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Sermon - Australia Day - 25th January 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30
Readings: Mark 12:13-17
We know the story of Jesus and paying taxes to Caesar so well, we could almost recite it in our sleep. None of us likes paying taxes yet Jesus encourages us to do it. As we look forward to Australia Day we think again about our citizenship and the blessings of being members of this country. But for some reason, the lectionary reminds us of our duty to pay taxes. Yet behind this well-worn story is radical political theory which was new to the ancient world, and helped form the modern world. It is because of teaching like this from Jesus that led to the idea of the modern state.
In the seventeenth century, John Milton and other puritans rejected the idea of the diving right of Kings. It led to Australian being founded without an established church. It led to puritans in the United States forming a constitution without any reference to God. Their preamble states, “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.” No mention of God anywhere.
Or, for balance, notice how our constitution begins. “Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established…” God does get a mention here.
But notice the similarity of the two documents. The formulation of the Constitution is in response to the will of the people. The will of God is never mentioned. Neither document states or implies that what is being done is in response to the will of God or as an act of obedience to God. Rather, a new authority is invoked, obeyed and followed. That is, the will of the people. Yet this new thinking evolves from Jesus own message and in particular his teaching on paying taxes to Caesar.
But the ancient world thought very differently. Usually the King of a nation was also its religious leader. In some places the King was divine. In recent times the Emperor of Japan was considered divine. So its not surprising that Herod the Great claimed to be the Messiah of Israel. Augustus Caesar was worshipped as divine and he was declared to be a god after his death. Tiberius Caesar took the title of son of god, or son of the god Augustus, and like his adoptive father, he was pontifex maximus, or the high priest of Rome.
The idea was still around in Tudor times when the King ruled by divine sanction. Therefore it was a matter of duty to be obedient to the king which was equal to obeying God. These two ideas were locked together. But Jesus message completely undermines this view of the world.
Jesus was not King yet he claimed to be the Christ, the Messiah. He had no political power, yet like Caesar he claimed to be the Son of God. Any claim to divinity therefore had political consequences. If Jesus is God, then what should one’s attitude be to the government. Usually, they went hand in hand. But here was God without a political power base.
The Pharisees believed that this was Jesus’ great weakness, that Jesus’ teaching had a fundamental inconsistency. Thus they concluded that Jesus had no real authority, because he had no political base. He could be compared to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer spent years in a Nazi jail. He was completely powerless before a murderous regime. Yet the power of his teaching lives on well after the powerful people are dead and forgotten.
So the Pharisees hatched a plan to reveal the weaknesses of Jesus’ teaching and to discredit him before the crowds. The word ‘trap’ carries with it the sense of an intentional plan to destroy Jesus’ credibility. First they began with a set up. The Romans had brought in a Temple tax that was on top of the other general taxes the Jews were charged. It was a very unpopular tax (aren’t they all). There was great division in the community as to whether the tax should be paid. Many Pharisees themselves refused to pay it. Though usually, they kept quiet about their non-compliance. The Romans knew the people hated the tax. They knew there was a high rate of tax avoidance. But for reasons of sheer pragmatism they turned a blind eye to this behaviour in order to keep the peace. However, if anyone openly spoke against the tax they would suffer the consequences. Those were the politics of the tax.
So this was the issue the Pharisees would use to trap Jesus. Notice what they say, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth.” If you are against the tax (as any self-respecting, God-fearing Jew would be) you won’t hesitate to speak out openly against it. But, of course, to speak against the tax would be sedition. It would certainly send him to jail.
Then to turn the screws tighter, they asked, “Is it lawful to pay the tax?” The tax was a denarius, a small amount. But to many Jews the coin itself was offensive. It bore the image of Tiberius. This was contrary to the third commandment “You shall not make a graven image.” But the other side of the coin was worse. It claimed that Tiberius was the son of God. That was blasphemous. Some pious Jews refused even to touch such coins, they were so offended by them. There was no doubt for any Jew, this coin was not lawful. The tax was not lawful. But what did Jesus do? He combined ability with the theatrics of the street debater. He called them at their own game. “Why are you testing me?” he asked. He revealed to all what they were doing.
Then came the theatrics. Its almost as if he was patting his pockets as he says the next few words. He claimed he didn’t possess such a coin – he had to borrow one. It made him look like one of those scrupulous Jews who never touched such a coin. A denarius was worth about 15 cents. It had no great value. Then Jesus out-manoeuvred them again. According to Roman law, because the Emperor’s name appeared on all coinage, it was deemed to be the personal possession of the Emperor. Jesus pointed this out. “Whose head and whose title is this?” “The Emperor,” they said. “Then give to the Emperor things that are the Emperor’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.”
No wonder they were amazed. No one had spoken like this before. Jesus introduced the idea of two masters, the State and God. We are required to serve both. Paul picked up on this idea. He wrote, “Give to everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue, if respect, then respect, if honour, then honour.” However, each person needs to decide for themselves how they will serve God and the State. So Bonhoeffer had to conclude that according to conscience he could not be loyal to the Third Reich, as Milton before him, could not support the Tudor kings.
But we rejoice in this Australia Day that our government does not interfere with our obedience to God. It is not un-Christian to show loyalty to our country as it gives us such wonderful freedoms. This is a freedom worth fighting for. It is no wonder that people of all religions want to come here – not so they can change the government to their religion, but so they can worship in their own way in freedom and openness.
This freedom is one we can enjoy, but it comes with a challenge. It is the challenge to be free to tolerate those who are different from us, to let them be free to be different. That is a freedom worth celebrating. But not in the sense of establishing various ghettos. Israel thinks the path of peace is to build walls between one community and the rest. But as one Palestinian has said, “If you want peace, you don’t build walls, you build bridges.” So on this Australia Day lets celebrate our freedom, but lets also consider building bridges in to the diversity of modern Australia.