There’s an old adage used by lawyers. It sounds like sage advice to me, at least in a courtroom setting. “Never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer.” Actually I don’t know if that is really a lawyer adage or not. But I do know that it was advice that Atticus Finch took to heart. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the character Scout, Atticus’ daughter said this: "I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing - but it seemed to me that he'd gone frog-sticking without a light. Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenet I absorbed with my baby-food. Do it and you'll often get an answer you don't want, an answer that might wreck your case." And there’s the reasoning behind the adage. If you’re going to use someone else’s words to prove your point, you’d better know what they are going to say.
The Pharisees would have done well to heed this advice. Especially in today’s passage. Actually, I think they thought they knew the answer. They are trying to outwit Jesus. And they use what they think is an unanswerable question. Answer one way he’s a hypocrite; answer the opposite and he’s doomed.
Matthew 22:15-22
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." Nearly 150 years later (1936), Margaret Mitchell used a similar phrase in Gone with the Wind: "Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them."
Taxes are not popular. They never have been. But they have almost always been a certainty. Even in Jerusalem in the 1st century, taxes were a way of life. And even in 1st century Jerusalem, they were an unpopular way of life. And in many ways they were even more unpopular than today. Imagine if the taxes you pay each year, or everyday in the case of sales tax, were going to a foreign government? An occupying force? It would make paying it just a little more painful. It would be a reminder that your homeland is occupied by foreigners worshipping foreign false gods and forcing you to accept and support it.
The taxes were unpopular, but it was also illegal to not pay the tax. And it was illegal to speak out against the taxes and therefore the state. The Pharisees decided to use these offsetting facts to their advantage. They try to entrap Jesus with a question he cannot satisfactorily answer.
This time, the Pharisees enlist some help. They conspire with the Herodians. The Herodians were supporters of King Herod. Just a little history about Herod. Herod the Great became king of Judea around 39 BC. He wasn’t a real king. He was a client king. He ruled because Rome said he could rule. In fact, the Roman emperor made him king. Herod, of course was king when Jesus was born. He died around 4 AD and was replaced by a few of his sons. So, upon his death, his kingdom was divided among his sons. Most of them were named Herod as well. Herod Antipas being the ruler of Galilee in front of whom Jesus appeared after his arrest.
Most Jews despised the Herods. They viewed them as false kings and really viewed them the same as they did Rome. And, really, they were the same as Rome. So as supporters of Herod’s family, the Herodians were also supporters of Rome.
The Pharisees conspire with the Herodians to try to trap Jesus. The Herodians along with some disciples of the Pharisees go to Jesus. First they butter him up with some compliments, but they are also playing to the crowds. Remember, Jesus still has crowds following him wherever he goes. If they play to the crowd maybe they can gain a little credibility. So, they approach Jesus, butter him up, and ask him a loaded question.
“Jesus, is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?”
Do you notice the double meaning in that question? Is it “lawful”? Jews, at this time, live under Roman law and the Mosaic law. The law of Torah.
In asking Jesus this question about taxes, the Pharisees hoped for either of two outcomes. If he says it is lawful then the Rome hating crowds would turn on him, then it would be much easier to arrest him or have the crowds stone him or get rid of him some other way. If he says it is not lawful, well then he’s broken Roman law. Now they can have Rome arrest him, maybe they even had soldiers standing by just in case. Some think the Herodians may have been soldiers themselves.
I’m sure the Pharisees are salivating as the Herodians approach Jesus and ask him this question. They expect to see him squirm and then give one of two answers. Yes or no. They could not conceive of any way Jesus would get out of this trap they’d set. They don’t really care what his answer is. They just want him to answer. They’ve set their trap now they’re ready to let Jesus spring it on himself.
Jesus sort of rolls his eyes. With a “Really guys, again?” A big sigh. “Bring me a coin used to pay taxes.” The Pharisees are probably getting nervous.
Someone produces a coin. The tax had to be paid with Roman coins. These coins, as Jesus will point out had a picture of Caesar on one side much like this quarter has George Washington. But that wasn’t all. The coins also had an inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, august and divine son of Augustus, High Priest.” So the coin itself was blasphemous. The coin itself is a reminder to the Israelites that a foreign power occupied their holy land.
I’m sure the Pharisees think Jesus is stalling. He knows they’ve got him. He can’t escape. Then he throws him a little bit of a curveball.
“Whose image is on that coin?”
“Who’s image? Really? You know whose image is on there. Everyone in the Roman Empire knows that.” Now they’re getting nervous.
“Caesar’s image is on the coin.”
“Hmm. Yep. Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”
But he wasn’t done. “And give to God the things that are God’s.”
And they were amazed. And they went away.
Did any of you ever watch Rocky and Bullwinkle? The cartoon moose and squirrel? The Pharisees in these last few stories we’ve read remind me of Boris and Natasha from those cartoons. They spent every episode plotting some way to “Get moose and squirrel.” Inevitably their scheme would backfire and they would end up hanging from a cliff or in the middle of a lake. The same thing keeps happening to the Pharisees. They come up with these brilliant schemes to trap Jesus. But they all end in failure. At least so far.
For the Pharisees and their accomplices their question is a political one. Do you stand with the people and against Rome or do you stand with Rome and against your own people? For Jesus, though, and thus for us, it is a question of devotion. A question of loyalty. A question of image.
Jesus points out the image on the coin and then tells his audience that since it bears the emperor’s image, then it belongs to the emperor.
Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor and give to God what belongs to God. So Jesus asks a question without ever really asking it.
What belongs to God?
It’s a question of image. The coin bears the image of Caesar. What, then, bears the image of God? What is made in the image of God? Yeah, us.
So then, what belongs to God? That’s right. Us. So what are we to give to God? Us.
This story is not about politics. This story is not about taxes. This story is not about money. Instead it is a story about devotion. It is a story about giving ourselves fully to God.
What does it mean that we belong to God and we give ourselves, what belongs to God, to God? It means we devote everything to God. All we are and all we have. It means we make God, and serving God priority one in our lives. It means we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength. It means we love our neighbor as ourselves.
Well done, Scott!
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