Proper 29 Year A
Mary Holmen

Matthew 22:15-22

I get my news from a couple of sources: the Winnipeg Free Press and the CBC via the radio in the morning, the suppertime news on TV, and the news app on my iPad. A few days ago, all of them ran stories about work that is being done to erect a statue of Chief Peguis on the grounds of the Legislative building. There is, at present, no memorial to any Indigenous person at the Legislature. The co-chairs of the committee are Bill Shead, a member of Peguis First Nation, and John Perrin, a member of (I think) the St. Andrew’s Society. The committee is made up of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Manitobans, and they hope the erection of the statue will be a step in the reconciliation process between Indigenous and Settler people.

In the news story, Bill Shead remarked that Chief Peguis’s contribution to building this province is a story that is largely unknown. The truth is that without the generosity of Peguis and his people, the first settlers in the Red River colony would have either starved or frozen to death that first winter, so woefully unprepared were they for the conditions they encountered. Peguis is also known for his diplomacy in bringing four other chiefs together to sign the Selkirk Treaty of 1817, before there was a country called Canada or a province called Manitoba, ceding land along the Red River to the settlers. In a sad development, and in complete violation of this and later treaties, the white population, who had by then become the majority, obtained the St. Peter’s lands at Dynevor in a fraudulent abuse of power, and the band was relocated to what is now Peguis First Nation in the Interlake.

Both Indigenous and Settler people in this land continue to live with the legacy of colonization. For those who are the colonized, life is a series of daily reminders of their subject status and their separation from those who hold power. It’s hard for me, as a non-Indigenous person, to really grasp what that means, what it’s like and how it impacts every aspect of life. That’s why non-Indigenous inhabitants of this land need to really listen to the experience of Indigenous people – to listen for the purpose of understanding. That’s the first step in reconciliation. Newcomers to Canada often come from former colonies in other parts of the globe, and I think they also have much to teach us about living under empire.

The Israel of Jesus’s day was a colony of the Roman empire. Everybody, Jews and Romans alike, lived with the impacts of conquest and colonization. That context is important to keep in mind as we reflect on today’s gospel passage.

Chapters 21-23 of Matthew’s gospel take place in the Temple, and in an atmosphere of increasing conflict. Chapter 21 recounts Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem and his cleansing of the Temple. Everything that follows happens in the last week of Jesus’s life. A series of groups come to Jesus, and they’re all out to entrap him. The chief priests and elders question him about his authority, a passage we read a couple of weeks ago. The lectionary skips the challenge of the Sadducees but carries on to the alliance of the Pharisees and Sadducees which we’ll hear about next week.

Today, here come the Pharisees and the Herodians. It’s a strange alliance. Normally, these two groups would have little to do with each other. The Pharisees emphasized purity and strict observance of the Law. They held themselves apart from their Gentile overlords, while quietly resisting Roman rule. We don’t know as much about the Herodians, since they are mentioned only in the New Testament. But it’s safe to assume from their title that they supported Herod, the puppet king put in place and maintained by the Romans – and a non-Davidic king at that.

The Pharisees and Herodians begin by buttering up Jesus, flattering him – you can almost hear the oil oozing from their lips. “Teacher, we know that you’re sincere.” Ironically, they speak truth. Jesus is indeed sincere. He does teach the way of God in accordance with truth. He shows no partiality to anyone.

Then they spring their trap, or so they think. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” “Aha,” they think, “now we’ve got him.” They think it’s a lose-lose question that offers Jesus no way out. If he answers no, it is not lawful, he is defying the emperor and the Romans will arrest him for spreading sedition. If he answers yes, he will offend all those people who are resisting Rome, including most of his own supporters.

Jesus, of course, is “aware of their malice”. He asks for a coin that is used to pay taxes, and someone produces it. It bears the image of the emperor. The inscription reads “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus”. It is both a claim and propaganda. Tiberius is claiming to be the son of a god – to be divine. The coin is also a reminder of who’s in charge here. Remember, this incident takes place in the Temple. Roman coins were not supposed to be carried within the Temple precincts. Only Temple coinage was allowed. The Roman coin is both a graven image and a confession of faith in another god. It breaks the first two of the ten commandments. The fact that it is produced so quickly is an indicator of how complicit even the Jewish leaders are in the systems of empire. They are, in fact, caught in the trap they thought they were setting for Jesus.

Jesus refuses to accept the either/or situation his challengers are trying to create. Instead, he gives a both/and answer: give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor; give to God what belongs to God (or, in the older words, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s). However, Jesus is no politician sidestepping the question, not giving a direct answer, or answering the question he wishes had been asked instead. In a single sentence, Jesus defines the task of every disciple. He describes the choices that must be made, the discernment that must happen. What does belong to the emperor? What belongs to God? This is the life of all disciples of Jesus in this world. Give to the emperor? Oh, we do. By law, we must give to government at all levels what is due to them. And with our taxes, we ensure health care, education, recreation facilities, infrastructure, and support for those who need it. In some ways, it’s pretty easy to figure out what belongs to the emperor, and much of it is good and does good. But the values of empire infiltrate everything, and we are complicit to one degree or another in perpetuating those values by the choices we make about how we spend Caesar’s coin.

But what are we to give to God? What belongs to God? When I say my daily prayers, one of the options for the statement of faith says some very familiar words: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and the great commandment. The second is like it: love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” We are to give to God what belongs to God – our whole selves in love. “Let the emperor have his tax coin,” says Jesus, “your whole life belongs to God.”

The coinage of empire and the coinage of God are very different, and we must pay them both. The image and message of empire are inscribed on the currency used to pay Caesar. God’s image is imprinted on humankind, created in the image and likeness of God. The divine image is stamped most definitively on Jesus, who, as the writer to the Hebrews says, is “the exact imprint of God’s very being”. In Jesus, we see both God’s own self and what it means to be fully human.

As disciples of Jesus, we live under the rule of empire, and we live in the realm of God. There is an inherent tension between them, and we must navigate our way. The imperial coin is found even in the sacred Temple precinct. However, I don’t think Jesus is saying, well you have your civil life and your religious life and keep them separate. I do think he is saying that the value system of our civil life must be examined and judged, and even transformed by the values of the reign of God, by the values of love made visible in acts of justice and kindness. This is the Christian task in all ages, to be engaged in the realm of empire while resisting its authority, its world view and its values. The Body of Christ is a not a colony of empire, but a participant in the inbreaking of the realm of God.

In the end, even the things of empire come from God and belong to God. Eventually Caesar himself must render to God. It was the emperor’s friends and officers who perceived Jesus as a threat, and the emperor’s court that sentenced him to death for sedition against the empire. But the power of empire was no match for the power of God. The gospel of God’s kingdom continues to critique the kingdoms of this world. Amen.