Unto Caesar

Scripture: Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 29), A.D. 2014 A

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

Good morning, all. Seems it’s time once again to render unto Caesar.

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, a pair of rather odd bedfellows come together in order to entrap Jesus within a clever little Catch 22. As usual, it has to do with politics. First Century Israel is a nation under occupation by the mighty Roman Empire. The Herodians are Israelites loyal to their Roman overlords and to the family of the Roman puppet-king Herod. We might call the Herodians collaborators. The Pharisees, meanwhile, are Israelites who dream of regaining their independence. They do not openly wage war against Rome, but they do expect God to send the promised Messiah, who will surely lead them to national freedom any day now.

Herodians and Pharisees don’t agree on much of anything—yet they both view Jesus as a threat. The Herodians don’t want Him stirring the pot and bringing down the wrath of Rome. The Pharisees don’t like that Jesus challenges their authority and represents a very different sort of Messiah from the one for whom they’d hoped. So these two parties put their heads together and unveil their secret weapon: money.

Money has always been a tool of propaganda. The very fact that some person or institution could possess the authority to mint and to regulate the very medium through which people exchange their goods and services is an incredible display of power. He who makes the money has his fingers in every aspect of life. That’s why coins almost always have a face on one side and a more elaborate image on the other. The face shows you who is in charge: the president, the king, the emperor. And the obverse tells you what that person stands for: his gods, his values, the priorities of his reign.

After all, what’s in your wallet? Look to the dollar bill. On one side we have George Washington, chief amongst the Founding Fathers, first President of these United States. On the back we have statements of national values: in God we trust; a new order for the ages; e pluribus unum. The bald eagle points to the eagle of the ancient Roman Republic in a uniquely American guise. Here it holds arrows in one talon and olive branches in another, signifying that the state has a monopoly on the powers of war and peace. Above the eagle, 13 separate stars are arranged together in order to form one greater star. Obviously that would be 13 colonies coming together as one nation.

There’s also an unfinished pyramid of 13 steps, indicating the glory of human achievement in building this republic. Yet the capstone is missing in order to remind us that the work is never done: that we must ever strive for a more perfect union, a more just society, a more progressive Enlightenment. Thus we see the eye of God over the pyramid, invoking the blessings of Providence in our ongoing quest to perfect the American nation.

See what I mean? Power and propaganda, always in your wallet, always passing through your fingers. It is a message about who’s in charge, and what it is that they value. The same was true in Jesus’ day. Obviously He didn’t have the dollar bill, but He did have the denarius tiberius.

Now a denarius is often called a penny, but that’s misleading. For most folks in Jesus’ day, a denarius represented a full day’s labor. The denarius tiberius was so-called simply because Tiberius was the reigning emperor at the time, and so his profile was prominently displayed on the coin along with the inscription, “Caesar August Tiberius, Son of the Divine Augustus.” On the flipside sat an image of the goddess Pax, or Peace, showing that the power of Rome brings peace to the conquered—that infamous Pax Romana. I should note, by the way, that the goddess Pax on the back of the coin bears a suspicious resemblance to Tiberius’ mother.

It had once been true that what separated East and West was that the East worshipped their kings as gods on earth (think of Pharaoh) while the West insisted upon the sort of self-rule we find in Greek democracy and the Roman Republic. That all changed with Alexander the Great, who had no problem being proclaimed a god like his ancestor Hercules. When Julius Caesar died, his adopted son Augustus wasted no time in having the Roman Senate proclaim Caesar a god. When Augusts died, his adopted son Tiberius did the same for him. Thus began the Roman imperial cult, worshipping deified past emperors, and even the “genius”—that is, the potential for godhood—present in the living emperor.

Thus the denarius tiberius was politics, power, and religion all rolled up into one little old coin. Naturally this was the currency in which all subjects of the Empire were to pay their taxes. And believe you me, if the Romans took nothing else seriously, they were dead set about receiving their tax revenues on time. For a number of reasons, this caused the Pharisees consternation. Obviously they didn’t like paying taxes to a foreign power. But worse than that, the coin in which they had to pay displayed graven images—a goddess and the son of a god! For any scrupulous Jew, simply possessing this coin, let alone paying it back to the Emperor, could be seen as violating at least three different Commandments. But if you didn’t pay—well, we are talking about the guy who has all the swords.

And this all brings us back to Jesus. The Pharisees and Herodians get together to ask Him a simple question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Perhaps now we can appreciate just how loaded a question this is. If Jesus says no, it is not lawful to pay Roman taxes, the Herodians will denounce Him for treason against Rome. And if you think that isn’t a big deal, keep in mind that Jesus is later crucified upon a Roman cross for just such charges of treason. Yet if Jesus says yes, it is lawful to pay Roman taxes, then the Pharisees will have discredited Him as a traitor to His people and sympathizer to pagans, who handles false images and pays homage to false gods. You see the trap? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Whatever shall He say?

“Show Me the coin used for the tax,” Jesus replies, and someone, presumably a Herodian, obliges. Jesus holds up the denarius tiberius and asks, “Now whose head is this, and whose title?” Well, Caesar Tiberius, obviously, they say. And now Jesus delivers His famous retort: “Therefore render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And His challengers are astounded and not knowing how to respond they go on their way.

It’s a masterstroke, really. By responding thusly, Jesus both satisfies and unsettles these two opposing extremes. Since the coin has upon it the image of Tiberius, He says, clearly it belongs to Tiberius, to whom we should simply return his property. Yet by playing upon this “image/likeness” terminology, Jesus is recalling that we are all made in the Image of God, and all must give themselves back to God, even the Emperor in Rome. The coin is minted in Tiberius’ image, but Tiberius is minted in God’s. Neither the Herodians nor the Pharisees can object to this. Even so, Jesus implies that had Israel given to God His proper due in the first place, the Israelites would never have fallen to Rome to begin with. It is an indictment of the sins of God’s own people. God didn’t invite Rome in; Israel did.

But most importantly for us today, brothers and sisters, Jesus here demonstrates the high-wire act required of His disciples, who understand that we must live in the world while not being of the world. Our Lord affirms the propriety of fulfilling civic duties: we are to pay taxes, to serve in the military, to vote; and to obey the laws of the land to the best of our ability. These are good things and as such are the work of God, who enjoins justice and good order upon every society, be it Christian, Jewish, pagan, or what-have-you. Yet Jesus also reminds us that in a world of competing allegiances, our primary duty remains not to the nation or the market, nor even to deified spirits of equality and democracy, but to our one true God and Lord and King.

Life is often messy. We are pulled in various directions by myriad commitments, and we must navigate in a world that does not privilege our commitments to God. “Render unto Caesar” does not refer to a strict separation of Church and State, which in all honesty has never truly existed in any society. Rather, it is Jesus’ admonition that we be wise as serpents and innocent as doves; that we participate in the good institutions of this nation and this world, while ever recalling that our true citizenship resides not on this earth but in Heaven. We are but sojourning pilgrims, strangers in a strange land.

Remember that whenever Jesus was confronted with stark choices between left or right, fight or flight, He always found a Third Way: His own path between extremes that somehow proved wiser and truer than either. May we as Christians ever seek out this Third Way of Jesus Christ, the way of humility and prayer. Perhaps grace shall then prove to be the true currency of the realm.

In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.