A Caesar Rendering Due
By Al Gray
All Americans
should acquaint themselves with Andrew
Jackson's Farewell Address. The
unabridged version, distributed as a pamphlet, stands as a clear warning and
prophesy. In it “Old Hickory” wrote:
You
will yet find there is a constant effort to induce the General Government to go
beyond the limits of its taxing power and to impose unnecessary burdens upon
the people. Many powerful interests are continually at work to procure heavy
duties on commerce and to swell the revenue beyond the real necessities of the
public service…. They succeeded in obtaining a tariff …. extravagant schemes of internal improvement were got up in various
quarters to squander the money ... But, rely upon it, the
design to collect an extravagant revenue and to burden you with taxes beyond
the economical wants of the Government is not yet abandoned. …efforts
will be made to seduce and mislead the citizens of the several States by
holding out to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived from a
surplus revenue collected by the General Government and annually divided among
the States….Do not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this
subject. ... It is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if persisted in will
inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin.
Don’t these words paint a hauntingly familiar picture in this
election season when we are asked to vote ourselves a new tax for
transportation improvement? There is
nothing new under the sun when it comes to predatory government, is there?
Christians live with a dilemma in evaluating such things, for
in Matthew
22:15-22 we find the duties of paying taxes in the context of perplexing
instructions:
Then the Pharisees went and plotted
together how they might trap Him in what He said. 16 And
they *sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying,
“Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer
to no one; for You are not partial to any. 17 Tell
us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar,
or not?” 18 But Jesus perceived their malice,
and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?19 Show
Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought
Him a denarius. 20 And He *said to them, “Whose
likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They *said to
Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He *said to them, “ Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God
the things that are God’s.” 22 And hearing this,
they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.
What was ‘money’
then and now was whatever was branded as legal
tender granted the privilege of being accepted in payment of the government’s
taxes. The denarius coin was stamped with Caesar’s image, so Jesus
responded simply “Render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar’s (legal tender money); and to God the things that are God’s (ourselves and wealth that
stands beyond legal tender money).
When
government strains the limits of the consent of the governed and the sheer
mathematics of debt, the things it demands as “money” become debased. Indeed,
the fall of Rome came when the denarius became so debased by the government’s
own abuse, that other “things” assumed one of the two essential attributes of
money – that of a Store of Value. When
some other “things” become stores of value - be they gold, silver, produce, grain,
oil, or fertilizer – then they command more and more of the government’s legal
tender required as units of exchange. At
some point the valuables assume both store-of-value and unit-of-exchange
functions because the government’s money has gone worthless. Then governments
get very hostile to the people.
Indeed, at
the time of the Fall of Rome, it was said that the Roman farmers were so
infuriated by the government’s raids of the stored value represented by their granaries,
that they invited and implored that the barbarians’ invade to relieve them of
tyranny from Rome.
We are at
the same point here in our “modernity.” Our money is debased, so government is
increasing its demands upon us – now wanting to tax our previously taxed
savings when we spend them - and will continue to do this until the people rise
up and put a stop to it.
Giving the
government its due has to be limited to what the government needs to serve us,
as Andrew Jackson intoned. As it moves beyond that, it gets into the realm of
what is ours and interferes with our ability to give the Lord that which is his
– support of church, charities, and our fellow men, women and children in need.
Worst of all it grows its demands so as to enslave man and to deny him the time
to devote to the Lord and to others.
Let’s spend
no more time on that conundrum. Men halt the advancement of government power at
some point, if there be patriots still drawing breath (there are). Let us turn
to rendering to God that which is His.
What is His?
We are His
along with everything that we have and are able to store value into. We are
charged to tithe, so as to support the church in its service to the broader
community and that must be a central aspect of Christian life and practice.
Matthew
10, Verse 28 makes it clear for us:
28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill
the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in [a] hell.
Pretty
simple, isn’t it? We should be fearless toward government and fearful of God.
We must love the Lord, not government. Government is just another Pharisee,
trying to trip you up. Be not deceived. Look beyond their power to harm. Look
to heaven. All else is false pretense.
Come thou Fount of Every Blessing and that isn't the latest Caesar or his government.
