Death and Taxes
Only the Christian can participate in either of their own free will
“Caesar may have his coins, which rust will destroy, but life and nature are God's. And if Caesar takes our lives from us, we will rise from the dead.”
1What if I told you that only a Christian is free enough to choose to pay taxes? What if I told you that paying taxes could be an act of rebellion?
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple 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 children or from others?”
“From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, 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, NIV)
Why must the Christian pay taxes? By Jesus' own admission, children of kings are exempt from taxes, and Christians are children of the King of the Earth who levies no tax. So, according to Jesus, we pay them so as to “not cause offence”. Given our exemption, His words suggest it is something we do freely, by choice. It is interesting to note that only to a Christian is this choice afforded.
For all other bodies, taxes are taken by force, for if the taxes are not paid someone will come to take it, and if resistance is met, force will be used. Only of a Christian can it be said that nothing is taken by force, for we have already died and there is nothing the powers-that-be can further take from us. What have we to fear from those who can harm the body but not the soul?2 Those miraculous waters of baptism brought us to the realm of the Spirit where we are truly free and can live, through that Spirit in us, the revolutionary, prophetic existence demanded of us.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. (Rom 8:1-9)3
With that freedom, Jesus says, we pay our taxes.
Paul and Peter echo the idea—the former reminding us not to use our freedom to fulfill our fleshly desires but to serve one another alongside the Spirit,4 and the latter reminding us that as a consequence of our freedom the emperor should be treated just how the Christian treats the slave: with respect.5 So, we pay taxes in pursuit of peace.
Paul, a few short verses prior to his own reminder to pay our taxes in Romans 13, explains this in detail:
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:17-21)
If our enemy6 demands coin, we give it to him. How incredible that our union with Christ in His death and resurrection7 enables us to recognize taxation as a form of thievery8 and yet freely pay it in a subversive rebellious act, heaping coals on the heads of the beast!
“Christians’ situation in the world is a revolutionary one. They contribute to the world’s preservation by being, in the world’s midst, a revolutionary and inexhaustible power…They exercise their judgment according to the Spirit—they do what is essentially revolutionary.” — Jacques Ellul
9When Jesus was asked about paying taxes, He made it clear to whom money belongs:
“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesars.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:16-21)
The only things Caesar can claim as his are those things which the Christian, the walking dead, has no use of. So are we to reject the use of money altogether and become separatists, neglecting our role as the light of the world?10
Jesus has stern words for those with separatist inclinations:
“The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” (Luke 16:8-10)
We must not avoid all interactions with money, but rather use that “unrighteous wealth” or “mammon of unrighteousness” which bears the mark of Caesar to make friends in this world, to share God's love. We are called not to escape the world's evil but remain as sheep among wolves, innocent and shrewd.11 Mammon of unrighteousness only has a little usefulness for a Christian, even in the already, so we must not squander it on our own selves but rather on acts of the Spirit.
My point is that one of those acts of the Spirit might be the subversive paying of taxes, something only a Christian can do. As Christians, we relinquish the things of the logic of man (the things of death) to those who created them, those exousiai12 who stamp their image on fleshly things. But we must not mistake why we do it, and I think it is not to preserve some slippery “greater good” upheld by the state.
Is it not rather to avoid the tragic mistake all other revolutionaries (who do not have the Spirit) make? The mistake of resorting to violent opposition that results only in another earthly kingdom rooted in oppression and violence?13
“Power structures—and that includes states—conform to the logic of ‘this world,’ which is, ultimately, the logic of death.”— Davor Džalto
Opening quote from Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw, pg 118. Zondervan, 2008.
cf. Matt 10:28.
Bible quotations from ESV unless otherwise noted.
Gal 5. The biblical authors do not mean to imply that physical existence is evil or that we should not take care of our bodies, and neither do I. Living in the realm of the Spirit as a mortal being actually implies a righteous reunion of the fleshly and the spiritual. At the same time, it is acceptable for the Christian to allow their own selves to suffer for the sake of others, for we know that God takes care of us in the already and the not-yet alike.
1 Pet 2.
Those who crucified Jesus understood that “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (Matt 19:12). If we worship that King, we are on some level enemies with Caesar.
Rom 6:1-11.
I’m no libertarian, but this website is fun to explore if you are initially unsettled by the possibility that taxation is theft.
Quote from Presence in the Modern World: A New Translation by Lisa Richmond. Cascade Books, 2016.
Jesus’ words here and in Luke 16 seem to address those with separatist tendencies specifically (I am inclined to think that the Herodians were some subset of the Essenes). I should know, for I have a soft spot in my heart for Essenes and Zealots who desire to avoid “Roman pigs” entirely. Alas, Jesus calls me to love even my enemy—if only it were so easy as separation.
cf. Matt 10:16.
The scholarly consensus, at least among evangelicals, is that Paul had exclusively human authorities in view in Rom 13. I remain unconvinced thanks to several other passages in the Pauline corpus, but out of respect to the consensus view I default to the Greek term exousiai.
Ending quotation from Anarchy and the Kingdom of God: From Eschatology to Orthodox Political Theology and Back. Fordham University Press, 2021.