Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Psalm 96:1-9 Isaiah 45:1-7 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Matthew 22:15-22
I have been a keen collector of coins for many years. I specialise in English coins my ambition being to obtain one coin from every monarch who has sat on the English throne, or otherwise, from Henry III in 1216 AD. I have nearly done it with just a couple of gaps. Looking further afield I have quite a collection of Roman coins spanning some 400 years of Roman Emperors. One coin especially is a Tiberius tribute penny dating from 14 – 37AD. This is the coinage that Jesus and his disciples would have been familiar with.
The gospel reading for today takes us into the world of taxation. Whoever we are we are all subject to one form of taxation or another. We either pay tax directly to the exchequer or treasury through income tax, or indirectly through things that we purchase with VAT.
Going back to the day of the tribute penny, or denarius. A coin in common circulation depicting various emperor’s heads it was this coin that Jesus was being questioned about. The situation in Palestine was not simple for it was an occupied country, occupied by the Romans. Several taxes had to be paid. One was a Tax that had to be paid to the Romans otherwise they would get a little bit cross, but no-one wanted to pay that tax. To not pay it would lead to arrest. You may resent paying taxes, but it had to be paid. Not much different from today one could say. But there was a religious reason for not wanting to pay. To the Jew God was the only king. To pay any taxes to an earthly king was to validate his authority and thereby insult God. Jesus was caught in a cleft stick. Whatever answer he gave he faced the possibility of laying himself wide open to further trouble.
Back to the tribute penny or denarius. It had the head of the ruling emperor stamped on it and this was a mark of ownership. So, as Jesus said, give back to Caeser, who owned the coin, what belongs to him. Jesus, in his wisdom, laid down his teaching, a teaching which never goes out of date.
We all have a double citizenship. Some people even have more. Most of us have a citizenship of the country in which we live. As part of that citizenship, we embrace the laws of that land, we contribute to the public services, we share in the welfare state, we form part of the infrastructure. As a citizen we have a debt of obligation. We need to be responsible else we fail in our Christian duty.
However, the Christian is a citizen of heaven. We have responsibilities and duties which we direct to God. That which is given to us by God we return to him. When we are convinced that something must be done because it is God’s will it must be done. Conversely, if we are convinced that something is against the will of God then we should take no part in it.
The problem really lies where the two boundaries meet and Jesus does not give us any guidance here. Where the two duties lie side by side we need to recognise. Jesus does not rise up and give a pronouncement as to which way we should turn. He leaves that for our own conscience to test. But Jesus does give us some assistance.
Give to Ceaser what belongs to Ceaser and give to God what belongs to God. That way we can be both a good citizen of our country and also at the same time a good citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Carrying out our duty we will not fail either to God nor to our fellow humans.
Collect for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit's gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.