For those of you familiar with William Shakespeare’s work you will remember that one of the lines from his play The Tempest is “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” Over time, that line has morphed into the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Now, while this might be applicable to our time, it has been true of time immemorial. In fact, we find that is exactly what is happening in today’s gospel reading as the Pharisees and Herodians team up to trick and trap Jesus.
For the past few weeks, we have been journeying with Jesus through the last week of his life, a week that has been intense to say the least. Just a few days before today’s confrontation, Jesus had entered Jerusalem where he was greeted by throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Then there was that incident where he overthrew the tables of the Temple money-changers. Jesus has spent the week challenging both the political and religious powers that be. He has been doggedly confronted by the religious leaders who are questioning the authority behind his actions. And, he has called into question the religious leaders’ authority by telling threatening, confrontational parables. So, today, we discover the Herodians and the Pharisees team up to trap the itinerant, rabblerousing rabbi known as Jesus.
To understand what is happening in this story, we must better understand these two groups of people. The Herodians, on the one hand, saw themselves as having power derived from the Romans. As their name suggests, they were allied with Herod Antipas, whom Roman authorities had named king of the Jews. And, not surprisingly, the Herodians supported paying tax to Caesar. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were committed to every detail of Jewish law. They aligned themselves more closely with the occupied and oppressed commoners, and they opposed paying tax to Caesar for religious reasons. Their opposition to paying this tax was based less on the fact of occupation and more on the special coin that had to be used to pay this particular tax. You see, this coin – a denarius, worth a day’s wage – carried the inscription or likeness of Tiberius Caesar. And, the Romans considered Tiberius Caesar the divine son of Augustus. This inscription or likeness was overtly offensive to the religious leaders, and within Jesus’ community the inscription spoke both of oppression and of blasphemy.
Anyway, these two oppositional groups of people invoke a temporary truce as they try to trick Jesus, believing they have him cornered. They present Jesus with a question that poses a political conundrum, and they await a political response. They ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” By asking this question, they know that if Jesus declares it lawful, he might acquit himself with the Roman authorities, but the crowd of followers would turn against him because it would scandalize the religious establishment. And, if he rules against it, he positions himself against Rome, a position nobody in their right mind would willingly seek. Brilliantly, Jesus responds by widening the question so that it has little to do with politics. He quickly procures a coin and asks, “Whose head is this and whose title?” Thinking they finally have Jesus ensnared, they respond by saying, “The Emperor’s.”
Now, we need to delve more deeply into what is really happening here. As professor, David Lose, describes this incident, he writes:
There’s more going on here than meets the eye, as along with that image is an engraved confession of Caesar’s divinity, which means that any Jew [even] holding the coin is breaking the first two of the commandments. All of which leads to Jesus’ closing line, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And with this one sentence, Jesus does not simply evade their trap or confound their plans, but issues a challenge to his hearers that reverberates through the ages into our sanctuaries.
You see, a better translation of verse 20 in today’s reading would be,
“Whose likeness is this, and what title?” So, when the good Jewish religious leaders hear these words, their minds will automatically think back to their Jewish scriptures and the book of Genesis. Knowing their Hebrew Bible very well, they will automatically reference God’s pronouncement and promise in Genesis, chapter one, where we read:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;”
Jesus’s response calls us to think about the way in which we are called to live. His words are powerful words for the Herodians, the Pharisees and for us. You see, what Jesus is really reminding us of is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are not gods, but we bear God’s likeness and we are to act as God acts regarding the way we live in relationship to others and the way we live as good stewards of all we have been given. We are to bear the same characteristics God shows to us as we live in relationship to God, to others and to creation. Jesus is saying that we are called to serve as God’s agents and God’s co-workers, not as an act of power but rather as an act of stewardship, as we work to extend the abundant life God wishes for all. (David Lose)
Jesus is calling us to remember our identity. As we go through our daily lives, making decisions and interacting with all kinds of people, it is often easy to forget in whose likeness we are made. God is always calling us back, to turn again to him and remember that our primary identity is to live as God’s children, live as God’s good stewards of all that we have been given, and act like the God we see in Jesus. And, while Caesar or Empire will get many of our coins, the coin of the realm of our flesh and blood is the image of God. Every single life is marked with that inscription, an icon of the One who is its source and destination, as we embody the kingdom of God. While our currency bears the image of Empire, baptism is the watermark of our true currency, the inspiration for all the rendering we do and for the many ways in which we live as God’s stewards of all that we have been given.
So, as we reflect upon the question the Herodians and Pharisees pose to Jesus, the point really is not about paying taxes or not paying taxes. In fact, paying your taxes is simple. However repugnant, you hold your nose and write a check. Rendering relative honor to that subordinate Caesar is the easy part, and perhaps even necessary. After all, civilization is expensive, and taxes pay the tab. (John Clendenin)
The point of this Jesus story is that we are called to live remembering that each one of us has been made in the likeness of God. God loves you. God loves you so much that God keeps your picture in the divine wallet and on the heavenly refrigerator. Jesus did not care about the tax – his real concern is that you live into the image and likeness of the God who lovingly created you. This is the best word we can receive and it is the best word you can share with others.