One of the trickiest issues for Christians throughout history has been how to relate to the society in which we’re embedded. After all, if Christ is our rightful King and his Kingdom is not of this world (John 18.36), it necessarily calls into question how we relate to the governments and systems that are of this world. At times, some Christians have promoted a strict withdrawal from public life; at others, Christians have sought to control it and subsume it under the Church’s authority. Most of us live somewhere in between, but inasmuch as we give any thought to the problem, aren’t super happy no matter where we’ve actually settled. At any rate, this sense of being pulled between two worlds is at the heart of today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus is asked about taxes. And it’s worth thinking about today.
The story goes like this:
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. (Matthew 21.15-22)
The scene starts with the Pharisees trying to butter Jesus up before ensnaring him. The question they then put to him is whether or not is lawful, that is to say, consistent with faithfulness to the Law of Moses, to pay taxes to Rome. I find it interesting, and quite sad, that we see similar tactics used by religious leaders today: trying to stoke anger in the crowd with populist language, distracting them from the actual concerns that faithfulness demands. But we know what Jesus thinks of religious hypocrites, so he refuses to bite. Noting (in Socratic question-and-answer form) that the Emperor’s face adorns the coin, he tells them to “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give God what is God’s.”
We see here once again how Jesus never gives into the histrionics, conspiracy theories, and pearl-clutching smokescreens so beloved by ‘religious’ people of all times and places. He just doesn’t have time for it. Instead, he focuses on what he elsewhere calls the ‘weightier matters of the Law’, showing love for neighbour and honouring God. What matters to Jesus is living faithfully, living into healed, healthy, and whole, reciprocal relationships with God and our neighbours. And here, paying taxes — even to a hated foreign imperial power — is part of that faithfulness.
By virtue of being alive and living in human communities we exist in a whole web of relationships, including to the state. And we are called to faithfulness in all of those relationships, including to the state. This world may not be our true home, but as ‘resident aliens’ here, we are still to live by its rules, inasmuch as they do not cause us to harm others. Once again, Jesus here breaks down the ‘us against them’ mentality that too often prevails among ‘religious’ people and calls us to be faithful in all our relationships, including to our neighbour and even those we consider to be our enemies.
I’ll leave these thoughts here today. They’re nothing new, but I think it’s a timely message for all of us today.
Matthew Root 
I have always struggled with how this passage is often interpreted to mean that Jesus wants us to follow all rules without question and to obey all laws (even if we believe they cause harm to people). The same people who say this often revere people who helped others during the Holocaust or on the Underground Railroad without a shred of hypocrisy. They were apparently wonderful Christians, but I am being faithless for supporting 2SLGBTQ+ children and teens in the face of government persecution, or for not toeing the party line on current foreign affairs. It is very bizarre to me that many Christians believe this passage to mean that Jesus hates troublemakers, when Jesus himself was a troublemaker!
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