Only a 'X' will do

Subtitle:

Can you mix

Politics with Religion?

I was brought up to believe that one of the most taboo combinations in conversation is that of religion and politics.  You are bound to upset, alienate or annoy someone sooner or later if they are broached.  And some people manipulate a situation by deliberately pressing those buttons.

One day some men came up to Jesus to attempt to do just that.  They knew that Jesus was regarded as a Rabbi; a teacher.  They knew that he was proclaiming a different way of relating to God; a personal way; a way that valued the individual.  They had heard him read these words of Isaiah in a synagogue:

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; (Ch61)

And somehow when Jesus read these ancient words they had a new revolutionary quality about them.  The politically minded of the Roman occupation and the temple authority suddenly looked up and saw someone mixing religion with politics. So they challenged him with a question.  They said,

‘Teacher, we know that you teach the way of God truthfully, and do not regard the position of men as important, tell us then, what do you think, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Now this little episode must have been significant to the early church as it appears in 3 of the 4 Gospels, where as, for example, the Christmas story is only told in two.

Jesus asked them for a handful of coins and said, ‘Whose likeness is this?, they said, obviously, ‘Caesar’s’.

“Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s!’, 

Jesus replied.  

And they went away amazed.

In that short answer had Jesus separated politics and religion;

the material and spiritual,

the earthly and divine, or what?

The people of Jesus’ day would have understood from their scriptures that God was at the root of all creation.  Humanity was made in the image of God, and God yearns for humanity to find it’s way back to that innate goodness. Even Caesar, or what he represented is in the end subject to God, or of God’s creation.  You could argue that Jesus was saying that all of this is God’s.  Caesar and others like him are just stewards of those resources and responsible to their fellow human beings as a consequence. 

So the point is not who or what you give to whom, but what are the intentions; the aspirations and the motivations of those who are given the power; or given the taxes.  All the while we focus on the personality, the presentation and whose is on the placard, billboard or TV debate, or indeed, in Jesus day, the coin, then we miss whether or not the true values of humanity are being addressed.

When Tony Benn was asked if you should mix politics with religion he said, 

No, but you should mix politics with faith! 

I think Jesus would have liked that answer!