“Render to the Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

It’s still a long time until April 15th and I don’t mean to remind you of that prematurely but did you know that April 15th is not only income tax day, it is also the day the Titanic sunk and the day Lincoln was shot.  You see, it is just a bad day all the way around.

Another cynic has said, “Death and taxes may always be with us, but at least death doesn’t get worse every time congress meets.”

Arthur Godfrey once said, “I feel honored to pay taxes in America.  The thing is, I could probably feel just as honored for about half the price.”

Most people don’t enjoy paying taxes.  We just do it.  Well, the people had to pay taxes in Jesus’ time, too.  Even worse, they had to pay them to a government they despised.  Rome.  You see, Rome was occupying their land. A portion of their income ended up in Caesar’s pocket and this made the Jews very unhappy.  They were a proud people and resented this Roman domination.  Thus, Jesus’ dilemma when they asked him the loaded question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  Would Jesus offend the Jews by siding with the despised Romans or would he risk the wrath of the Romans by siding with Jewish sentiment?

Well, Jesus did neither.  “Whose likeness and inscription is this on the coin?”  he asked.  “Caesar’s.” they answered.  “Render, then,” he said, “to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s”.  A classic answer.   An irrefutable answer.  And it raises an important question for us even today.  What are the things of Caesar and what are the things of God?

Actually, most of us don’t have too many problems rendering to Caesar. There was a trial recently of the son of a U.S. Congressman.  The son had been charged with tax evasion.  The judge showed little mercy.  “Our tax system depends upon voluntary compliance,” he said.  “Therefore we must send a signal to other tax cheaters.”  The son of the congressman went to jail. You may be surprised to learn that we have a voluntary tax system. Tell that to the IRS the next time you get audited.

Rendering to Caesar is no problem.  If the government needs your house moved to make way for a highway, you might as well starting looking for a new one.

If Congress reinstates the draft, start packing the old duffel bag.  What Caesar wants, Caesar gets.  And most of us don’t have a problem with that.  Our government certainly isn’t perfect but it is better than anything else in the world right now, and taxes is the price we have to pay to live in America. 

More of Rev. Edward Markquart’s sermon