Questions are asked of us every day whether we are aware of it or not. When we go to a store, we are asked if we want paper or plastic, if this will be on our credit card or if we are paying in cash. In conversations people often ask us if we are following the news or if we have seen a television program. And if we have, there is the question of what we think. That always makes for good ways to get to know people in the context of conversation.
We ask questions of other people as well. The question arises of when we ask a question of other people, what is our intent? To judge them or to understand where they are coming from? Are we eager to put them in a boxes as conservative or liberal, as educated or uneducated, etc? Or are we really wanting to find a level of understanding of what another person is saying?
Or it can even be more simple questions that can cause division. I live in a dormitory with 18 other people where I share a kitchen and a television room with them. Last year one of the things that people had passionate stances on was whether to watch Greys Anatomy or The Office on Thursday evenings. While it sounds silly to me now, this was a huge issue that divided our small dormitory community as we had only one television room. We did eventually find another place to watch televison that we switched between every other week.
Or the question can be posed as to how often we get defensive when we sense a level of malice behind a question. Sensing that the intent is judgement or putting us into some kind of definable box we give it is easy to become defensive in what our responses may be. Who do you support, John McCain or Barack Obama? I know that my natural response is to be able to want to explain why I support the candidate that I do when I am asked in the realm of conversation about politics. In controversial issues, I know that I can identify as having strong opinions sometimes and I become aware that I fall into thinking that I need to defend my perspective no matter what the cost is. While this not always a bad thing, becoming so aware of my own opinion that I am not able to listen to another perspective contributes to a sense of division from people can sometimes lead to a sense of self righteousness over my opinions. Suddenly I may not be able to hear what another person has to say.
Jesus is aware that there can be a sense of malice and judgement behind questions in this text. Jesus is posed with the controversial question of if it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. In the context of his time, to approve of the taxation would have been offensive to Jewish nationalists; to disapprove would have been treasonous. Jesus could have taken a strong stance at this point in time to align himself with a political position.
If Jesus answers yes, the disciples of the Pharisees and the crowds who perceive Jesus as a prophet will reject him for not teaching the way of God. If Jesus is bold and rank in his speech and says that Jews have no obligation under Jewish law to pay taxes to Caeser than the political supporters of Herad will denounce him to governmental authorities.
Jesus sensed the malice behind the question. So he boldy states: give to the emporer the things that are the emporer’s. Give to God the things that are Gods. Jesus is not defensive about his stance, like my dormmates and I were about Grey’s Anatomy and the Office. I know that I can be tempted to defensive be in discussing politics. Rather Jesus calmly makes a statement that is controversial to everyone. He does not make people choose between loyalty to God or loyalty to the emperor. This is challenging to the way people tended to think in this culture about taxes. Because suddenly, it is not a matter of either you are aligned with Jewish law or governmental law. He makes everybody think and challenges everybody. Whose head is on the denari? Who gives us life???
So, what can we learn from Jesus’s actions today?
Jesus did not take any kind of revenge and he did not get defensive. This story is a story that eventually leads up to his crucifixion on the cross. He did not bite the bait that the Pharisees gave him. Rather, he affirms the current tax law AND endorses his own agenda: which is pointing to God.
This was challenging to the either/or way of thinking that the Pharisees seemed to have. They went away amazed because they probably found themselves challenged. Not only did Jesus not take the bait that they were trying to give him to place him under arrest, they were now posed with a difficult question themselves. What belongs to God???
The Pharisees probably left asking this question of themselves when the Bible says that they were amazed.
In this particular Bible story, I really see how it would be easy to focus on Jesus’ words on thinking about what belongs to God. In fact, I think that the Pharisees were amazed paritially because of the way Jesus framed his words in a way that would have been challenging to them, especially as they were considered to be among the people who were official representatives of Judiasm in their day. They were concerned with what they considered the way of God to be, even if they did see Jesus as a threat to their own way of doing things. Jesus gave them a serious question to consider, are you giving to God the things that are God’s?
They gave Jesus a trick question hoping that it could help them set Jesus up. But Jesus did not take the bait and managed to affirm that it is important to consider God in our actions. We can learn from what Jesus has to say in this situation, yet we can also learn how Jesus handled this situation as well. Instead of giving an immediate reaction, he asked question of why they were asking this of him? Why are you putting me to the test? I think that we can learn from this in our day to day lives on many levels. In my dorm situation that I told you about in the Greys Anatomy and the Office dilemma, asking people why they brought up the topic could have been useful before the conflict ensued. It does get more tricky with more controversial topics, like the upcoming election, however I could take a lesson in stepping back and asking why it was brought up before making a statement that could stop the conversation.
What baffles me is that Jesus made a statement statement that challenged everyone’s way of thinking about the taxes instead of retaliating. I like the way Max Lucado reflects on this particular story, “Did you see what Jesus did not do? He did not retaliate. He did not bite back. He did not say “I’ll get you!! He left the judging to God. He did not take on the task of seeking revenge. He demanded no apology. If ever a person deserved a shot at revenge, Jesus did. But he didn’t take it. Instead he died for them.” My own thought is that Jesus embodies nonviolent living in this story in not fighting back, but asking challenging questions. How often do we really do this in our own lives?
Jesus gives us a good example on how to behave in our interactions with other people. He asserted his stance to give to God’s the things that are God’s but not in a way that threatened the law of taxation but rather upheld it. Think of the last time that you had some kind of conflict with someone. Did you uphold the other person’s perspective or were you more concerned with your own perspective? Were your words guided by fear or anger or were they guided by love and understanding? Now, how do you think that Jesus would have responded?
I doubt that any of us lived the same way Jesus lived in being able to be this calm However that does not mean that we shouldn’t strive to live up to Jesus’s example.
When we treat others with the same kind of grace that Jesus did treated people, we are living out the gospel in our actions to the world. People will get a glimmer of what the grace of God looks like here on earth.
But let’s face it: Jesus was divine and human. We are only human. We will use fighting words, we will fall into the traps of questions that set us up. This is a part of our sinful nature. Yet just because we are sinners does not mean that we shouldn’t strive to live the same way Jesus did. Because we can provide good news to the world by dealing with conflict in a loving way that can make the gospel come to life to the rest of the world.
The good news for us when we fall short of Jesus’s examples for our lives is that God forgives us. God is always generous and forgiving. We may take the bait of sin that is lying out there in the world for us, but God does not fight back but takes the firm stance of forgiveness of our sins. The thing that we may need to be wary of is that God will probably ask challenging questions of us as well, just as Jesus posed questions back to the Pharisees. We may need to come prepared.
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