Yesterday, during our discussion group, we studied the Matthew text where the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to trick Jesus by asking whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, a loaded question in a time of hated Roman occupation. Jesus, as was his wont, replied with a question. “Whose image is on the coin they carried?” to which they replied Caesars, with Jesus answering “Give unto Caesars what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
At first glance Jesus’ answer to give what is Caesars and to God what is God’s seems simple as they used a special temple coinage in the temple when buying animals for sacrifice, thus the money changers table. But given the complexities of Jewish law, a straightforward answer was really far more complicated. Besides they lived in an occupied country where the Romans had the last say in almost everything they did. This passage is one which has plagued the historic peace churches and others for generations.
How do we decide what is Caesar’s and what is God’s? Can we separate them, and if so, how? There were several years when my husband and I subtracted a percentage of our taxes that went to the military and sent a letter to the IRS saying we supported the good the government does but did not want any of our money to go to the immense American killing machine. After a few years the IRS simply took the money owed them from our bank account. As a result, we shrugged, paid the piper, but upped our charitable giving over the 10 percent tithe that many churches use as guideline and allowed our giving to spill out beyond donations to the church.
But the issue is a serious one for any of us who call ourselves Christians or believers in other loving understandings of God. How can we separate what is Caesar’s from what is God’s in our capitalistic society where everything is oriented around wealth and power? I don’t have an answer, much as I wish I did. To say everything is God’s is both true and simplistic. I look at Roman Catholic orders where nuns and monks take vows of poverty, but while that may work for individuals, most of those orders and the larger church have amassed vast amounts of wealth. It seems we cannot escape the question about where we put our emphasis in this world.
I have been watching a documentary series on Netflix, “The Ancient Apocalypse” which has really captured my attention. It seems that human civilizations have risen and fallen numerous times throughout history, and most of the then known civilizations and population, many very advanced, were all wiped out by fires and floods at the end of the last Ice Age. It makes me think of the collision course humanity is on in regards to global warming when predictions of horrendous fires and floods which we are already experiencing lie in our near future with the melting of the glaciers and ice caps that are rising sea levels and causing ever more destructive fires to rage year after year.
So is the question one of what one gives to Caesar and what one gives to God even relevant in our times, or should we adopt the Epicurean philosophy of living and loving today for tomorrow we die? Yet, when one studies the Epicurean philosophers, theirs was not really one of eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, but one of loving this life and living it well as death is our inevitable end. Which then raises the question of what does it mean to love this life? Does it then mean that we seek to accumulate vast resources of wealth and power which we can’t take with us when we die, or does it mean becoming comfortable with enough to meet our needs and perhaps a few luxuries thrown in for good measure, sharing our largess with those who have less, and drinking in the beauty of our natural world, thus living each day gratefully as if it were our last?