Matthew | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Should Christians Pay Taxes? And how to Evade a Trap

By Anita Mathias

A Denaarius Coin at the time of Tiberius

Matthew 22 15-22

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

The easiest way to get trapped: By one’s words If one has reason to be suspicious of someone’s intent, it is best to say as little as possible. And, if possible, to avoid the meeting. A mentor of mine used to say that 90 percent of wisdom lies in remaining silent and not saying more than is necessary.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

Brilliant strategy of the Herodians. What they said was absolutely true. And their “true flattery” could literally have disarmed Jesus.

However, their intent was to trap Jesus, which was why they praised him with absolute truth.

If you reason to believe that someone may be adversarial towards you, be careful of their praise. Beware of enemies bearing gifts.

The evil which people are capable of!! Most people would have soften towards anyone who praised them so fulsomely–and truthfully. However, their intent in doing so was to have him incriminate himself–so that they could turn him over to the Romans for execution. Wow!

¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

In trouble with the nationalistic Jews if he advised it; in trouble with the Romans if he did not.

ESV–Taxes were a volatile issue in Israel. All Rome’s subjects laboured under the empire’s heavy taxation. Some Jews believed that paying any tax to pagan people contradicted God’s lordship over his people.

¹⁸ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

If seems clear that people are trying to trap you, don’t hesitate to “call” them. Calling a spade a spade clears the air.

If Jesus said it was right to pay taxes, he would lose favour with a tax-burdened people. If he said it was wrong, they could accuse him of insurrection.

¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “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.”

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Note the brilliance and strategy of Jesus. Not every question needs to be answered. A hostile question does not need to be answered. Or it can be answered by a counter-question.

We live in the secular realm, and are subject to the rulers of the secular realm. So pay them what they demand. And pay God what is rightfully his.

I used to despair in the past, reading of the poise and sang-froid and quick, calm thinking of Jesus. Would I ever have the calm, and presence of mind to come up with these brilliant, inspired answers if put on the spot?

However, Jesus does leave us advice for what to do when we are in these situations. Don’t worry too much about what you are going to say. The Holy Spirit will guide you. God can give one wisdom to amaze one’s enemies.

And last year, when I unexpectedly found myself embroiled in a very fraught situation by standing up (in now deleted blog posts) for someone who was wronged, and, it seemed, abusively treated , I was surprised to find myself calm, canny, careful, guarded and almost inspired in meetings with people who were trying to manipulate me and trap me in my words. So as Jesus promised, wisdom and guidance is given to us when we need it.

Is this a proof-text for the separation of church and state??

Should Christians Pay Taxes? And how to Evade a Trap

By Anita Mathias

Matthew 22 15-22

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

The easiest way to get trapped: By one’s words If one has reason to be suspicious of someone’s intent, it is best to say as little as possible. And, if possible, to avoid the meeting. A mentor of mine used to say that 90 percent of wisdom lies in remaining silent and not saying more than is necessary.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

Brilliant strategy of the Herodians. What they said was absolutely true. And their “true flattery” could literally have disarmed Jesus.

However, their intent was to trap Jesus, which was why they praised him with absolute truth.

If you reason to believe that someone may be adversarial towards you, be careful of their praise. Beware of enemies bearing gifts.

The evil which people are capable of!! Most people would have soften towards anyone who praised them so fulsomely–and truthfully. However, their intent in doing so was to have him incriminate himself–so that they could turn him over to the Romans for execution. Wow!

¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

In trouble with the nationalistic Jews if he advised it; in trouble with the Romans if he did not.

ESV–Taxes were a volatile issue in Israel. All Rome’s subjects laboured under the empire’s heavy taxation. Some Jews believed that paying any tax to pagan people contradicted God’s lordship over his people.

¹⁸ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

If seems clear that people are trying to trap you, don’t hesitate to “call” them. Calling a spade a spade clears the air.

If Jesus said it was right to pay taxes, he would lose favour with a tax-burdened people. If he said it was wrong, they could accuse him of insurrection.

¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “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.”

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Note the brilliance and strategy of Jesus. Not every question needs to be answered. A hostile question does not need to be answered. Or it can be answered by a counter-question.

We live in the secular realm, and are subject to the rulers of the secular realm. So pay them what they demand. And pay God what is rightfully his.

I used to despair in the past, reading of the poise and sang-froid and quick, calm thinking of Jesus. Would I ever have the calm, and presence of mind to come up with these brilliant, inspired answers if put on the spot?

However, Jesus does leave us advice for what to do when we are in these situations. Don’t worry too much about what you are going to say. The Holy Spirit will guide you. God can give one wisdom to amaze one’s enemies.

And last year, when I unexpectedly found myself embroiled in a very fraught situation by standing up (in now deleted blog posts) for someone who was wronged, and, it seemed, abusively treated , I was surprised to find myself calm, canny, careful, guarded and almost inspired in meetings with people who were trying to manipulate me and trap me in my words. So as Jesus promised, wisdom and guidance is given to us when we need it.

Is this a proof-text for the separation of church and state??

Too Busy for Happiness. The Saddest Parable Jesus Told.

By Anita Mathias

To celebrate life together, to be together in community, to simply enjoy the beauty of creation,the love of people, and the goodness of God—these seem faraway ideals.There seem to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be. It is so painful to watch and experience. The astonishing thing is that the battle for survival has become so “normal” that few people really believe it can be different.”
   Henri Nouwen, Seeds of Hope

This is the saddest parable Jesus ever told. We are invited to a banquet. Our soul will be fed with the richest of food. There will be steak, and sirloin, wine, and bread, and honey. And great joy.

Do we have time for all this bliss?

Nope. Too busy with business and making money to spend time with someone who wants our presence at a banquet, and asks for nothing in return.

And so the invitation, having been turned down by the obvious suspects is now extended to the to the “the bad as well as the good.”
And they come. “And the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

However, to accept the hospitality while refusing to respect the host by wearing the wedding garment he has provided is as bad as rejecting it in the first place. That man is banished from the banquet.

The invitation to enjoy God, and to feast on his spiritual riches is open to everyone. However, few bother to attempt to take God up on it, and fewer to respect and value the privilege as they should.

Many are called; but few choose to be chosen.

Matthew 22

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.   ⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

   ⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

   ⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

   ¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

   ¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

   ¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

The Parable of Those who Reject Multiple Chances. Blog Through the Bible Project

By Anita Mathias

The Pharisees believed that he told this story about them, but it wasn’t just about them, it was also about us.

God gives us chance, after chance, after chance. Paul asks, Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4). But ultimately judgement comes. I have seen this in other people’s lives. And in my own.

What is the sin or patten of sin in our lives of which we most need to repent?

Because God is kind, he gives us chance, after chance, seventy times seven, sometimes.

Ultimately, if we continue in entrenched sin, plagues pile up, like the plagues of Egypt. And the, judgment comes–often in this life.

Matthew 21

³³ “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

The treatment of the servants mirrors what God’s prophets had experienced throughout OT history.

³⁷ Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

³⁸ “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰ “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

⁴¹ “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Gentiles, to whom Paul turned when the Jews for the most part rejected the Gospel. By the second century, the church was composed mainly of Gentiles.

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’^h]”>[h]?

The rejected son will receive the position of ultimate prominence and importance.

A theme throughout Scripture. God exalts the rejected–like David, or Leah, or Jesus.

⁴³ “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

The parable of the wicked tenants continues the vineyard metaphor to show that God is taking away the kingdom from Israel.

⁴⁴ Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”^i]”>[i]

The gut wisdom of the people was deeper than the paranoid, power-hungry, threatened judgment of those with power.

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The Parable of Those who Reject Multiple Chances. Blog Through the Bible Project

By Anita Mathias

The Pharisees believed that he told this story about them, but it wasn’t just about them, it was also about us.

What is the sin or patten of sin in our lives of which we most need to repent?

Because God is kind, he gives us chance, after chance, seventy times seven, sometimes.

Ultimately, if we continue in entrenched sin, plagues pile up, like the plagues of Egypt. And the, judgment comes–often in this life.

Matthew 21

³³ “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

³⁵ “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.
The treatment of the servants mirrors what God’s prophets had experienced throughout OT history.

³⁷ Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

⁴⁰ “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

⁴¹ “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Gentiles, to whom Paul turned when the Jews for the most part rejected the Gospel. By the second century, the church was composed mainly of Gentiles.

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

   “‘The stone the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
   and it is marvelous in our eyes’^[h]?
The rejected son will receive the position of ultimate prominence and importance.
A theme throughout Scripture. God exalts the rejected–like David, or Leah, or Jesus.

⁴³ “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

The parable of the wicked tenants continues the vineyard metaphor to show that God is taking away the kingdom from Israel.

⁴⁴ Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”^[i]

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. ⁴⁶ They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
The gut wisdom of the people was deeper than the paranoid, power-hungry, threatened judgment of those with power.

How to Deal with Hostile Questions; and The Spiritually In and Out. Some Surprises

By Anita Mathias

Matthew 21

Do you think they truly wanted to know. Or was this a hostile question?

Of late, I do not answer hostile, rhetorical questions.

And here, neither does Jesus.

And so how does he deal with them? Sometimes, he refuses to answer. Sometimes, he answers a question with a question, “a unique cultural predisposition” of Jewish people, according to the website Stuff Jewish People Like.

What were these things? Cleansing the temple, for one! Healing and teaching in the temple, because he is neither a scribe, nor a priest.

²⁴ Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ²⁵ John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Canniness meets the creator of human intelligence.
Jesus counter-traps them. If they do not know whether John was from God, how can they judge if Jesus is?

Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

He calmly and quietly refused to answer their hostile tricky question.

I am increasingly refusing to engage when it is clear that the intent of the questioner is hostile.

Jesus “self-destructing.” Telling the truth regardless of the consequences.

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

  31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”    “The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

One son was outwardly acquiescent to his father, and in agreement what the father wanted.  However, in reality, he did what he pleased.

The other son engaged with what his father wanted, and initially refused to obey him, though he ultimately came around and did it.  And so he actually did what his father wanted.

So the ones whom the religious establishment considered as sinners, the prostitutes and tax collectors, initially said No, later repented, and so entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Whereas the outwardly righteous might have have their hearts far from God.

We may be the son who says Yes, when outwardly we are good church-goers, and clean livers. Inwardly, we might be full of malice, envy, worry, anxiety, and hatred.

On the other hand, we might be judged and criticized by others. Inwardly however, we have repented and turned to God and asked him for the grace to do better. And our hearts are filled with his joy.
The one who is honest about his failures, turns and does God’s will would be the one who enters the Kingdom of God.

The Greek for repent is μετανοέω, metanoeo, to completely change one’s mind, to radically change direction.

What is the Kingdom of God? Many things. To me, is the rest and freedom and joy of surrender, when God is your king, and in charge of your life–and in charge of your worries!!

How to Deal with Hostile Questions.

By Anita Mathias

Matthew 21

²³ Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
Do you think they truly wanted to know. Or was this a hostile question?
Of late, I do not answer hostile, rhetorical questions.
And here, neither does Jesus.

And so how does he deal with them? Sometimes, he refuses to answer. Sometimes, he answers a question with a question, “a unique cultural predisposition” of Jewish people, according to the website Stuff Jewish People Like.
What were these things? Cleansing the temple, for one! Healing and teaching in the temple, because he is neither a scribe, nor a priest.

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Canniness meets the creator of human intelligence.
Jesus counter-traps them. If they do not know whether John was from God, how can they judge if Jesus is?

Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

He calmly and quietly refused to answer their hostile tricky question.

I am increasingly refusing to engage when it is clear that the intent of the questioner is hostile.

Why did you cleanse the temple?

By Anita Mathias

Why did you cleanse the temple?

It would have been so much easier

to pray in solitude for the filling of the Holy Spirit,

to think of God’s love for you,

to contemplate God,

to love your friends,

to think of all things that were

noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

Cleansing the temple would mean

facing the rage and fury of those

whose cattle, sheep and doves you released

whose coins you scattered.

Within the week, you would be dead.

You cleansed the temple because

what they did was wrong.

It prevented prayer.

It cheated those who came to worship.

It filled the sanctuary set apart

for the Gentiles with noise.

It rewarded greed

You were there.

The rascals were there.

What they did was wrong.
And you could do something about it.
And so you did.

You made a whip of cords,

and you cleansed the temple

* * *

Matthew 21:12

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^e]”>[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

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