“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
That climax to our Gospel reading gives us more than enough to wonder about.
Recall the context. We’re in the middle of an extended confrontation in the temple between Jesus and various groups of religious leaders after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and provocative actions in the temple. Matthew tells us that here the Pharisees are seeking to entrap Jesus, so Jesus responds with what is also a booby trap.
Hearing Jesus’ response the booby (the fool) thinks: “Ah, some things are the emperor’s, other things are God’s; simple!” And in so thinking the booby shows that he (she) has learned nothing in the temple. Recall the opening of Psalm 24: “The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, / the world, and those who live in it.” Everything is the Lord’s.
So how can there be things that are the emperor’s? Only on loan, by the Lord’s provisional delegation. Unsurprisingly, the book in Scripture that explores this most succinctly is Daniel, the book built around the experiences of Jewish exiles in the Babylonian and Persian Empires. Early in the book, when Daniel needs the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he prays “Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” (2:20-21). Later, when Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance has gotten the Lord’s attention, the Lord warns Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, and Daniel, after interpreting the dream, adds this: “atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged” (4:27). The Lord is evenhanded: the absence of righteousness and mercy led to Jerusalem’s exile; only righteousness and mercy will allow Nebuchadnezzar to avoid disaster.
We may find this all profoundly unsettling, preferring that the divine mandate be limited to winners of clean elections. The Lord is less scrupulous, but holds all those in power to the same high standard. Psalm 82 (BCP 705-706) is perhaps clearest on this point:
1 God takes his stand in the council of heaven; *
he gives judgment in the midst of the gods:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly, *
and show favor to the wicked?
3 Save the weak and the orphan; *
defend the humble and needy;
4 Rescue the weak and the poor; *
deliver them from the power of the wicked.
5 They do not know, neither do they understand;
they go about in darkness; *
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 Now I say to you, ‘You are gods, *
and all of you children of the Most High;
7 Nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, *
and fall like any prince.’”
8 Arise, O God, and rule the earth, *
for you shall take all nations for your own.
The Lord is under no illusions that the situation is stable, and so teaches us (Jews and Christians) to pray “Thy kingdom come.” That’s the short form of v.8!
Now, if the Lord has set up Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord’s people should do whatever Nebuchadnezzar says? Well, not in the book of Daniel. Daniel and his companions are part of the Babylonian and Persian civil service, but also prepared to give a firm “No” when royalty encroaches on God’s prerogatives. So we have the stories of the fiery furnace and that den of lions. Peter and John’s answer to the religious authorities early in the Book of Acts shows them to be competent readers of Daniel: “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge” (Act 4:19).
Now, a necessary sidebar. We should probably not expect God’s people to agree on where to draw the necessary lines. Two examples. Both Ezra and Nehemiah are charged with bringing a valuable shipment from the Persian capital to Jerusalem through bandit-infested territory. Nehemiah travels with army officers and cavalry (2:9). Ezra declines this protection: “since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him” (Ezra 8:22). Daniel and his companions judge that the royal rations of food and wine would defile, and so request vegetables and water (Dan 1:8, 12). Esther, whose intercession with the king saved the Jews from genocide, apparently shared no such scruples.
In any case, while that “No” is always on the table, the testimony of the Book of Daniel (and we might recall also Joseph in Egypt and Nehemiah in the Persian bureaucracy) is that short of this “No” God’s people can work with Nebuchadnezzar. How extensively is primarily up to Nebuchadnezzar. So roughly the first half of Daniel gives us best-case scenarios, and the second half, worst case scenarios. And the New Testament likewise gives us the full range, from Paul’s “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval” (Rom 13:3) to John’s “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names” (Rev 13:1). They’re talking about the same Empire.
In short, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” is like a koan in the Eastern wisdom traditions, a paradoxical statement to provoke insight. Everything is God’s. The emperor has some things by provisional delegation, and is accountable. God’s people are to respect that delegation, but to react when it overreaches. Always we pray “Thy kingdom come.” Always, hopefully, we remember Jesus’ “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” (Mt 6:33), giving to the emperor insofar as that giving can be an expression of striving for God’s kingdom.
