Winning and Losing, Part 1

Matthew 22:15-22

There was an evening one December when I sat around a table with the elders of the church I was serving. Somehow, we got talking about the “War on Christmas.” This was back when it was a pretty hot topic. It still comes around every year, but it’s lost a lot of the energy it had back then. The big issue then was whether it was lawful, I guess you could say, to wish people a Merry Christmas. Some of the elders talked about how angry they were when store clerks wished them “Happy Holidays” and what they wanted to hear was “Merry Christmas.” 

One of the elders got very agitated, saying she didn’t care what their beliefs were, what they were celebrating or not celebrating. This is America and in America the majority rules. But, of course, in the matter of religion, that is exactly the opposite of what America stands for. In America, we proudly say, there is religious freedom. And that point of pride, even reverence, is why I felt so disheartened about the attitude this elder expressed.

It was way back in junior high school science when I first learned about using litmus paper to determine the acidity of some substance – a litmus test. But, of course, the idea of a litmus test has come to mean something quite different in the wider culture. The matter of wishing someone a Merry Christmas, for example. For the elders who were distressed about it, this was a litmus test of a person’s virtue. It was also a litmus test of our culture, of whether we as Christians were winning or losing.

A litmus test is what the Pharisees and the Herodians are offering Jesus in this passage. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Yes or no? and they breathlessly wait to see how Jesus will do on this pass/fail test.

Is it lawful? This makes it a black and white issue. It is or it isn’t. 

Is it lawful? The Pharisees, Israel’s teachers, are referring to God’s law when they ask the question. But for the Herodians, who were supportive to the rule of Herod, it was probably the emperor’s law. Two different laws, but no matter. They could put that aside for the sake of one goal: to trap Jesus.

Force him to choose a side. Is it right to pay taxes? Or not? Do we owe something to Caesar, or is God our king? If he says it is unlawful to pay taxes, because paying taxes to the emperor is an offense against the God of Israel, I think we can easily imagine what might have happened next. Roman soldiers would have cause to arrest him. 

And if he says it is lawful and right to pay taxes to Caesar, then what? The people who have followed Jesus, those who yearn to break free from the oppressive rule of the emperor, would be disappointed. In fact, they might be disillusioned enough to break away from him. 

The Pharisees, in league with the Herodians, are hoping to have set up a tidy little win-lose proposition, where Jesus is the sure loser and they are the winners. 

In this political season we are currently in, such win-lose propositions are common. We like to oversimplify issues and force them into black/white, right/wrong categories. Each side creates the terms that will be most favorable to them and critical of the other, and their loud, insistent voices try to drown out any notion that there might be something more complex in between.

And if there is nothing in between the extremities, then there is probably no possibility for conversation. There is no possibility of finding common ground. It’s either ignore the elephant in the room or fight to the death.

Most of us choose to ignore the elephant.

Is there another way? Yes, but you have to reframe the conversation.

I read recently about a debate between two Christian leaders – James Dobson, of Focus on the Family and John Woodbridge, a professor of Church History. They spoke about the language we choose to use and the way we frame the issues of faith. Dobson favored the language of warfare because he believed that it is war. A war between good and evil that is played out between the church and the world. Woodbridge, on the other hand, believed that the language of war actually does violence to the message of Jesus – a message of peace. And that when you use this framework, church against the world, you may be blinded to the places where God is quietly working in the world, in some of the most unlikely places.

Now, you could argue against Woodbridge and say his approach is weak, it is lukewarm and therefore useless to God. That is an argument that Dobson would make, surely. But in this passage, and throughout the gospels, we see Jesus leading us into that space where things are not necessarily black and white, good and bad, but they are more complex. In a war, there are winners and losers, but in Jesus’ approach there is often this “yes, and…”

Yes, pay the taxes you owe to Caesar. And, give God all that belongs to God. Yes, be a good citizen of the empire. And, be a servant in God’s kingdom. 

Rather than lock himself into a framework that feels false, Jesus’s answer reframes the whole matter. It is not an either/or. It is not a yes/no or a win/lose. It is something different.

When Jesus takes the coin and directs their focus to the image engraved on it, he is introducing his listeners to a new way of seeing. The coin bears the image of the emperor, so give him what is his. He sets the tax rates, so let him have it.

But you and I, made in God’s image, we belong body and soul to God. In fact, the world, and everything in it, belongs in its entirety to God.

So how, then, do you sort it all out? How do you divide up the pie? How can you give everything to God when you are beholden to the emperor? 

And what does all this have to do with our lives? our world? our politics and social issues and arguments? 

That is what we spend all our lives working out. 

This is the realm where you may find arguments for being both anti-abortion and pro-choice. Someone may grieve deeply the loss of every potential life but also humbly concede they cannot, from where they stand, judge the difficult and complex circumstances of another person’s life. 

This is the realm where you may find appreciation for each one’s personal freedom and also each one’s responsibility to the common welfare. 

This is the realm that Jesus lived his life to show us. and the only way to move into this realm is to cultivate the practice of seeing outside of your own perspective and trying on some other perspectives. 

And when you do, you see that it’s not all about winning and losing but about everyone being valued and appreciated. It’s not all about being right but about learning more. It’s not all about fearing uncertainty but about knowing that there’s a lot you don’t know and that is normal.

Our Presbyterian motto has always been that we are reformed, and always being reformed because there is always more that we may learn. There is always something about God that remains beyond our reach, something mysterious and awesome. And that we learn best when we seek to learn together.

Let us seek to know our neighbors who have walked their path and come to a different position than we have.

Let us practice compassion toward these neighbors.

Let us walk our paths which God has set us on with faith and humility.