Jesus and Taxes

They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... And they came and said to him: “...Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Mark 12:13f

As we read through Mark’s gospel, we become aware of how many times the Pharisees and others leaders argued with Jesus, trying to trap him into saying something that would cause trouble – with the Pharisees, with the Roman occupiers, or even with the crowds. Their badgering of Jesus reminds me of the press corps which follows every modern political leader – always asking sharp questions, always hoping to catch a politician in a mistake, always looking for a new story to feed a controversy.

Over the centuries Christians have often interpreted these debates between the authorities and Jesus as arguments between the old, rule-bound religion of the Jews and the new, love-centered religion of the Christians. What we frequently haven’t understood is that Jesus was not teaching a new religion, but reminding the people and their religious authorities of what their traditional religion had always taught.

Now the religious leaders sought to trip up Jesus with a question about taxes. No one ever wants to pay taxes, so the problem of taxes remains a hot topic for us today. We still ask the same questions: Why do I have to pay taxes? (It’s my hard-earned money – so why should I share it with the government?) Is it to pay for services needed by the whole society? Does it go to provide support for the needy? Or does it go to line the pockets of our leaders?

Imagine how much more resentment we would feel if our taxes went not to our own elected leaders, but to a foreign occupying power. Now can we begin to imagine how Israel’s people felt, knowing that God called for the poor and needy to be cared for, but seeing their religious leaders currying favor with the occupying Romans instead?

They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... Jesus and his disciples were in the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple, the center of Israel’s religion. Faithful Jews came to the temple to worship and make offerings to God, according to the commandments and customs of their faith. Their second commandment told them, You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4) But unlike the broader commandments to care for the poor and needy, this commandment was strictly observed by the nation’s religious leaders. When Jews came to the temple for worship, they had to exchange their ordinary money (a Roman coin, used throughout the empire) for a temple coin, suitable for a holy offering.

So when the pharisees questioned Jesus about taxes, he asked them to show him a coin. And they did – one of them took a Roman denarius out of his pocket and held it in his palm. To Jesus, and to the crowd surrounding him, the sight must have been striking: Right there in their palms, the religious leaders were holding engraved images of Caesar.

The image of Caesar in the Pharisee’s palm was a sign not only of religious hypocrisy, but of political collaboration with an occupying power. Why were these religious leaders – so scrupulous about their piety, so demanding of correct religious observance – carrying images of Caesar into the temple itself? Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy: they claimed to strictly observe the law, but they themselves were breaking it. And it was not just the little law they were breaking (using the right kind of money in the temple), but the larger law (to care for the poor and needy).

Money is always a powerful symbol. It stands for our accumulated wealth, our current income, and our material possessions. We use money to represent the income we receive – whether that income derives from a job or an inheritance, whether it represents a fair share of society’s goods or an unjust portion. The pharisees and other religious leaders were only a very small minority of Israel’s people, but they had by far the greatest amount of property, possessions, and power within their society. Much of their income came from an unfair distribution of Israel’s resources, and some of it even represented pay for collaborating with the Romans.

Money is always a powerful symbol. Like the ancient Roman Empire, our cities, states and nation require us to pay taxes. What does our tax money go for? And like the ancient Jewish temple, churches today take our money – cash, coin, check, and even (in some places) credit cards. Whether cash or coin, that money bears pictures of our presidents and other political leaders; our churches take the money to the bank without any questions.

The pictures engraved on the money are no longer a problem for the church, but Jesus’ questions are still valid today:

Does the money I think of as “mine” represent a fair share of society’s riches?

Do I use my money to advance God’s kingdom of peace and justice, or do I allow it to be used to support a political and economic system which is contrary to my religious ideals?