Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not?’
Matthew 22:17 NIVUK
They say that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.
Of course, for a Christian there are many, many more. But it might still puzzle us why these men would choose to ask Jesus a question about taxes in order to trap him. The legendary mobster Al Capone might have been arrested due to tax fraud, but Jesus is not Al Capone.
So what are the Pharisees doing here?
We have to firstly understand the nature of this tax. It was, without a doubt, grossly unjust.
To use modern terminology, this was a poll tax. It’s the type of tax that was levied after a census, like the one when Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-3). The purpose of the tax was simple: the Romans counted the population and levied a tax on the household according to the number of people living in that household.
That might sound normal, but it unjustly targeted the poor. Poorer families around the world tend to have larger households. You could say it’s because of a lack of education or a desire to have more children to care for them when they get old, but it is a demographic trend across the world for rich households to be small and poor households to be large.
So the burden to pay this tax would unfairly skewed against those who would be less likely to be able to pay it.
Worse, commentators tell us that it was only levied on non-Romans. So Jews – like these leaders and like Jesus Himself, would be subjugated by the Romans and then forced to pay for the privilege.
Even worse, the men who collected it were hated scoundrels. They would collect more than they were asked to, often with Roman soldiers providing the ‘muscle’, and then pocket the difference.
All in all, we can understand why this was an emotive subject.
I actually saw an experiment to levy a similar tax when I was a boy. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided to levy a poll tax to increase tax revenues and discourage the poor from having so many children. But she didn’t want to introduce it across all the UK all at once. No, she decided to experiment with it in my nation – Scotland – first.
You have no idea how despised she became.
There were protests. Civil disobedience. Mass refusals to pay. Marches.
And then there were riots. Not just in Scotland, but across the North of England too, because they were sure they would be next.
She had to change her mind and withdraw the tax. It was too controversial.
Even these events don’t come close to the hatred the Jews would have felt for this tax.
What the Pharisees were doing was brilliantly devious. They were seeking to involve Jesus in a seriously emotive local controversy and then stand back while either side devoured Him.
If He had answered them by saying that the tax was just and should be paid, the Jewish public would have turned on Him.
If He had answered them by saying that the tax was unjust and should not be paid, then the tetchy Roman troops would quickly arrest Him and accuse Him of rebellion against Caesar.
They were sure they had Jesus in their trap and that it was impossible for Him to escape.
Let’s not think that this is just a one-off. The same type of trap is often laid for Christians nowadays.
On 14 June 2017, the born-again leader of the UK Liberal Democrats Party, Tim Farron, was forced to quit. He was open about being an Evangelical Christian, but this led to difficult questions from openly gay members of his party and certain elements of the press, who forced him to say whether or not he thought homosexuality was a sin. A trap was laid for him. He couldn’t get out of it. So he resigned. A thoroughly decent man was lost to British politics due to an anti-Christian witch-hunt.
On 6 January 2022, the European Court of Human Rights threw out a case against the Christian bakers Ashers of Belfast, Northern Ireland. They had been asked by a gay couple to make them a cake to celebrate Pride, but the bakers refused to do so because they didn’t support it. The case passed through multiple layers of British courts for seven years, costing £250,000 of taxpayers’ money, before the case was thrown out.
It’s something we should see coming, if we follow the advice earlier and are ready to identify the risks to which our community is exposed. Even at university, my Christian Union faced annual threats to ‘de-list’ us a recognised university society. One evening we were holding a panel event in a university venue. We had four mature, theologically-sound people on the platform, answering questions from an open forum. It was going well until a man stood up, took the microphone and asked emotive questions about Biblical beliefs and LGBT. When he didn’t get the answer he seemed to want, he became belligerent, angry, abusive. We had a few men in our group who played rugby and they calmly escorted him from the hall.
And the trap is not just set to catch out those of us who have more conservative views on LGBT issues.
In Islamic nations such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, where there are anti-blasphemy laws, hardline Muslims will often try to provoke their Christian neighbours into saying something negative about Mohammed or the Qur’an. If they do so, violent mobs will beat them up, or they’ll go down the route of an Islamic court, where an offender could be sentenced to death.
It isn’t new. It’s an old tactic. And it’s thoroughly irreligious and evil.
But we should not be alarmed or afraid.
We know it’s likely to come. We know from where it will come. We can do something about it.
We can be prepared.
And by that I don’t mean we ‘fight fire with fire’ or seek revenge. That is not Jesus’ way. Remember what He said when on trial? His Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). We do not wage war as the world around us (2 Corinthians 10:3). We do not seek pre-emptive strikes or violent reprisals. We do not blackmail or bribe or strong-arm. We take down strongholds by taking captive every thought and pretension that sets itself up against Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
And we do this by taking three actions.
Firstly, we identify the issue that causes so much sensitivity and could be used to trap us.
Secondly, we make an effort to understand why this issue causes such sensitivity. Is it because of historical or current mistreatment? Are these people made to feel like they are second class citizens? We may not agree with them at all, but does their issue at least seem to be legitimate?
Our churches are often so removed from the culture around them that they struggle with this action. However, Jesus felt compassion even for sinful Jerusalem, where He was crucified (Luke 19:41-44). A key aspect of feeling compassion is at least trying to understand where the other person is coming from – why they feel the way they do – even if we profoundly disagree with it.
Thirdly, with as much prayer and relevant advice that we can muster, we form our response.
It isn’t wrong to seek advice on such matters. The Bible is plain about that.
The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.
Proverbs 12:15 NIVUK
Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 13:10 NIVUK
Once we have that advice, we do everything we can to respond to the situation appropriately, humbly, sensitively and in a way that glorifies the Lord and His Gospel.
What we see happening to Jesus here is utterly reprehensible. Imagine using the suffering of the most vulnerable in society, simply to score points against a visiting preacher and try to ruin his reputation! Utterly despicable!
Yet, for all its heinous nature, this is a tactic that is frequently used to attack Christians even now. There are many who are simply not above using the sufferings of others and their deep-seated sensitivities to attack Christians and the church.
We should not be afraid of this, but we should be aware of it. If we know where our culture and society have a strong sensitivity, then we will do well to respect it and respond appropriately to it.
Because that is how we escape the trap.
Questions
1. What are your society’s sensitivities?
2. Where did they come from? Do you understand them?
3. How can you respond to them in a way that glorifies God?
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