Give God Your Allegiance (Even When You Pay Your Taxes)
Luke 20:19-26
Main Point of the Sermon: Give God your allegiance, even when you pay your taxes.
Introduction
Maybe you remember getting your first paycheck when you realized that 30% or so was taken out in taxes? You probably weren’t saying, “Man, I’m so happy to be contributing to my government!”
I’ve been through a couple tax seasons that I got caught off guard with large tax bills. It was tempting to try to get by without paying, and shamefully, I admit there were times when I wasn’t totally above board with my taxes. But as I came to surrender my life and allegiance to Jesus more and more I realized that becoming a citizen of heaven should never diminish my ability to be a good citizen on earth. Just the opposite. I learned that it is not just my worship on Sunday or the bigger issues of morality that mattered to God. He cares about smaller details like my taxes and how I respond to the government I live under, even one’s I disagreed with, even unjust ones. You don’t have to look very long in the news to find that to be the case everywhere you look, including the Russia/Ukraine situation.
I’m thankful for this text. There’s some practical wisdom for us in it.
1) The Scripture is going to challenge us on where our true allegiance lies. 2) It’s going to show us that sometimes loyalty to God actually demands loyalty to human governments.
Context: But before we get into our passage, I want to remind you of the context. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and while many were eagerly receiving him as king, the Spiritual Leaders rejected him and actually tried to trap him in his words so they could condemn him to death.
So in response to them we heard Jesus’s parable last week directed at the religious leaders. In it, he showed that these religious leaders were the culmination of generations of leaders who abused and killed the prophets whom God had so generously sent to them. So, the kingdom would be taken from them.
One of the striking points Ross made from that parable is that having allegiance to anything over and above God is not neutral ground, but actually opposition to God. Though these religious leaders appeared very religious and God-focused, their own position of power and their ideas of what Israel and God’s kingdom should look like had their ultimate allegiance.
Ironically, these leaders with fallen allegiances are going to challenge Jesus’s allegiances in their next attempt to catch him in his words.
So let’s look at verse 19 as we get into our text.
Spies
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
If they could have, they would have taken him out right then, but they couldn’t because they feared the people who held Jesus in such high regard. So what was their next plan? Verse 20
20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor [that is, Pontius Pilate].
They sent spies to try to catch him. When I read this I get an icky feeling in my stomach. They are so full of murderous hatred towards Jesus they send spies who can trap Jesus.
Friends, sin makes us do slimy things. Sin will lead us to deceitful and manipulative behavior. When we oppose God by making allegiances with our sin or our agenda, we will find ourselves looking more and more like the deceptive serpent Satan than like the image bearers of God we were made to be.
Let’s see what the spies say. Verse 21.
21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.
They first try to appeal to Jesus’s ego, they try to butter him up, something that typically has great persuasive power to humans. They insincerely praise him for not being moved by culture or people’s opinions, but for teaching truly and rightly the way of God. But then comes the million dollar question:
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
Taxes to Caesar?
What about this question is a set up? It may seem like a simple question that we can all relate to, “does God require us to pay taxes or not?” But it’s so much more than that. This loaded question was meant to challenge Jesus’s allegiances and hopefully expose something that could get him killed. The question behind this question is “Are you allegiant to Yahweh and his everlasting kingdom or to Caesar and his Roman Empire?”
Either answer would have put Jesus in a predicament.
If Jesus says, “Yes, it is lawful,” then they have grounds for questioning his allegiance to Yahweh and his lordship. Some Jews believed that paying any tax to a pagan ruler contradicted God’s lordship over his people (ESV Study Bible, 1869). So he would lose favor in the eyes of those burdened by the taxes and perhaps be seen as no better than the tax collectors, worthy of death in the eyes of the Jews.
If Jesus says, “No, the Roman Empire is subservient to God alone,” he could be guilty of insurrection, of being a revolutionary who was leading the people to revolt against the empire.
Either answer has the potential to get Jesus killed. So what does Jesus do? Look at verse 23.
23 But he perceived their craftiness… A similar word was used of the serpent in Genesis 3:1. They are acting like God’s chief enemy, the serpent, showing their true opposition to God. Jesus recognized their serpent-like deceitfulness.
and [He] said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?”
The denarius was a Roman coin worth a day’s wages, used throughout the empire. One side of the coin was the profile of Tiberius Caesar, with the Latin inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” around the perimeter. On the other side was a picture of the Roman goddess of peace, Pax, with the Latin inscription “High Priest.” (ESV Study Bible, 1869).
When they presented a coin to him, Jesus asked them, who is stamped on it? “Caesar”, they said. Verse 25:
[Jesus] said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Verse 26 shows the spies' response. 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.
They were speechless. They had nothing on Jesus’s answer. In his wisdom, Jesus diverts their attempt to trap him in his words.
He doesn’t choose one or the other, but shows that we can be faithful to God’s Law as the first priority while also paying taxes. Let’s dive deeper.
1) Jesus doesn’t delve into discussion on whether Roman rule was just or unjust. Rather, he appeals to the reality that the image on the coin shows who rules over that current social order and thus to whom taxes are due. Simply put, Caesar rules over the current social order. So give him what is due.
2) On the other hand, there is a superseding principle in Jesus’s second statement, “Give to God what is God’s.” You may give taxes to an earthly ruler, but there is a kingdom and a God that transcends every kingdom and ruler on earth, who demands far more than taxes. He demands our very lives.
3) Jesus’s answer doesn’t allow us to reduce God’s kingdom to something that can be compared to another human kingdom. Jesus says in John 18:36, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
Obedience to the Roman (or American) government, therefore, does not ultimately determine who your allegiance goes to. The bigger question is, do you give yourself to God? Does he have your allegiance? Do you surrender your entire self, every nook and cranny of your life, to God?
Who Has Your Allegiance?
Last week, we saw that the spiritual leaders' challenge of Jesus’s authority ended up putting their lives on the line. In this second challenge, as they challenge Jesus’s allegiances, their own heart allegiance was put to the test. Jesus is revealing that their eternal lives are on the line. Jesus’s response actually brings a challenge to his opposers: “you challenge me on where my allegiance lies, but who really has your heart allegiance?”
The problem with the spiritual leaders and those who would follow them in rejecting Jesus is that their allegiance was not ultimately to God, but rather to self-preservation, to money, to social status and position.
So often this is the reason that people reject Jesus today. It is not so much that his works or his message are inadequately displayed or argued, but rather the reality that one must surrender their desires, their behavior, their thinking to God.
Yes, there is work to be done to defend the faith and give an answer to those who challenge it, but you need to know that the core issue is usually a problem of allegiance. Is sexual freedom or orientation more important than God? Is money or power more important than God? Is control of your future more important than knowing Jesus?
What matters is who has your heart allegiance. Do you give to God what belongs to him?
YOU
Why is this so important?
In order to answer this question, I want to take you back to the beginning of human history for a moment.
When God made humans, he made us, male and female, in his image. If you want to know what God is like, you can look around at anyone in this room and get a decent glimpse. We are all made to be little representations of God and his character on earth, kind of like your children bearing your image, who will grow up to be representatives of your family name. Everyone of us was born with that great purpose, to be fruitful and multiply the image of our God on earth.
Like the silver coins marked with the inscription of Caesar, God has always intended for his people to be marked by his name and character. Their entire lives, all they do and say, is meant to look like God, to be given back to God.
Our lives, then, do not belong to ourselves ultimately, but to the God who gave us breath and purpose in this world. Even more, who purchased us with his blood in his great mercy!
In his letter to the Romans, The Apostle Paul helps us understand what total allegiance to God and his purpose for us looks like. He says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”(Romans 12:1).
Because of all that God has done, because of his great mercy towards us, chiefly through Jesus, all of our lives, body and soul, ought to be lived for God.
A living sacrifice. A sacrifice can’t be half-hearted. A sacrifice in the Old Covenant looked like an entire animal dead on God’s altar. In the same way, our whole being is meant to be presented to God daily, where we are dead to self but alive for his purposes. Paul says, that is worship. It's the only appropriate response to his generosity. Whether you are working, playing, raising kids, paying taxes, or whatever you’re doing, we ought to live holy lives, for his glory!
But the problem with the world is that humanity has not given to God what truly belongs to him. Though every human bears the image of God, we have rebelled against him. So, rather than spreading the image and glory of God on earth, we have become twisted and distorted images that look more like the serpent than God.
You might be thinking, “Daniel, I’ve never given allegiance to Satan.” Listen, Satan is crafty in the way he gains our allegiance, like he was with Adam and Eve. He uses anything – whether money, or food, or people, or government, or sex or even religion – to turn our allegiance away from God. It doesn’t matter to him ultimately because heart allegiance to anything other than God is submission to him.
A person’s life and everything we do, both big things and small things, prove who has our allegiance, our worship.
The truth is, at one time all of us by our sin gave our allegiance to Satan. When Paul was sent to preach Jesus to the Gentiles, God said to him, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:18).
That is why Jesus had to come. No human that has ever lived gave God full and total Lordship, so we were all under the power of Satan and deserving God’s wrath. But God didn’t leave us there. He sent his son, God took on flesh and walked on earth flawlessly, sinlessly, as a living sacrifice so that through his death, the death we all deserved, he could deliver us from the power of Satan to God, so that we could be forgiven for our rebellion and so that our marred image of God could be transformed again into the image of Christ, who is the perfect image of the Father.
What about you? I ask you today, who has your heart? Who has your allegiance? Who do you belong to today? Sitting in these seats today doesn’t prove you belong to God. Not even a simple confession of faith. Your everyday actions must prove your faith and allegiance to God because faith without works is dead.
And when I say this, I do not mean that any of us have fully arrived. I don’t stand here as someone who has confessed Jesus as Lord once and that’s it. Done deal. No! I’m still learning every day what areas of my life are surrendered to God. The important thing is that you are not resisting God when he brings something to your attention that you must surrender to him.
Should I Pay Taxes?
Now I want to get practical. What are the implications for how you and I interact with government systems today?
1) Should we pay taxes?
a. Jesus says, yes. Pay your taxes. His words give us a mandate to pay taxes to whom they are due. Even more, they give us freedom to do so with a clean conscience, even if to a pagan or corrupt government, like the one Jesus was living under.
2) But you might ask, how is it possible to be loyal to both God and human governments?
a. Paul helps us again here in Romans 13 as he expounds on this teaching from Jesus.
i. It will be on the screen. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. [WHY?] For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
1. What this means is that God appoints ALL government authorities for his purposes. Jesus himself said to Pontius Pilot, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).
ii. Let's continue in verse 13:2. “Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them [Don't these words sound a lot like Jesus]: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
1. Surprisingly, we’re told that appointed government officials are “God’s servant for your good.” “The Servant of God.” “Ministers of God”. This is shocking considering that Paul is writing these words while they are under a corrupt and brutal Roman rule. Yet Paul sees that God’s kingdom rules sovereignly over and above every other kingdom and that he is able to use earthly kingdoms to accomplish his purposes.
2. Secondly, it’s often the case that when we are resisting government officials, we are resisting God. Verse 5 says, therefore, you must be in subjection to avoid God’s wrath AND for the sake of conscience.
It also says that we pay taxes so that we can have a clean conscience before God and man. You see, when we submit even to unjust governments, we submit to God. When we pay our taxes honestly behind closed doors, entrusting ourselves to a faithful and just Creator, we put our faith in God on display. That is worship.
It’s important to say that there is also a time to resist the government, like if they try to silence you from speaking the Gospel or worshiping God. We see Peter and the Apostles opposing their Jewish leaders in Acts 5:29: “We must obey God rather than men.”
b. This is the conclusion, because God is ultimate over everything, he commands us to give moderate allegiance to human authorities, even unjust ones, while giving ultimate allegiance to God. What does that look like? It looks like paying taxes or obeying other government laws where their commands don’t contradict the command of God in the Scriptures.
We need one another in these trying times we live in. That’s why the church exists in part to help us make it safely to our heavenly home. We need to remind each other of what God has said when we are tempted and despairing over the challenges life throws at us, like Corrie Ten Boom needed her sister Betsy to remind her to give thanks to God in all circumstances and to pray for her enemies when they were being brutally mistreated in German concentration camps during World War II.
Now I want to remind you of the good news.
Church, this world and its government systems are finite. Yes, a single human like Nero, or Hitler, or perhaps even Vladimir Putin can inflict great pain and suffering on the world. But I need you to know that God is sovereign and his kingdom and his purposes transcend all of it. My wife reminded me this week, even these men only have a single lifetime to inflict evil. God is eternal. His purposes remain. As we read earlier, “The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth” (Psalm 135:6). Even Job, who endured great suffering at the hand of Satan, confessed, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). So, take heart. Do not fear or be anxious right now, whether over what is happening in Russia or what is happening in the United States. Put your faith in Jesus. Remember, he defeated his enemies by dying on the cross. And God raised him to the right hand of God, where he is ruling now. Every enemy will be placed under his feet.
Do not, therefore, try to take matters in your own hands and do things your own way with taxes or otherwise. Make your requests known to God. Is any government, even unjust one’s, outside of his hands? I assure you he will in his time, take down any and every evil power when the time is right.
Just a few short days after this interaction, Jesus would be betrayed and marched before Pontius Pilate. The people of Israel, incited by the Jewish spiritual leaders, would cry “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Though Pilate tried to release Jesus saying, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests would respond, “We have no king but Caesar.” And Jesus would be turned over to them to be crucified.
The Jews bowed to Caesar in order to uphold their positions of power. But Jesus, though he was led to slaughter by his authorities, willingly submitted himself to God even unto death. Through his death on the cross he triumphed over Satan, sin, and death, over every evil power.
I challenge you today, when you feel like you are unjustly treated by human governments, cling to God in trust and submit to him in all things like our Lord Jesus, and he will also raise you up to eternal life in his kingdom as he did the Son of God. He is worthy of our trust and worship. Give God your allegiance, even when you pay your taxes.
Let’s pray
