Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this, and whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s” they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.
(Matthew 22:15-21)
Basically, He dodged the question. He almost had to.
The Pharisees, as so many are prone to even today, saw Christ as a political figure, a political problem to be more precise, and so they sought to weaken Him by forcing Him to take sides between the Roman government and its enemies. But Christ’s concerns went far beyond the intrigues of first-century Judea. His concern was for the church, which would be founded under the military dictatorship of Rome but would outlast that empire and live under a wide range of societies and political situations. And Christ knew that, as the Son of God, His words would carry a unique weight. If he gave a definitive answer here it would be the last word on taxes.
Imagine He had said, “No, Caesar is a tyrant and a butcher.” The church would have likely been committed to resistance against all but the most ideal of governments. At worst it would have been a destructive force, at best, distracted from its spiritual mission. If He had said yes, the church would have been weakened whenever it encountered oppression and injustice, an ironic and intolerable position for the adopted children of a just God. So He basically left it to us to figure out what to do when the tax man calls.
Nearly two-thousand years later we American Christians live in relative freedom – we can’t always pray over the loudspeaker at public high-school football games but currently there is no need for catacombs – in a democratic republic among a decadent, confused people. And we still struggle to determine what exactly we owe our particular Caesar.
While Christ’s answer was necessarily vague, He did manage to give us clues about how we are to relate with our government. His answer reminds us of eternal things that the Pharisees had forgotten in their political machinations. First, this is a matter of justice, not simply utility or preference. We have debts to both God and to our government. Second, our debts are proportional to what we have received. Rome minted the coins, maintained order, and regulated trade. God minted mankind, preserved it in the midst of it’s own fallenness, provided us with the means of our redemption. Rome could justifiably claim that its subjects owed it a few coins. We owe God our souls.
This distinction between the temporal and the eternal runs throughout Christian thought and is particularly relevant to the Christian in politics. What happens on Earth, who wins the Presidency in 2008, how long our troops remain in Iraq, what reforms are made to Social Security, these are all important, but they are not eternal. Jesus is Lord no matter who is President. At the same time, we must be ready to change our political alliances and programs in short order. God is eternal, the IRS isn’t. (It only seems that way.) Finally, we must recall that what we do is a supplement to, not a substitute for, the historic mission of Christianity. Individual Christians may be called to political activism, but the church, as a whole, exists to teach the gospel.
All of which combines to make life difficult for the Christian political operative. At the bottom of any society’s struggles lie the sins that only Christ can fully cure. Our tools are laws and regulations and deregulations, courts and lawyers and police, taxing and spending, tanks and diplomats. The Christian in politics is in the awkward position of having to propose temporary solutions to what are often, at bottom, eternal problems. It is good work, something to take pride in if done well. But there are bound to be frustrations.
I intend to have this perspective guide this forum. I tend to lean towards the right (Until recently I was affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, and remain on speaking terms with my old coworkers.) But I will go out of my way to highlight more intelligent items from more liberal Christians (politically speaking) and hope over time to have some liberal thinkers join as regular contributors.
For the Christian, politics is full of pitfalls, false promises, and frustrations. It can also be fascinating, exciting, and a source of great satisfaction. I hope to capture all of that, and invite you to check in regularly.
