Flippin' a Coin

"The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.  

They sent their disciples to him, 

with the Herodians, saying, 

"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man 

and that you teach the way of God 

in accordance with the truth. 

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion, 

for you do not regard a person's status. 

Tell us, then, what is your opinion: 

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"  

Knowing their malice, 

Jesus said, "Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 

Show me the coin that pays the census tax." 

Then they handed him the Roman coin. 

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" 

They replied, "Caesar's." 

At that he said to them, 

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar 

and to God what belongs to God." 

- St. Matthew 22:15-21

MAKING "CHANGE"

Among the most divisive of issues during election time is the debate over whether Churches and Religious Organizations can freely endorse a political candidate. I have a pretty firm negative opinion on this practice. Not only is it a matter of law with regard to taxable status, but, for Christians, it is a biblical directive!!

During the time of Jesus, the Romans occupied much of the Holy Land. To the Romans, Caesar was not just the emperor - he was considered to be an incarnation of God. To disrespect Caesar was an act of treason and blasphemy according to the prevailing Roman laws. The Pharisees, as one of the prevailing Orthodox Jewish religious groups of the time were forbidden by their own religious law to even carry Roman coins because they all bore the image of Caesar, which to a Pharisee was tantamount to idol worship.

Thus, the encounter between the Pharisees, Herodians, and Jesus recorded in the Gospel according to St. Matthew is extremely profound.

Notice how Jesus asks to see a Roman coin, and they were immediately able to produce one - obviously because they were carrying the forbidden coins themselves!! Jesus exposes the depth of their hypocrisy - not only were they trying to trap Jesus by his answer, but they themselves had already decided the "politically appropriate" answer to their own question.

What Jesus says in response to their questions is masterful in so many ways.

1. It reveals a deep insight into the deceptive heart of mankind - to believe one thing and to say another (remind you of anyone?).
2. It answers the question without taking political sides. Paying taxes was required by the occupying government - yet resented by the constituents. Jesus separates political obedience from religious obedience - man's laws from God's laws. 
3. It teaches that the heart and soul, or eternal nature of mankind belong to God while all else that is temporary belongs to the world.
4. It teaches that righteousness in the eyes of God goes beyond the legal interpretation of the law. Law does not determine righteousness - righteousness is above the law.
5. It teaches that life in the world is a balance between obeying the civil authorities while keeping the heart pure for God.

IN GOD WE TRUST

Elsewhere in the Bible you'll find passages in the letters of St. Paul where he instructs Christians of his day to "obey the civil authorities." Bearing in mind that the civil authorities of his time were at the command of Emperor Nero, one of the most vicious dictators of history, this meant that they suffered tremendous injustices. Other places, St. Paul instucts slaves on how to behave toward their masters and how masters should treat their slaves - demonstrating even in those times when slavery was not only legal but socially acceptable that it was possible, through the practices of Christian love and mutual submission - to make slavery unnecessary.  In Paul's letters there are references made to freed slaves becoming "brothers" to their masters.

Early Christians also rescued unwanted babies from drowning - it was a father's perogative to throw their unwanted children from a bridge. An action that was allowed and generally practiced in Roman society at that time!!

Early Christians changed the laws over time through loving action amongst those who suffered rather than through aggressive action against the perpetrators.

Jesus suffered under the law to convict the law makers of their injustice. He suffered as a captive to free the captors from their own prisons. 

Would Jesus have told us how to vote?

I think he would definitely tell us that it is right to vote. But I believe that he would leave the choice up to us, he always does.