Jesus, politics and money

“…Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:21)

Matthew 22:1-14 (Year A: Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity 22^nd October 2017)

Typically, passages from the scriptures and, especially the Gospels, that deal with subjects such as poverty, riches, taxes or politics are ‘spiritualised’ or ‘individualised’ by commentators and preachers in such a manner as to avoid political controversy or misunderstanding for a modern audience.

Let me be clear about this: by ‘spiritualising’, I mean taking a raw story (or parable) and turning it into a moral tale rather like a fable with a good moral lesson or ‘so what’ for the young ones hearing it.  By ‘individualising’ I mean hearing the story as an individual and applying it to my life in my immediate inter-personal environment.  According to the latter, we see ourselves as fellow pilgrims working out our own salvation and faith with others but, ultimately, on our own since we are, each of us, answerable for our lives now and at its end on this earth.  

Preachers and ministers are at pains to point out that Jesus did not get involved in ‘politics’ and ‘this-worldly’ affairs and by implication we might emulate this beyond our everyday, familial and job-related circles in which we live and move. And there are two things, it is said, you should never discuss in polite company: religion and politics.

I’m not altogether sure about any of this. Let me explain.

Zealots up to no good

The context of this Sunday’ reading is yet another conversation between Jesus and some disciples of the Pharisees along with the Herodians (the latter were loyalists to Rome and followers of ‘Herod the Great’ and were as zealous about paying taxes as the Jewish ‘Zealots’ party were about not).

The Herodians and Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. The latter group tended to sit on the fence on the question of taxes, but, sided in practical terms with the political authorities as religious authorities tend to do for the sake of peace.  They knew where power lay in that backwater of a province on the Eastern fringes of the great Roman Empire.  They also knew the intense resentment and fierce independence of the people with whom Jesus shared his life. Remember that to be a tax collector at that time in that part of the world was to be a local agent of Rome and someone put on the same level as a prostitute. Those hostile to Jesus – the religious authorities of his time – thought they could use a combination of reverse psychology and clever questioning to catch him out on one or both sides of their specially erected question-fence.

Jesus got the better of them not by taking one side of their malevolent question. Rather, he posed a new question.  ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’, he asked his questioners. He recalibrated the discussion to begin from where we are at. His audience was living under a brutal colonial regime. An uneasy peace prevailed in between violent outbreaks and insurrections (the decisive one following in around 70 A.D.).  Jesus had not come to lead a Jewish revolt against their overlords. Neither, had he come to start a new religion in the sense that what he did and said proclaimed the kingdom of God among the chosen people (the Jews) and beyond to embrace the whole world (including the gentiles). Religion would be recast as a new way to the Father and all had access to this way through Jesus. 

Misrepresentations of Jesus as a political messiah

Jesus and those who came after him were not scholarly commentators. Neither were they preaching a party or ethnic political manifesto.  Claims, in more recent times, that Jesus was a true ‘socialist’ are plain silly. Likewise, attempts to enlist Jesus in a holy war against communism or free masonry under the banner of fascism or colonialism is diabolic. Then again, many have enlisted Jesus in violent purges of heretics from within the Christian fold.

Jesus did not offer a theory or programme of political liberation. However, he did witness to a radically different way of living and behaving – individually and collectively. This was and is revolutionary in the sense that it challenges the premises of everyday business, politics and even – dare we admit it – church life as we frequently encounter it. And we Christians in 21^st century need to be political for reasons that, hopefully, I can elaborate on further, below.

At the centre of this Sunday’s story is the question of taxes.  Taxes, as we know only too well, involve a transfer of money from citizens to political authorities. At the time in which the Gospels were seeded, taxes and tax collectors were not at all popular. Tax collectors were seen as corrupt, unjust and rapacious.

Consider some of the taxes people had to pay in 1^st century Palestine (the source for this is an online Carmelite liturgical site):

Levies on property (tributum soli).
Levies on persons (tributum capitis). (the levy on the workforce is estimated by some scholars to have been approximately  20% of average income – a figure not dissimilar to low-tax countries such as Ireland or the USA, today).
Golden crown for the Emperor
Salt levy for the Emperor
Levy on buying and selling: (to buy a slave incurred a levy of 2%).
Levy on professional practice: (even prostitutes had to pay this)
Levy on the use of public utilities (e.g. public baths in Rome)
Tolls paid on roads and on the movement of merchandise and usually collected by Publicans.
Forced labour: Everyone could be forced to render some service to the State for five years, without remuneration.
Special subsidy for the armed forces: People were obliged to offer hospitality to soldiers.

Does any of the above sound familiar? Change the detail and terminology a little and we find matters have not changed that much in 2,000 years!

And, of course, the religious authorities needed their cut of income for the times that Jesus lived in:

Levy for the Temple and for Cult:
Shekalim: Tithes (for the upkeep of the priests)First fruits of all land products: (for the upkeep of the cult)
Tithes had a particularly troubled existence until comparatively modern times in Irish history (see Cogadh na ndeachúna)

We get the picture!

That is one side of the matter.

The other side is possibly disturbing for us today.  What we say about Jesus and how we live according to his example and teachings has profound implications for our families, our extended families, our communities, our workplaces, our associations, our local politics, our national politics and our global politics. Should there be any doubt about this we ought to check out, again, the number of times the God of the poor and the God of righteousness on the side of the poor and the marginalised breaks into the Hebrew and Christian Testaments. God is not aloof and carefree on His Throne observing from a distance children going hungry, people being killed and his creation plundered by human beings. For reasons no theologian can satisfactorily explain, God is ‘in the thick of it’ wherever human beings suffer, are oppressed or excluded.  He is ‘in the thick of it’ as a powerfully powerless servant leader uniting himself with us in our hour of need and urging us on to be his eyes, his ears and his hands of compassion. I realise that this sort of talk is discomforting to the more classical notions of a God who does not feel, or suffer or get involved in particular ways in this always messy and often crazy world.

But, that, I suggest is God for us.

We live in a world which is propped up on (1) obscene levels of social and economic inequality, (2) disrespect for human life and rights at all stages in the lifecycle, (3) an utterly cavalier attitude to the natural environment as a means for exploitation, and (4) oppressive regimes that centralise market and state power in ways that exclude women, children, older people, particular ethnic groups, precarious workers, migrants, homosexuals and anyone who is a threat to the power structures of oppression.

We cannot turn our back to those who suffer in such a world.  The gospel does not afford us the luxury of ‘working out our salvation’ by distancing ourselves from the plight of others who cry out and who struggle for liberation. Neither does it afford us the luxury of serving God and our brothers without hearing the cry of the earth which is groaning and aching lest we have not heard it recently in the passing of hurricane Ophelia (to be followed by other names in the coming years).

To set people free and the earth too

The truth is that God has come to set his people free and the earth in which his people live.  We don’t have the option of remaining aloof. Yes, we must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s in the sense that the obligations of citizens must not be confused with the call to religious practice and integrity.  But, there are times when we will need to stand up to Caesar even at a high price such as paid by many down the ages. Religion is not to be privitised.

One practical way in which to live up to our call as citizens of the earthly world and, at the same time, as disciples of Jesus Christ is in the very mundane matter of taxation. When was the last time we heard a homily about tax?!  And how often do churches get a name for its teachings on the sixth commandment (concerning adultery and matters generally to do with sexuality and reproduction)?  And, how often do churches raise fundamental questions about tax evasion (that is, the deliberate and illegal non-payment of taxes whether by individuals or corporations)?  How often do we stop to reflect on the link between the taxes we pay and the essential services provided to others including ourselves? Yes, many forms of taxation need to be reformed and made fairer. Yes, many systems of public administration and service delivery need to be reformed and made more efficient (delivering more and better for the same amount of taxes raised). However, we fail in our duty as citizens and as Christians if we practice deceit by not paying lawful taxes. Had none of us ever known cases where someone does work ‘for cash’ to avoid paying Value Added Tax or income tax, as the case may be, because ‘everyone else is doing it’ or ‘who will know’ or ‘it will make no difference’. Let’s be clear, tax defrauding is the same as fare-evasion on public transport is the same as stealing money from someone’s wallet.

Paying tax is a political and moral matter just as is voting or, in the case of those called to do so, to serve in public office or to engage in legitimate, democratic, peaceful and human rights-respecting political activity.

In our times we need to reflect, again, on what it means to be a disciple of the good news. In fact, it is a very political news because it fundamentally challenges the way we do politics as citizens, voters, workers, businesses, families, and communities. It does not mean that we have to adopt a narrow set of policies or see our political vocation as necessarily belonging to some political party or movement. But, it does mean making a stand, speaking up and acting out even when it is inconvenient and possibly dangerous to do so. And that has implications in Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Iraq and everywhere else.