Hard Questions, Simple Answers

Well election day is finally over, you may or may not have liked the outcome of the presidential or legislature elections and you may or may not have liked the outcome of the constitutional amendments, but I think this is a good time for us to reflect on our obligations as citizens…and specifically as Christian citizens even after the voting is over. You may be celebrating that the voters got it right, or you may be unhappy and wondering why you live in a country that has gotten it so wrong.

In the reading from Matthew 22, we get a view of the political world of Jesus’ time. The Pharisees and Herodians have joined forces. Some historians characterize these two groups as political parties - the Pharisees were Jewish leaders who felt homage paid to the Roman king was an infringement on the homage due to God, while the Herodians were the party of King Herod of Galilee who owed his allegiance to the Romans.

You can imagine these two groups had opposite views on many issues of the day. However, though these two groups usually had conflicting views, in regard to Jesus and His teachings, they seem to have found common ground in the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

So, the two groups have gotten together, joined by their common goal of discrediting Jesus. This confrontation takes place in the last few weeks before Jesus is captured and crucified, but after Jesus has gone on the offensive- Jesus has been criticizing the church leaders- they have been the “bad guys” in the parables he has been sharing with the people for quite some time by the time of this story.

The Pharisees and Herodians together, were looking for a way to end Jesus’ criticism of them, and they lit upon the controversial Imperial tax as the answer to their worries. It is not hard to imagine the Jewish leaders meeting, debating, arguing, until they finally were able to come up with the perfect question- the question that- no matter how Jesus answers- will get him in serious trouble- the hardest question they could come up with. “Is it right to pay the Imperial Tax to Caesar?”

Now the Jews paid other taxes to Caesar - an income tax and a ground tax, or tax on their crops and products. The Imperial Tax is a “per head” tax for every man, woman, and child over the age of 14 and it was a controversial tax.

If Jesus said the Jews should pay taxes, the Jews would feel he was supporting Roman rule and he would be discredited in the eyes of his own people, if he said the Jews should not pay taxes, he could be reported as undermining Roman rule and he would immediately be arrested.

I’m sure that all those gathered were eager to hear the answer- each hoping that Jesus would answer in a way that supported their own views, while the leaders who posed the question were eager to see Jesus fail- to seriously upset one group or the other.

That kind of reminds me of the political debates what about you? We watched the debates, hoping our candidate would make a good showing- espouse the ideas we espouse and show their opponents to be wrong, or at least ineffective ...

We know the candidates spent hours and hours in debate prep, planning possible responses, planning how aggressive they should be, identifying their favorite key phrases. I can imagine the Jewish Leaders in the back rooms, doing their debate prep- searching and searching for the question that would cause Jesus to stumble. And here they are, they think they’ve done it- they have the highlight of the debate- should we pay taxes to Caesar?

But, once again the Jewish leaders were foiled- instead of falling into their trap, Jesus says- You hypocrites! Why do you try to trap me? Then, without any back-room debate prep, he gives a simple answer, Jesus ends the debate… Jesus says: “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs what belongs to God. “ A simple answer to what should have been an impossible question.

And isn’t that how it goes? Think of the hardest question you can ask God. Your biggest quandry, your impossible situations, your greatest worry, and think about how God might answer. For all those things we think are impossible questions, God has an answer.

In the old testament reading, Moses was fed up- Moses thought he was in an impossible situation, and he was ready to blame God for this situation. Moses had lead the people from Egypt, they’d survived many ordeals, fear, hunger, rebellion and just before this scripture reading, we know that while Moses was on the mountain conferring with God, the people were down in the valley building a golden calf, trying to replace God with an idol that they could control, and Moses had just about had it.