Saturday, October 22, 2005

Did Jesus Pay Tax

An interesting incident occurred when Jesus came to Capernaum.

The collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?" "Yes, he does," he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?" "From others," Peter answered. Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours." (Matt 17:24-27).
Peter made the mistake of speaking for his master without checking first, so Jesus had to put things right. He made two important points. The first was that the sons of kings do not pay tax. This referred back to the warning that Samuel had given to Israel when they chose to have a king (1 Samuel 8). Jesus is a son of the King of the universe so he does not have to pay tax to an earthly power.

When Jesus ascended into heaven he became our king and we became sons of the king. As sons of the true king, Christians are not require to pay tax to a king. We cannot serve two kings. If we accept Jesus as our king, we cannot serve another king by acknowledging his right to impose taxes.

Jesus second point was that at times it is better to keep the peace than to stand on your rights. He chose to pay the tax voluntarily to avoid embarrassing Peter. Christians will sometimes choose to pay taxes to political powers, because they do not want to get distracted from their work for God. When they pay an imposed tax voluntarily, they are following Jesus example. They are not morally obliged to pay the tax, but they will do so as not to cause unnecessary offence.

For Christians, all payments to political powers are voluntary. We are only required to pay for services that we have received.

All taxation is voluntary for children of the King of Creation.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good little write-up. However I do not agree with the second point you make.
Christ chose to pay the tax because Peter had committed himself and Jesus to pay it. To not have paid the tax would have been not paying his dues since Peter already agreed to paying the tax.

Anonymous said...
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Rollo said...

Matthew 22:20-21
he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Romans 13:1-2
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

Because I assume that you live in a country which has a stable rule of law established, then because you are in that country you are required to follow the laws of the land.

Being a Christian doesn't give you licence to break the law. Both Paul and Christ have said it better than I have.

Rollo said...

Matthew 22:17-21
Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Romans 13:1-2
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

I assume that you live in a country in which there is an established and working rule of law. As such, because you live in that country, you are required even as a Christian to follow the laws of the land.

Taxation is not voluntary and therefore all Christians are required at law to pay their required share.

Being a Christian does not empower us to break the law.

Ron McK said...

Rollo
I get frustrated when Christians quote these proof texts, with out doing any analysis of their meaning.

Jesus did not say we have to pay taxes. He said to render to Caesar that which is due to him, which is nothing.

Paul disobeyed Caesar frequently, so he did live by your interpretation of his words.

I have written more on this topic at Understanding Romans 13,
Render to Caesar and
Submission to whom

The government in my country is totally secular. Many members of parliament hate God. They do not speak for Jesus. Their decisions mostly do not co-oincide with Jesus will. God does want me to submit to them. He wants me to obey Jesus.

Anonymous said...

No rule or Bible quotation is
"absolute" for all cases. The law crucified Christ and as Christians we must pay our "reasonable" dues while lioving on earth to keep the peace.

Anonymous said...

I'm not convinced Jesus paid any tax at all or preached paying taxes, he was accused at his trial of not paying taxes.
I think Jesus trumps "Romans" anyday!