Trinity 20
The Sermon for the 10.00am Eucharist at St Bene’t’s
on 22 October 2023, 20th Sunday after Trinity
The Reverend Dr James Gardom
‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’
It is just possible to read today’s Gospel as a commandment for Christians to pay their taxes. I am, in fact, fairly keen on taxes, and I think we should pay them honestly and cheerfully, but I don’t think that is what was on Jesus’ mind in these tense final days before he is handed over to be crucified. I think it is a story about Power and Worship.
The Roman empire of Jesus day was colossal, hegemonic, extractive and cruel. It is the extractive and corrupting Empire that has made the world we are familiar with in the Gospels, and world of soldiers and beggars, of prostitutes and tax collectors, of desperate widows and corrupt officials, of spies and traitors, of hunger and fear. Worse, The Empire seemed to stand as a contradiction to God’s power and promises, dominating and immiserating Israel. Everywhere, the Empire worked by co-opting local elites, so that their status with Rome became more important to them than their ancient identities, and to keep that status they would control and oppress their own people.
But in Jesus’ time Rome is becoming more than a bitter empire. Power longs to make itself sacred and Rome was sacralising fast. The worship of Rome, the worship of the Emperor was moving from being an option to being a requirement. So, when the Pharisees want to ask Jesus what might literally be a killer question the focus on something which lies closest to the heart of the Empire – money.
The killer question is “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’” Just to make extra sure that this is a killer question, the Pharisees have bought along the Herodians, the people closest to the corrupt regime, colluding with the Romans and their taxes.
Will Jesus choose Rome or God. If he chooses Rome, not God, then he is complicit in the occupation, the humiliation, the marginalisation, the hunger. If he chooses God, not Rome, then he is just another leader of a revolt, and doomed to failure like Bar-Abbas, like the revolt in AD70, like the catastrophe under Bar-Kochba in AD 140. So Jesus asks to see the coin in which the tribute is paid.
The Tiberian denarius, traditionally known as the tribute penny, has an image on the one side of the Emperor Tiberius, proclaiming him as the son of the God/Emperor Augustus. On the other side is the cruel and pitiless Livia, Augustus’ wife, shown as the divine embodiment of Peace, Pax. In itself, the coin represents an invitation to worship the power of the Empire, the Emperor, and the Emperor’s immediate predecessors. It is not an object that a devout Jew could handle with pleasure, and it is notable that the Pharisees, for all their emphasis on purity, have no difficulty in tracking one down.
With his response, Jesus response turns a question about money, taxes and politics into a question about worship. His response works by turning the question into one not about of Taxes, but of Image (Ikon). Jesus is coming to Jerusalem. He is calling for the renewal and reform of the worship of God, so that God’s people will worship truly. In doing so he is presenting the authorities there, including the Pharisees and the Herodians with a choice. Will they worship God, or will they handle this uncomfortable challenge by handing Jesus over to the Roman authorities to be killed.
The coin bears the Image, the eikon of Tiberius, who is not a God. It can be handed to Tiberius. By contrast, made in the image of God, and is the image of God. Will he be handed over to the Romans. It turns out that the Jewish authorities have acquiesced and colluded with the Empire in matters far worse than the collection of taxes. They have handed people, and God’s People over to Rome, and they are beginning to be drawn into the worship of Roman Power. Soon, the Pharisees and the Herodians will hand Jesus over to the Roman Authorities, and they will stir up the people to shout “We have no King but Caesar”.
Jesus reverses a deadly trick question, and turns it into a fundamental one for the Pharisees and Herodians – Who are you, and what do you really worship?
The smug and slippery questioners of Jesus in this story are about to be faced with a fundamental choice about what they will render to Caesar and what they will render to God, and they will be judged by their choice.The Pharisees and the Herodians lived in difficult times and faced difficult choices. In the end, for the sake of safety, they abandoned what, in principle, was most precious to them.
We also live in difficult times and face difficult choices – I am no judge, but I do not see them getting any easier soon.Already we find in this country and across the world that Leaders are coming forward with their version of the question the Pharisees asked Jesus. How much are you willing to pay, and which of your principles are you willing to sacrifice, if we offer to keep you safe? The most important principle that we are being asked to give up is the principle of eikon, the principle that all human beings are made in the image of God, and are equal in God’s love and care.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other animals, and those more equal animals are predominantly the Western and the wealthy. We are not yet being asked, in this country, to worship the powers that keep us safe, although I am genuinely troubled by the proliferation of beautifully hung union flags in Government press conferences. It will be hard to keep our footing in face of the waves of anger and fear that threaten to overwhelm us, and that have to some extent been created so that they will overwhelm us.
If we are to be any good to the world, and if we are retain our Christian identity, our sanity, we must resist with all our strength, and with the strength of this community, the twin temptations, to downgrade the humanity of others made in the image of God, and to worship power when it offers to keep us safe.
Who are we, and what do we really worship?
‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’