Kingdom Currency

Jesus’s first thought as this group approached was probably, “Strange bedfellows” – Herodians and Pharisees. They were definitely up to something.

Herodians were a political party that supported Herod the Great (and his descendants’) rule over what we now refer to as the Holy Land. They were supporters of the Roman Empire appointing the governing authorities to rule over the fruitful land that Moses saw as he looked across the landscape from Mt. Nebo, the land God’s people Israel would occupy after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The land they had inhabited for the last 3,500 years. Herodians were supporters of the occupation.

Pharisees were a sect of the occupied, a Jewish sect that was concerned with accurately interpreting and living according to the law. So, what brought them together? A threat, potentially, to both. A man named Jesus from Nazareth, who had managed in a rather short period of time to attract quite a following. So, they decide to approach him together and trap him with a question whose answer was sure to cause him trouble with one of their groups.

If Jesus said, “No, you should not pay the census tax,” all they had to do is report him. The Roman authorities would swoop in and arrest him; he would be seen clearly as a political insurgent. When the tax had first been levied, some 25 years prior, there had been an uprising of some of the Jewish people that was quickly put down. The offenders were hung on crosses all over the countryside as a message of warning.

And if Jesus said you should pay the census tax, he would rub salt into the wound of people whose family members hung on those crosses, who resented having to pay taxes to a government that invaded their country and took over. And the tax they had to pay? A day’s wage, a denarii. But that wasn’t the worst part. Because it was equal to a day’s wage, it was the most common coin, minted with the words, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the god Augustus, Pontifex (priest) Maximus” and bearing his image. The coins were offensive politically and religiously. The second commandment says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” Faithful Jews understood these coins to be in contradiction with God’s law.

They had him painted into a corner. N.T. Wright sums it up, “Tell people they shouldn’t pay, and you might end up on a cross. At the same time, of course, anyone leading a kingdom-of-God movement would be expected to oppose the tax, or face the ridicule and resentment of the people. Surely the point of God becoming king was the Caesar wouldn’t be? If Jesus wasn’t intending to get rid of the tax and all that it meant, what had they followed him from Galilee for?”

Jesus calls them out “I see what you’re doing. You are trying to trap me, you hypocrites. Let me see that coin you use to pay the census tax.” And they hand him a denarii. And right there, he has them. They are not just an occupied territory with its own units and measures for trade. They buy and sell and are part of the Empire. They don’t want to pay the tax, not because of their religious devotion to not use coins with graven images, and clearly not because they don’t participate in the economy of the government.

Jesus holds up the coin, “Whose image is this? And the inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. So, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. What Jesus means is unclear. He meant it to be. Is he saying that they should turn in all the coins stamped with Caesar’s image? Is he saying that they owe the census tax because, clearly, they live in Caesar’s kingdom? Maybe he was challenging them that if they weren’t willing to give up the coins then they were citizens of the Roman Empire and owed census tax? We don’t know. They didn’t either. He slips right through their fingers.

Then the Jesus goes on, beyond evading their trap to reframe the question they asked him, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” The coin bears Caesar’s image and belongs to him. You? Genesis 1 says, “God created humanity in God’s own image, male and female God created them to be in perfect union with God and belong to God.” We bear God’s image. We belong to God. So, we owe census taxes – but to whom? Are we first citizens of the Empire or to the Kingdom?

What currency are we trading in? Where is our ultimate allegiance?

French scholar Suzanne de Dietrich taught in Switzerland from 1936 to 1954. In the shadow of WWII she wrote of this passage, “The State can require only our money and our services, never our souls – that is to say, the obedience which we owe only to God.”

So, what do we owe God?

The answer from Scripture that gets quoted often is Micah 6:8: “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Some 700 years prior, Moses put the question to the people as they gathered at the Jordan River, ready to cross into the Promised Land: “What does the Lord your God require of you? To reverently worship the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to God, to love God, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13).

Proverbs offers this wisdom, “There are things the Lord hates, that are detestable to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

And our tithes and offerings? Abraham was the first to tithe ten percent as he returned from defeating the armies of the four kings, rescuing his nephew Lot, and reclaiming his possessions. His motivation is gratitude. He doesn’t do it to invoke God’s blessing; he does it in response to God’s blessing.

By the time of Moses, the tithe was no longer voluntary. The 10 percent off the top belonged to God and the Israelites simply repaid it. Gifts to meet the needs of the vulnerable or in gratitude for God’s blessing were different – they were called alms.

When the law is fulfilled though, what do we owe God?

Jesus echoed the prophet Micah, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

And Paul writes to the church at Corinth, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a joyful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

This is the currency of the Kingdom: justice, mercy, and love; worship, obedience, and service; faithfulness, gratitude, and joy! Let us give to God what is God’s. Amen.