were certainly willing to use each other.
So why go through this pantomime of trying to trap Jesus? Why try to trip him up and make him answer this question at all, instead of just pointing their finger like they could have, and letting the Romans do their thing?
To answer that question, I think, requires us to think a little bit more deeply on Jesus’s answer to the Pharisees, and from a somewhat different angle.
In “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and “give to God what is God’s,” Jesus invites us to consider the relationship between humanity and power. Earlier in Matthew chapter 6, he tells us that no man can serve two masters, and so we absolutely have to prioritize our relationship with God over our relationship with human empires. But for the sake of day-to-day pragmatism, we still have to work for our bosses, make compromises with our families, balance our needs and obligations, and yes, pay our taxes.
But in thinking about that relationship between humanity and power, there’s another aspect to consider as well. And that is that power needs some sort of legitimacy. People need a reason to believe what powerful people are saying. Even in the most oppressive, autocratic, undemocratic societies, leadership has to be able to convincingly say that there’s a reason that they’re the ones making the decisions. And that means that there has to be visible reasons for doing the things that they do.
Think of it this way: if we think of a general leading troops into battle, those troops have to believe that that general has a plan to win. What happens when troops lose confidence in their leadership? Insubordination. Refusal to follow orders. Desertions.
Imagine seeing a general give the order to attack, and seeing all his troops throw down their guns and laugh at him.
You can have all the trappings of power – titles, ranks, uniforms, the whole shebang. But without some fig leaf of legitimacy, no one will listen to you. And then you just become that lunatic wandering around the bus station yelling about nothing.
That fig leaf of legitimacy is what the Pharisees are after. They’re looking for that “A-ha!” gotcha moment. Something they can show the people of Jerusalem as well as the Roman occupiers, that this Jesus character is dangerous to them.
Now… not everybody has to believe the Pharisees. People may be skeptical. People may be cynical. Some people may outright call them liars. But they don’t need everybody.
They just need a critical mass of people to just shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, I guess they have their reasons.”
And that’s it. That’s all they need. That’s all they want. That’s all they’re going for. Just that little fig leaf of legitimacy.
And Jesus denies it to them.
He refuses to play their game.
On the surface, nothing’s changed. They could still bring the Roman magistrates. They could still say that he’s a menace to the people and to the Empire. They could still bring him in on propped up charges.
But what they don’t have, and what Jesus refuses to give them, is a reason why.
And without that, the Pharisees are frustrated.
Without that, their hands are tied.
They don’t like Jesus any more now than they did before they asked him the question. If anything, they probably like him even less. It’s why they go to such lengths later on when they pay off Judas to betray Jesus.
Without that reason why, they lose their legitimacy. They lose their credibility. They become just another mob in a city full of mobs.
It take a lot of things going your way to wield power with legitimacy. It takes people willing to believe in you. It takes effort and connections and money. If you’re looking to become the next emperor, it does take people willing to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
And that’s why that relationship between our lives of faith and our civic lives is so fraught with tension. Because on the one hand, we want to be virtuous, to be righteous, and to lead holy, Christ-centered lives. And on the other hand, sometimes we see a little too clearly how the sausage is made, and we see the disconnect between the exercise of human power and the power of Christ’s holy kingdom.
As Christians, we both give legitimacy to the civic institutions and social structures and live under, we feel pressure and friction from those structures.
And so the temptation is to simply walk away. To say, “this is world of human invention is corrupt, it’s sinful, it doesn’t represent my beliefs or my values, so I’m not going to lend it my legitimacy.” And that’s tempting sometimes. Believe me, I know. I feel it too.
But Christ doesn’t give us that option.
Our God – Jesus Christ himself. Lived in the muck with us. He dealt with the pettiness of man. He saw corruption and abuse. He lived with a target on his back, and knew that one day that his turn would come.
Yet he continued to live a holy and blameless life, even among the sin and vice of the world.
Now, none of us are Jesus. None of us have his capacity for blameless living. None of us can pretend that temptations, faults, and failings are things that somehow affect only other people.
But we can do our best to hold our heads up high in this world we are given to live in. We can look for the good in creation, where there is plenty of good to be found. And we can take responsibility for our tiny little corner of the world, and let love and kindness and goodness flourish where we are. Not to shut ourselves away from the world, and not to deny to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but to show that ours is a way of doing something better.
That when we treat with love instead of suspicions, kindness instead of vengeance, generosity instead of avarice, we can take on a legitimacy and a power all our own.
That our words matter. That we follow through in the things we say we believe. That the name of Jesus is a beacon to how we live our whole lives, not just a password into some social club.
We live in a world of God’s creation and man’s institutions. And in the day-to-day lure of the latter, we can sometimes forget that our calling is to the former. But Christ shows us that in God’s love we can live honestly, with righteousness, with holiness, showing goodness to the world. Amen.
Let us pray.
Holy Lord, we give you praise that you invite us to participate in the world around us. In the brokenness of our world, let us be agents for healing and reconciliation. Lord, make us faithful servants to you, even as we struggle to navigate the world around us. And when we do find ourselves in positions of authority, with the ear of the people around us, let us never corrupt or debase ourselves, but always remain faithful to you. We pray all of this in the name of your perfect example of everlasting righteousness, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The phrase that’s at the heart of this week’s scripture reading, “…Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s…” is one that most of us have probably heard before. It’s what Jesus tells the Pharisees when they try to entrap him into saying something treasonous – something they can hold against him, and take him to the Roman magistrates for.
They dress up their words in hollow compliments and cover them in sweet honey, calling Jesus “a man of integrity,” “teaching the way of God in accordance with the truth,” who isn’t “swayed by others.” But their intent is to try to get him to say that people shouldn’t pay their taxes. After all, if a faithful person’s only allegiance is to God, why should our labor, our money, our gifts of time and treasure go to the state?
It’s a seductive argument. Because no one really likes taxes, though we probably like the things they pay for. And for people of faith, who are often tempted to fall prey to “holier-than-thou” feelings, the idea that we should be exempt, we should be special, we are God’s chosen after all… well… you can see the appeal.
But that’s not what Jesus says.
His response to the Pharisees isn’t to blunder into their trap of twisted words. But he tells them straight out – the coins of commerce – adorned with the head of Caesar – these things are not of God’s realm. So give them back to Caesar. And give what is God’s back to God.
Jesus doesn’t give us permission to exempt ourselves from the law, from civil society, from the rules and norms that bind everyone else around us. For the Pharisees hearing this, they must have been sorely disappointed. Not because they think Christians or anyone else ought to be excused from the law, but because Jesus doesn’t take their bait. They thought to cast their lines and hook him in and instead, Jesus just doesn’t even flinch.
But I have a question about this text.
Why is it necessary for the Pharisees to set this trap at all?
From what we can tell, they had an uneasy, but cooperative relationship with the Roman authorities. I’m not sure if ‘collaborators’ is the quite the right word, but if they thought that someone was a threat to their own power, they certainly didn’t shy away from pointing their finger and letting Rome know that that person was a threat to the Empire as well. I’m sure the Roman civil authorities and the Pharisaic religious authorities found much to disagree about during their time in Jerusalem together, but as much as each one needed the other to secure their own power in the city, they were certainly willing to use each other.
So why go through this pantomime of trying to trap Jesus? Why try to trip him up and make him answer this question at all, instead of just pointing their finger like they could have, and letting the Romans do their thing?
To answer that question, I think, requires us to think a little bit more deeply on Jesus’s answer to the Pharisees, and from a somewhat different angle.
In “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and “give to God what is God’s,” Jesus invites us to consider the relationship between humanity and power. Earlier in Matthew chapter 6, he tells us that no man can serve two masters, and so we absolutely have to prioritize our relationship with God over our relationship with human empires. But for the sake of day-to-day pragmatism, we still have to work for our bosses, make compromises with our families, balance our needs and obligations, and yes, pay our taxes.
But in thinking about that relationship between humanity and power, there’s another aspect to consider as well. And that is that power needs some sort of legitimacy. People need a reason to believe what powerful people are saying. Even in the most oppressive, autocratic, undemocratic societies, leadership has to be able to convincingly say that there’s a reason that they’re the ones making the decisions. And that means that there has to be visible reasons for doing the things that they do.
Think of it this way: if we think of a general leading troops into battle, those troops have to believe that that general has a plan to win. What happens when troops lose confidence in their leadership? Insubordination. Refusal to follow orders. Desertions.
Imagine seeing a general give the order to attack, and seeing all his troops throw down their guns and laugh at him.
You can have all the trappings of power – titles, ranks, uniforms, the whole shebang. But without some fig leaf of legitimacy, no one will listen to you. And then you just become that lunatic wandering around the bus station yelling about nothing.
That fig leaf of legitimacy is what the Pharisees are after. They’re looking for that “A-ha!” gotcha moment. Something they can show the people of Jerusalem as well as the Roman occupiers, that this Jesus character is dangerous to them.
Now… not everybody has to believe the Pharisees. People may be skeptical. People may be cynical. Some people may outright call them liars. But they don’t need everybody.
They just need a critical mass of people to just shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, I guess they have their reasons.”
And that’s it. That’s all they need. That’s all they want. That’s all they’re going for. Just that little fig leaf of legitimacy.
And Jesus denies it to them.
He refuses to play their game.
On the surface, nothing’s changed. They could still bring the Roman magistrates. They could still say that he’s a menace to the people and to the Empire. They could still bring him in on propped up charges.
But what they don’t have, and what Jesus refuses to give them, is a reason why.
And without that, the Pharisees are frustrated.
Without that, their hands are tied.
They don’t like Jesus any more now than they did before they asked him the question. If anything, they probably like him even less. It’s why they go to such lengths later on when they pay off Judas to betray Jesus.
Without that reason why, they lose their legitimacy. They lose their credibility. They become just another mob in a city full of mobs.
It take a lot of things going your way to wield power with legitimacy. It takes people willing to believe in you. It takes effort and connections and money. If you’re looking to become the next emperor, it does take people willing to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
And that’s why that relationship between our lives of faith and our civic lives is so fraught with tension. Because on the one hand, we want to be virtuous, to be righteous, and to lead holy, Christ-centered lives. And on the other hand, sometimes we see a little too clearly how the sausage is made, and we see the disconnect between the exercise of human power and the power of Christ’s holy kingdom.
As Christians, we both give legitimacy to the civic institutions and social structures and live under, we feel pressure and friction from those structures.
And so the temptation is to simply walk away. To say, “this is world of human invention is corrupt, it’s sinful, it doesn’t represent my beliefs or my values, so I’m not going to lend it my legitimacy.” And that’s tempting sometimes. Believe me, I know. I feel it too.
But Christ doesn’t give us that option.
Our God – Jesus Christ himself. Lived in the muck with us. He dealt with the pettiness of man. He saw corruption and abuse. He lived with a target on his back, and knew that one day that his turn would come.
Yet he continued to live a holy and blameless life, even among the sin and vice of the world.
Now, none of us are Jesus. None of us have his capacity for blameless living. None of us can pretend that temptations, faults, and failings are things that somehow affect only other people.
But we can do our best to hold our heads up high in this world we are given to live in. We can look for the good in creation, where there is plenty of good to be found. And we can take responsibility for our tiny little corner of the world, and let love and kindness and goodness flourish where we are. Not to shut ourselves away from the world, and not to deny to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but to show that ours is a way of doing something better.
That when we treat with love instead of suspicions, kindness instead of vengeance, generosity instead of avarice, we can take on a legitimacy and a power all our own.
That our words matter. That we follow through in the things we say we believe. That the name of Jesus is a beacon to how we live our whole lives, not just a password into some social club.
We live in a world of God’s creation and man’s institutions. And in the day-to-day lure of the latter, we can sometimes forget that our calling is to the former. But Christ shows us that in God’s love we can live honestly, with righteousness, with holiness, showing goodness to the world. Amen.
Let us pray.
Holy Lord, we give you praise that you invite us to participate in the world around us. In the brokenness of our world, let us be agents for healing and reconciliation. Lord, make us faithful servants to you, even as we struggle to navigate the world around us. And when we do find ourselves in positions of authority, with the ear of the people around us, let us never corrupt or debase ourselves, but always remain faithful to you. We pray all of this in the name of your perfect example of everlasting righteousness, Jesus Christ. Amen.