“God and Caesar” Mark
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain,
Mike Huckabee—how should a Christian vote?
This passage is one of the most important in the Bible in terms of giving
a framework for thinking about politics rightly.
INTRO: We were sitting at the dinner table a number of years ago
and one of us said: I saw So-and-so today.
And one of our children, won’t tell you which, quite young at the times, said:
“He strikes me as a Democrat.”
For Allison and me was one of those things that your children come out with
that you never forget and can always laugh about.
“He strikes me as a Democrat.”
In Jesus’ day, in
but there were two major parties, very different politically.
The political differences had to do with the relationship
between
Remember that
The big divide was, what should be our stance toward
We all know about the Pharisees. They were a religious group.
But they were also a political party.
They hated the pagan
Roman occupation of
They believed it was immoral and an affront to God himself.
Did not preach out and out rebellion—that was impossible,
But they argued that all true Israelites should resist wherever theycould.
Their hope was for
a new Judas Maccabee who would arise and throw off
Many of the common people embraced their patriotic message.
The Herodians were what the Pharisees would have called scallywags
(if that term had been around then!) They collaborated with the Romans.
Their name came from King Herod, who was a half Jew, made a deal with Romans,
who
allowed him to rule
Herodians argued that
So you can imagine, this party was smaller, but very well-connected.
What’s so amazing about this story is that representatives from both of these parties
who hated each other were united in their hatred of Jesus.
They came together to try to destroy him with this question about taxes.
Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
This was a clever question.
If Jesus had said:
No true Israelite who loves and honors God should willingly pay the tax.
Just look at the Roman coin, Caesar Augustus with all of his titles
claiming to be divine—it’s blasphemous. Don’t even touch that coin.
All of the common people would have said, Yes. What a patriot and godly man.
But Jesus would have been arrested for sedition.
On the other hand, if he had said: Roman occupation is a political reality.
It’s not bad.
Let’s cooperate with the occupation and it will be good for us.
He would have immediately lost all credibility and the crowds listening to him
would have completely evaporated.
But Jesus gave an answer that they did not expect.
In doing so he got out of the dilemma and exposed their blatant hypocrisy.
It was an answer that silenced his enemies and amazed the crowd.
But it was much more than a clever answer.
In just a few words Jesus gave his followers a pattern for how to live a life
of total allegiance to God, while at the same time living politically in the world.
That is very hard to do.
Politics are tricky for Christians.
We tend to go to extremes—either ignoring politics or trusting in them.
But just as Christ has the power to transform our families, our friendships,
and our workplaces, he has the power to transform our politics as well.
Let’s look at this passage under two headings, use Jesus’ words.
1. What it means to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
2. What it means to give to God what is God’s.
Want to give credit where credit is due.
Got a lot of help from seminary friend Charles Garland who preached
an excellent sermon on this passage.
MP#1 Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s
Jesus says that we are to give the state everything that belongs to it..
The issue in his day was taxes. Is it right for believers to give their money
to support a pagan government that is oppressing the people of God?
Jesus answers, yes. Authorities ordained by God. Pay your taxes.
Paul repeats this in Romans 13. Remember, emperor in Paul’s day Nero,
who was an active persecutor of the church.
Taxes are not the issue of the day for Christians in
You may know some people who are tax protesters and try to make a biblical
case for it but they are kooks. I think most Christians understand
that paying taxes something that is clearly required of us by Christ.
But the place where I think there is confusion and disagreement between Christians
is in the area of what we owe to the government politically.
We don’t live under a Roman Emperor—we live in a democracy.
As citizens we can be a part of the political process—
voting, campaigning for candidates and laws,
petitioning officials, even running for office.
What does the Lord require us to give in terms of political involvement to the state?
To answer that I want to give a theological lesson, a history lesson,
and then tie the two together.
First, the theology lesson. This is it, listen carefully:
Jesus’ kingdom is here now, but his kingdom has not yet come.
Throughout the New Testament, you read this, don’t you?
Sometimes it says that Jesus’ kingdom is here now.
“Repent, the
“The
“You are a kingdom of priests.”
But sometimes it says that Jesus’ kingdom is not yet here.
Pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
“Kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and Christ.”
As Christians, we have to believe both. Kingdom is here.
Powerful spiritual forces of forgiveness and regeneration are unleashed.
We live by the Spirit. We follow the law of love. We have eternal life.
But we also believe that Jesus’ kingdom is not yet here.
We still live in a broken world, full of sin and pain and death. Broken people.
We look forward to his coming when he will wipe away every tear, set right.
So we affirm both—and that shapes the way we look at ourselves and at politics.
That’s the theology lesson. Now the history lesson.
50 years ago in
Christians what they thought about politics would have said something like this:
Politics is a secular, worldly enterprise.
What really matters to God is the Gospel.
It’s a waste of time for Christians to pour their energy into politics.
It’s like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic,
because this world is going to ruin, won’t be set right till Jesus comes back.
They focused on the fact that Jesus’ kingdom is not yet here.
This world is going to ruin, let’s focus on saving souls for eternity,
not wasting time on politics for the here and now.
When Jesus returns, he’ll set up his kingdom and make all things right.
And so they disengaged from politics—and that was wrong.
On the other hand, if you had attended a theologically liberal church 50 years ago,
you would have heard a very different message.
They said that the
As citizens of God’s kingdom we are to use politics to set up just social structures.
Jesus came to set the captive free and to feed the poor.
Anywhere Christians see people suffering ignorance or poverty or oppression,
we must get involved politically to bring about changes.
Believed politics could advanced the
One of the valid complaints conservative Christians made 50 years ago was
that the church, especially the mainline denominations had become politicized.
They were spending time and energy supporting political candidates,
making statements about government policy on education or welfare,
and
the
the
As you know, in the past 30 years there has been a huge change.
Conservative Christians said, we have to re-engage.
We have to get back in politics to make a difference and change things.
And so, we have seen the rise of the Christian right, as it’s often called.
But this is what has happened.
Conservative Christians used to say: I don’t want to go to a liberal church,
I’ll just hear a
political speech. Now, in
a political speech in a conservative church as in a liberal church.
The politics are different. But the message is the same.
The message is that
We’re in a battle
for the soul of
in office and get the right laws passed we can bring this nation back to Christ.
That’s not true. Will talk about that more in a minute.
Let me tie the theology lesson and history lesson together to make a point.
If you understand that the
it will set proper boundaries for your political life as a Christian.
You will understand better what you owe Caesar in terms of politics.
The fact that Jesus has come, his kingdom is here now means that politics matter. In fact, every part of life matters. No divide between sacred and secular.
In every part of life we are to be active in pushing
back the effects of the fall through the power of Christ.
So in your families, in your workplace, in your school, in your vocation—
and in your political life should say—how can I work as a citizen in Christ’s
kingdom to push back the effects of the fall? What is the just society God wants?
How can the moral law of God be best applied to government of our country.
But, you do those things knowing that his kingdom has not yet come.
What that means is that political life will always be tainted, always compromised.
There will never be a perfect government until Christ returns.
No political party
can ride in on a white horse and save
Even you threw the bums out and replaced with your hand-picked candidates—
the government would not be different for very long—
because we are sinners, our candidates are sinners, and we live in a fallen world.
So we owe political involvement to Caesar. We have to vote, and teach children.
And be involved as doors open for us to have a role. It’s important. It matters.
But, it won’t bring
in the
Politics can never be the Christian’s hope.
That brings us to the second point:
MP#2 Give to God what is God’s
When it comes to politics and your relationship to the civil government
you owe God your ultimate allegiance.
This coin that Jesus held had the image and inscription of Caesar.
That inscription claimed his absolute authority and divinity.
Jesus denied that when he said: Give to God what is God’s.
The message is that you owe ultimate allegiance is to Christ, his kingdom.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t love your country and be loyal to it
or even die for it if you are called to do so—but your ultimate allegiance
must
not be
Jesus says the same thing about your family.
If you do not hate your mother and father, cannot be my disciple.
Your ultimate allegiance must be to the family of God, not even to your blood.
There have been times in history when this has gotten Christians into trouble.
In the Old Testament we have the example of Daniel, after Persians took over.
Served loyally, but told that loyalty to state meant praying the king alone.
He prayed to God as he always did, thrown into lions den.
In first and second century Rome Christians said: We’re loyal citizens.
We obey the laws, we pay our taxes, we serve in the army.
(Interesting how many Christians were in the Roman army).
But we will not say the pledge of allegiance.
Pledge was: Caesar is Lord.
And they were thrown to the lions for giving ultimate allegiance to Christ.
This has been repeated over and over by Christians in big and small ways.
When I was in
The
He told me strong patriotic pressures to have no more than two children.
And there is some teeth to this.
If have more than two, banned from any government job.
(Which
didn’t concern the
Also, your third child will be kept out of certain colleges and universities.
That does concern them. They love their country.
But they believed that God wanted them to have a third child.
We have many blessed freedoms.
We need to be careful not to equate patriotism with allegiance to Christ.
Yes, we should love our country, yes, we should be patriotic.
But nations rise and fall.
Christ has purchased people for God from every tribe and nation.
As the prophecy declares:
The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ,
and he shall reign forever and ever. That is where our allegiance lies.
Let me go another step and connect this to politics specifically.
Giving to God what is God’s also means that you owe him your
Messianic hope. What I mean is this:
Your hope for
The promises
politicians make to save
I’m going to generalize to make a point.
How do conservatives say they are going to save
If we have good politicians and good laws and good enforcement of laws—
and keep the government off people’s backs,
then we will have good people and a good society.
Religious version goes like this:
If we have honest people in office who believe in God and God’s laws,
then
What would you think if I preached a sermon like that?
If I said: When the church just has good ministers who preach about good
moral living and keeping the rules then we will be good, godly people.
You would say. That’s not the Gospel, that’s legalism.
The law doesn’t make us good—it exposes our sin.
And that is all that the law is capable of doing in a political sense—
exposing and restraining evil.
But it cannot make people or a nation good.
How do liberals say they are going to save
By government policy and education and changing oppressive social structures
we can set people free to pursue the good within them.
But that is also is a promise that goes against the Gospel.
Because our problems are much deeper than our social structures.
We are born morally corrupt—and even with the best environment,
and the best education, we would still be corrupt.
And I’m not saying that all political positions are equally flawed.
There are some political positions that are good and some immoral.
I’m not saying we can’t make political judgments about what
we think would be best for our country. We can. We should.
The law of God protects life and marriage and private property.
It condemns the exploitation of the poor and the alien.
It says that the state is to be a terror to evildoers and a defender of the innocent.
And the Bible says many other things that relate to political life.
You may have strong convictions that one party or politician will be better
at accomplishing these things than others.
But what you cannot do is put your hope in them.
If you do that, you are giving to Caesar what belongs to God.
If you want
Which declares our utter sinfulness,
and God’s amazing grace through Christ,
and the power of the Holy Spirit to make us good.
Our hope for seeing the soul of
is not who is in the White House or in Congress or the Supreme Court—
but who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
What that means practically is that the Gospel is bigger than our political views.
As Christians we should be able to live together in the same church
with political differences. Lord’s Table does not have a political requirements.
And if our hope is truly in Christ, we will never say—
How can he call himself a Christian and vote that way?
We may debate our political differences—
but salvation is through faith in Christ alone, and that is what unites us.