Matthew 22:15 - 22
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Question:
ReplyDelete- What are the parameters of giving back to Caesar and to God?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_unto_Caesar says:
ReplyDeleteThe original message, coming in response to a question of whether it was lawful for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar, gives rise to multiple possible interpretations about the circumstances under which it is desirable for the Christian to submit to earthly authority.
They anticipated that Jesus would oppose the tax, as their purpose was "to hand him over to the power and authority of the governor".[Luke 20:20] The governor was Pilate, and he was the man responsible for the collecting of taxes in Roman Judea.
The text identifies the coin as a δηνάριον dēnarion,[1] and it is usually thought that the coin was a Roman denarius with the head of Tiberius. The coin is also called the "tribute penny."
However, it has been suggested that denarii were not in common circulation in Judaea during Jesus' lifetime and that the coin may have instead been an Antiochan tetradrachm bearing the head of Tiberius, with Augustus on the reverse.
The tax denoted in the text was a specific tax… It was a poll tax, a tax instituted in A.D. 6. A census taken at that time (cf. Lk. 2:2) to determine the resources of the Jews provoked the wrath of the country. Judas of Galilee led a revolt (Acts 5:37), which was suppressed only with some difficulty. Many scholars date the origin of the Zealot party and movement to this incident.
At his trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus was accused of promoting resistance to Caesar's tax.
The passage has been much discussed in the modern context of Christianity and politics, especially on the questions of separation of church and state and tax resistance.
Jesus responds to Pontius Pilate about the nature of his kingdom: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But now (or 'as it is') my kingdom is not from the world" (John 18:36); i.e., his religious teachings were separate from earthly political activity. This reflects a traditional division in Christian thought by which state and church have separate spheres of influence. A more simple explanation is that quite literally the people were not yet of his kingdom for if they were, the servants would rise up against the obvious injustice for convicting an innocent man.
Some read the phrase "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" as unambiguous at least to the extent that it commands people to respect state authority and to pay the taxes it demands of them. Paul the Apostle also states in Romans 13 that Christians are obliged to obey all earthly authorities, stating that as they were introduced by God, disobedience to them equates to disobedience to God.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_unto_Caesar (continued):
ReplyDeleteIn this interpretation, Jesus asked his interrogators to produce a coin in order to demonstrate to them that by using his coinage they had already admitted the de facto rule of the emperor, and that therefore they should submit to that rule.
Tertullian, in De Idololatria, interprets Jesus as saying to render "the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God; so as to render to Caesar indeed money, to God yourself. Otherwise, what will be God's, if all things are Caesar's?"
Leo Tolstoy wrote:
Not only the complete misunderstanding of Christ's teaching, but also a complete unwillingness to understand it could have admitted that striking misinterpretation, according to which the words, "To Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's," signify the necessity of obeying Cæsar. In the first place, there is no mention there of obedience; in the second place, if Christ recognized the obligatoriness of paying tribute, and so of obedience, He would have said directly, "Yes, it should be paid;" but He says, "Give to Cæsar what is his, that is, the money, and give your life to God," and with these latter words He not only does not encourage any obedience to power, but, on the contrary, points out that in everything which belongs to God it is not right to obey Cæsar.
Some see the parable as being Jesus' warning to people that if they collaborate too closely with state, as distinct from God's authority (for instance, by using its legal tender), they become beholden to it.
Mennonite Dale Glass-Hess wrote:
It is inconceivable to me that Jesus would teach that some spheres of human activity lie outside the authority of God. Are we to heed Caesar when he says to go to war or support war-making when Jesus says in other places that we shall not kill? No! My perception of this incident is that Jesus does not answer the question about the morality of paying taxes to Caesar, but that he throws it back on the people to decide. When the Jews produce a denarius at Jesus' request, they demonstrate that they are already doing business with Caesar on Caesar's terms. I read Jesus' statement, "Give to Caesar…" as meaning "Have you incurred a debt in regard to Caesar! Then you better pay it off." The Jews had already compromised themselves. Likewise for us: we may refuse to serve Caesar as soldiers and even try to resist paying for Caesar's army. But the fact is that by our lifestyles we've run up a debt with Caesar, who has felt constrained to defend the interests that support our lifestyles. Now he wants paid back, and it's a little late to say that we don't owe anything. We've already compromised ourselves. If we're going to play Caesar's games, then we should expect to have to pay for the pleasure of their enjoyment. But if we are determined to avoid those games, then we should be able to avoid paying for them.
Christian anarchists do not interpret Matthew 22:21 as advocating support for taxes but as further advice to free oneself from material attachment. Jacques Ellul believes the passage shows that Caesar may have rights over the fiat money he produces, but not things that are made by God.
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/render-to-caesar-the-things-that-are-caesars says:
ReplyDeleteThe answer: Everything is God’s. So the point seems to be: When you realize that all of life, including all of Caesar’s rights and power and possessions, belong to God, then you will be in a proper frame of mind to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
When you know that all is God’s, then anything you render to Caesar you will render for God’s sake. Any authority you ascribe to Caesar you will ascribe to him for the sake of God’s greater authority. Any obedience you render to Caesar you will render for the sake of the obedience you owe first to God. Any claim Caesar makes on you, you test by the infinitely higher claim God has on you.
Rendering to Caesar is limited and defined by rendering to God. What is Caesar’s is determined by the fact that everything is God’s first, and only becomes Caesar’s by God’s permission and design. Only God decides what is a rightful, limited rendering to Caesar. The only reason God ordains the rights of a Caesar is for the sake of God.
Namely, render to Caesar nothing that you cannot render for the Lord’s sake.
We are God’s servants, not the servants of any government. We are free from all governments and human institutions, because we belong to the owner of the universe and share in that inheritance (“fellow heirs with Christ”). We are aliens in the U.S.; we serve the owner of the world.
God has made us and bought us for himself (1 Corinthians 6:20). We are slaves of no man and no government (1 Corinthians 7:22-23). Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We are aliens and exiles on the earth (1 Peter 2:11). We are not “at home” here, but await the Lord from heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8).
In this freedom from the world and from Caesar God sends us for a season back into the “foreign” structures and institutions of society to bear witness that they are not ultimate, but God is. We are to live out the alien ideas of another kingdom in the midst of our earthly homeland. There will always be tension as we live in these two kingdoms. But God sends us in not out.
Beware of rendering too much to Caesar the way Pilate did (John 19:12). And when you render to Caesar do it only “for the Lord’s sake.” If you cannot, do not. May the Lord give us grace and wisdom to be the salt and light of God in an alien land.
http://mindrenewers.com/2013/03/27/misusing-matthew-2221-render-unto-caesar/ says:
ReplyDeleteMy well-intentioned Sunday School teachers slaughtered this text. I learned our Lord was teaching church-state separation — but that was NOT His focus in this passage. I also learned it meant we give God a list of “things that are God’s” — Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, giving, etc. If your Sunday School lessons were like mine, push the reset button, clear your memory banks on this passage, and start over.
We saw in my last post (“Whose is This Image and Superscription?“) that Jesus drew the attention of His hearers to the idolatrous nature of the tribute coin, a Roman denarius, by pointing out the graven image it bore, and an inscription which said Caesar was a god. If you haven’t read that post, I strongly encourage you to do so — this one will make more sense if you do.
The Pharisees and the Herodians thought they had Jesus in a trap (my Sunday School teachers WERE right about that :)). They thought, whatever He said, that He would be in trouble, either with the Roman authorities or with the people. They thought they were asking a financial and political question. They were wrong.
By turning the focus to the idolatrous nature of the tribute coin and the inscription which called Caesar “divine,” Christ turned it into a question about who is God, who receives worship. No longer is the question to whom you will pay taxes, but to whom you will render worship. The word “render” here means paying an obligation.
So what are the “things that are God’s?” If this is about worship, were my Sunday School teachers right after all? Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, these are worship, right? Actually, Jesus indirectly told His hearers what are “the things that are God’s.”
the Jews to whom Jesus was speaking knew the Scriptures from their youth. The term “image” was one that would ring theological bells in the minds of His hearers.
Jesus was not talking about “Sunday worship,” but about complete ownership, a life of worship. As so often, when you ask the Lord a question, the answer turns out to be a claim on your life. God made you, you bear His image, and so you belong to Him — you owe Him yourself, it is a debt to be “rendered.” The “things that are God’s” are simply everything we are and have — His image on us.
The Jews knew it. They knew that what He had said was true. The coin was idolatrous. They were made in God’s image. It really is the duty of man to render himself to God. There was no trap for the Saviour here, but rather a rebuke of idolatry and a challenge to render themselves to God, whose claim is irrefutable.
Almost EVERYBODY seems to use this to teach the separation of church and state. Are they wrong? Well, not entirely. But if it means that we belong to God, the common distinction between “things that are Caesar’s” and “things that are God’s” is flawed. The focus of this passage is not on civil government at all, but on whom you will worship.
However, it implies what Jesus made very clear later: “My kingdom is not of this world.
Government’s God-ordained role is not to establish Christ’s kingdom in this world, or His servants would have fought, and would fight today to establish and extend His kingdom. The principle of church-state separation, with different purposes and responsibilities, and different responses by believers to the two institutions, is Biblical.
That principle is implied in this passage — but it does a disservice to the central message of Christ’s response to make this a proof text for the church-state principle and turn the focus to that. Christ calls us to abandon all forms of idolatry and render ourselves to God — that is the key point here.