Holy Week Musings - Tuesday

As part of my journey through Holy Week this year, I am reading Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan's fabulous book 'The Last Week - What the Gospels really teach about Jesus's final days in Jerusalem.'  I highly recommend it.

Part of todays chapter resonated hugely with some of the things I wrestle with on a regular basis.
I have HUGE problems with aspects of 'paying Tax'.  Not so much the parts of my tax which are used for education, healthcare, provision of services etc, but the parts of my taxes that are used to prop up failing banks, used to finance the Military system and finance the Arms Trade.  I know of people who either choose to live below taxable income in order to not be complicit in the murkier areas of our governments operations (which in itself throws up many issues of civil responsibility and 'sponging' off the state which they so heartily find problems with), or in the US who pay only that portion of taxes which pertains to all the positive aspects of society and then treat their withholding of portions of their Tax as a non-violent action of protest against the State.

I can already hear the cries of 'naive, naive' rising up, and so I remind you that this is an area I 'wrestle' with, and have not come to any solid conclusion about at a personal level - so back off, ok! (only joking.  a bit.)

Anyway, back to the book.  Todays chapter was a long one, given that in Marks Gospel Tuesday is a busy day, a full day.  Marks narrative of Tuesday covers almost 3 chapters.  About two thirds of Tuesdays narrative deals with conflict with temple authorities and their associates.  The remaining third is mainly concerned with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

A part of Tuesdays conflict comes in the form of a discussion about 'Taxes to Caesar'...aha...the penny drops.

Mark 12:13-17 (New International Version, ©2011)

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

 ¹³ Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax^[a] to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”    But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
   “Caesar’s,” they replied.
 ¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
   And they were amazed at him.

Some thoughts from Borg & Crossan on the subject - as they are far more insightful than I.

"As often happens in the interpretation of the Bible, there is a habituated way of seeing this passage that gets in the way of seeing its meaning in the context of Marks story of Jesus's last week...once this had happened “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s" was understood as a solemn statement about the relationship between civil and religious authority, between politics and religion, or, in Christian terms, between 'Church and State'....

What this means in practice has varied considerably.  It has been understood to mean absolute obedience to the State, notoriously by the majority of German Christians during the Hitler years.  But the attitude is far more common.  Long before the modern era, monarchs and their supporters used this verse to legitimate their authority; their subjects were to obey them because Jesus said that their political obligation belonged to the rulers realm.  More recently, many American Christians used it during th Civil Rights era to criticise acts of civil disobediance.  This verse, they argued, means that we are to be obedient to civil authority, even if we might want to modify its laws.

Some use it...to argue that Christians in the US must support their governments decision to go to war...

But the heavy weight given to this verse as a solemn pronouncement about the relationship between politics and religion obscures what it means in Mark.  The story in which the verse appears continues the series of verbal confrontations between Jesus and His opponents...to imagine that their purpose is to provide a set of eternal rules about how human life should be ordered is to ignore the larger narrative of which they are a part.

They ask Jesus a question intended to trap Him in what He said...It was a volatile question.  Ever since the Jewish homeland had been added to the Roman Empire in 63 BC, Rome had required a large annual 'tribute' from the Jewish people...though tribute included the per capita tax levied on all adult Jewish men, the annual sum due to Rome included much more...It was the way the empire profited from its possessions.

Roman taxation was so onerous not only because it was economically burdensome.  It also symbolised the Jewish homelands lack of sovereignty.  It underlined the oppression of the Jews by an alien lord, as the word 'tribute' itself suggests.

The spokesman of the authorities set the trap skilfully.  Either answer would get Jesus in trouble.  If Jesus were to answer 'no', he would be charged of advocating denial of Roman authority - in short, with sedition.  If he were to answer 'yes', he risked discrediting himself with the crowd, who for both economic and religious reasons resented Roman rule and taxation...

Jesus's response is masterful...he sets a countertrap when he asks to see a denarius.  A denarius was a silver coin equal to approximately a days wage.  His interregators produce one.  Jesus looks at it and asks “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”  We all know their answer; 'Caesars'.

Jesus's strategy has led his questioners to disclose to the crowd that they have a coin with Caesars image on it.  In this momen they are discredited.  Why?  In the Jewish homeland in the first century, there were two types of coins.  One type, because of the Jewish prohibition of graven images, had no human or animal images.  The second type (including roman coinage) had images.  Many Jews would not carry or use coins of the second type.  But Jesus's interrogators in the story did.  The coin produced had Caesars image along with the standard and idolatrous inscription heralding Caesar as divine and Son of God.  They are exposed as part of the politics of collaboration.  Jesus's rherorical strategy is brilliant:  their trap has been evaded, his own countertrap set and sprung.

Thus, even before the famous words about rendering to Caesar, Jesus has won the encounter.  But there is more:  he responds to their initial question.  His response is in two parallel halves:

1. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars
2. Give to God the thigs that are Gods

Following immediately upon the disclosure that they are carrying a coin with Caesars image, the first half of the saying means simply, 'it's Caesars coin - give it back to him.'

This is in effect a non-answer to the larger question, 'should we pay taxes to Caesar.'  It cannot be seen as an endorsement of paying taxes to Rome, or Romes rule.  If Jesus had wanted to say 'Pay taxes to Caesar,' he could have simply answered 'yes' to their question.  There would have been no need for the scene with the coin, the central element of the story.

The nonanswer is not simply a dismissal of the issue, however.  The second half of Jesus's response is both evocative and provocative: 'Give to God the things that are Gods.'  It raises the question,'what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God.'  For Jesus and many of his Jewish contemporaries, everything belongs to God.  So their sacred scripture affirmed.  The land of Israel belongs to God - recall Leviticus 25:23, which says that all are tenant farmers or resident aliens on land that belongs to God.

To use 'tuesdays language', the vineyard belongs to God, not to the local collaborators, not to Rome.  Indeed the whole earth belongs to God...

What belongs to Caesar?  The implication is, nothing."
Extract from 'The Last Week' by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan - SPCK 2008


And, after mulling over the above reading of the passage, I am left with a distinct need to ponder the question, 'so, what now'...how do I deal with the fact that everything (my Tax included) belongs to God, and yet can be used for distinctly Anti-Kingdom purposes...how am I engaged in 'subverting the Empire' and growing the Kingdom?

I love the scriptures that describe Jesus's response to needing to pay taxes - He pulled the coin out of the mouth of a Fish...which suggests that (in that season of His life at least) He did not carry money, and so did not need to participate in the economic horrors of the Empire.

Hmmmmm...