Taxes

The issue of taxes can be a volatile subject. A political party’s position on taxes is one of the great dividing lines that emerges in many political campaigns. Taxes don’t merely concern issues of dollars and cents (though we are all happier to keep as much money as we possibly can). Taxes speak to issues of authority, the size and scope of government, charity, private property, civic responsibility, and many other issues.

Let’s look at one particular tax for illustrative purposes: property taxes. We pay property taxes to provide a number of different services for the local area. Whether you agree with those services and the place of government in providing them is not my concern at this point. The tax itself is the issue. What does the property tax say about private property? Quite frankly, it tells the citizenry that there is no such thing as private property. You have the privilege of spending money on a piece of land and building a house on it, but the land is owned by the local government. If you don’t believe me, don’t pay your property tax. You will see who owns the land within a few months. You will be evicted from the land and house you thought you purchased.

The property tax is an immoral tax because it is not based on real increase in income. It is based on estimates of value made by some government bureaucrat whose job is to squeeze as much money out of all of us for government spending that he possibly can without creating a rebellion. Property tax is rent, and not even rent-to-own. It is perpetual rent that declares the earth is the government’s and the fullness thereof.

Riled up yet? Those who think about these issues can become quite heated about what is being declared through taxation. This is what the leaders in Israel were counting on in part when they asked Jesus the question, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” (Lk 20.22) Up to this point the leaders feared trying to arrest Jesus because the people liked him. They either needed the people to turn on him or for Rome to consider him a threat. This was the perfect set up. If he affirmed the need to pay taxes or tribute to Caesar, the people would turn on him because of their hatred of Rome. (There had been a rebellion against Rome about twenty-five years before this because of a tax issue. Memories were still relatively fresh.) If he told people not to pay taxes to Caesar, Rome would consider him a revolutionary and crush him. Win-win. Problem solved.

Not so fast.

Jesus asks them for them to give him a denarius. Why? Apparently, Jesus doesn’t have one. That’s kind of the point. They were in the temple, and the temple had its own currency. You were supposed to exchange money to do commerce in the temple. That’s what all those money-changers were for. The leaders in Israel, however, had Caesar’s money in God’s palace. This is just a small indication of what they would proclaim later at Jesus’ trial: “We have no king but Caesar.” (Jn 19.15)

Currency was and is more than just a means of exchange. It is a cultural symbol. We have symbols all over our currency that depicts who we believe ourselves to be as a culture. “E pluribus unum,” out of the many, one.” “Annuit coeptis,” He [Providence] has favored our undertakings. There are pictures of presidents, an eagle with an olive branch and arrows behind the shield, the eye of Providence above a pyramid. This is the United States of America.

All cultures do the same. The coin that Jesus handled would have had an effigy of Tiberius Caesar on one side with the inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, August Son of the Divine Augustus.” They believed Caesar to be a god. This coin bore his image. That which bears the image of another belongs to that person in some sense. For this reason, Jesus says, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and the things of God to God.”

What bears God’s image? We do. Man is uniquely the image of God, but the whole creation bears his divine stamp. What belongs to God? Everything … including Caesar and all that he has. What has been given to Caesar is given as a stewardship, and there are things that rightfully belong to him in the realm of authority that he has been given. But ultimately, it all belongs to God.

We live in kingdoms or under governments in this world. They are all ordained by God (Rom 13.1-7). We are called to obey them, paying taxes to whom taxes are due, when they operate within their rightful authority. Their kingdoms are under the lordship of Jesus who has all authority in heaven and on earth. Because of this, to obey them in all lawful commands (that is, where we are not commanded to disobey God and when they operate within the legitimate laws of the land) is to obey King Jesus.

This is not always pleasant. Our government doesn’t reflect the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. We can grow impatient with the way Jesus is ruling us through our government authorities. We want to rebel or run; we want to be revolutionaries or recluses. Yet the Lord Jesus has called us to do neither. He has called us to submit up to the point when they command you to disobey God directly. Then, if need be, you submit to the abuse of power just as our Lord Jesus did. In this you commit yourself into the hands of the one who judges justly, who will hold the authorities to account as well as vindicate you.

While we live within these kingdoms of the earth as citizens of the kingdom of God, we are to pray for all those in authority over us and seek to live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty (1Tim 2.1-3). We are to live and work in this quietness like leaven works through dough. God will honor our steady obedience to him as he continues to do his work in conforming the kingdoms of this earth to the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.