A while back I was doing a re-read of the Christian bible. I didn’t quite make it through all the prophets there near the end of the Old Testament, but I got through the vast majority of the Old Testament.
Recently I started up the re-read again, this time with the New Testament. Some of you may be wondering why I am re-reading the bible when I am not a Christian, I do not believe a living man/God walked the Levant 2000 years ago healing the sick and performing exorcisms.
I am a writer and as a writer I am terminally curious about people and you can’t study people without also looking closely at their religions. Christianity has had a tremendous impact on Western culture and so a study of it, even a cursory one is helpful in understand western culture, where it came from and where it is going.
I’ve read Matthew and I am currently working my way through the gospel of Mark. Twice now I have come across an interesting bit that is pertinent to the debates currently raging in America.
The priests, trying to trip up the new upstart Jesus, ambush him with difficult questions and one of those questions is ‘Is it a sin to pay taxes?’
Now they are not talking about the tithes you owe the church, but rather the taxes imposed up on Israel by the Roman Empire that had occupied them. Remember this is pagan Rome, idolaters who worshiped a whole range of gods an godlings, even proclaiming their emperor Caesar a living god. Did Jesus advocate rebellion by way of not paying Rome it’s tax, or did Jesus consul to bend knee to the idols and other gods by way of paying the tax?
Of course Jesus is smarter than his questioners, presenting them with a roman coin and pointing out that it is Caesar’s image on the coin and that they should render onto Caesar what is his and onto God what is his, deftly side-stepping their trap.
Clearly taxes paid to Rome, to pagan, to a man who claimed godhood was not a sin. Each person is responsible to God for their own sins, and the concerns of earthly government is not a Christian one.
Naturally when I read this I though about the current debate and accusations that our government is trampling the rights and religion of Christians by forcing them to pay for things they do not want to pay for, birth-control and the like. They claim that they should have a religious exception to such ground payments, but to me this looks no different than paying tribute and tax to Caesar. If Christ tells people to pay taxes to pagan emperors, how can the ACA be such a deep transgression?
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Deep thought! Thanks for cotibnruting.
You are right. The flip side, as well, is “render unto God that which is God’s”. The coin in Caesar’s because it is made in the image of Caesar. Biblical teaching is that mankind is made in the image of God. Therefore, Jesus is saying “Let the Romans have their money. Give yourself to God.”
PS – I think there is a second point regarding the “render unto Caesar” comment – aside from the brilliant argument: this is one of the first indicators that Christ is not going to be what the Jews expected. While they expected a Messiah and believed there would be one, Christ was not a warrior, sent by God to throw off the yoke of the oppressor. Instead, he was a philosophical leader. This is significant (or it should be) in how Christians practice their faith.
You are SO good!! (You’re right, too.) I am sharing your status and I hope lots of my friends read it.
Want to learn and interesting tidbit about medieval Christianity? Many great “Christian” leaders WERE NOT CHRISTIAN WHILE THEY WERE LEADERS!!! Notably, Charlemagne, converted to Christianity on his deathbed even though he urged/encouraged/forced many of his vassels to convert. Why, do you ask? Well, it’s simple. There was a thought that many of the qualities necessary to being a good leader/king were incompatible with living a Christian life. These leaders got around this by not converting until they were sure they weren’t going to be leaders for long.
Looking at people trying to do both, I think those guys were on to something.