So I'd like to talk to you about tax this morning.
Who ever said church was boring?
I want to talk about tax.
And tax, for those of you who don't know,
is a compulsory contribution you have to make to the state
for different things that you earn, services that you use,
and purchases that you make.
You will look about as excited as this as I am.
So you pay income tax, you pay inheritance tax,
you pay road tax, which they certainly don't use
to solve the pothole problem in Edinburgh.
You pay capital gains tax, you pay value added tax,
and all sorts of other kinds of tax.
Benjamin Franklin said this,
certainty in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Good news.
So just to give you an example of tax.
Jack did some work for me.
And I didn't have any money,
so I'm going to pay him in kinder bars.
Jack worked really hard, he did really well,
so I'm going to pay him ten kinder bars.
Are you ready, Jack?
Hold out your hands.
Check I don't shortchange you, I am English.
One, two, three, four, eight, ten.
Agreed?
Good lads.
Problem is, Jack,
this is a church,
so this isn't like a brown envelope under the table,
say no more, say no more kind of deal.
You're going to have to pay some tax.
Here's your tax bill,
it'll come up on the screen,
and you must pay it immediately.
Okay, so there's a parent tax.
20%, that's two bars,
and they need to go to your mum.
Parent tax.
On you go.
What else do you have to pay, Jack?
Brother tax.
Ten percent.
One bar.
And a bargain at the price.
What else?
A cleaning tax.
Unfortunately, Irene's gone out,
so I'll take that for her.
What else?
A youth pastor tax.
Ten percent.
You need to pay Peter.
He works very, very hard,
and his tax is well earned.
And then there's a tech tax.
You see, they're serving you
by putting your tax bill on the screen,
so you better go and pay them.
Let's see what else you've got.
That's actually it, Jack.
Ten kinder bars,
your total tax bill,
60%.
How did you like paying tax?
You didn't,
but you'll need to get used to it.
Thank you very much.
No, you don't need to pay me tax.
I'm all right.
It's amazing, isn't it,
that tax is kind of ubiquitous.
Everyone pays it.
And Romans 13 says,
by obeying civil authorities,
you're worshipping God.
So next time you pay something
to the government,
think I'm actually worshipping the Lord
by paying tax.
Story I want us to look at this morning
is about paying tax.
Problem is,
I'm not very good at reading,
so any words that's in blue
you're going to have to help me with
and all read it out together.
Okay, you all look very educated,
if not slightly worried.
Okay, here's the story.
It's from Mark chapter 12.
It starts like this.
Later they sent some of the Pharisees
and Herodians to
to
him in his words.
They came to him and said,
we know that you are a man
of integrity.
I was better at reading than I thought.
You aren't swayed by others
because you
know attention to who they are,
but you
the way of God
in accordance with the
truth.
Is it right to
the imperial tax to Caesar or not?
Should we
or shouldn't we?
But
knew their hypocrisy,
why are you trying to
me?
He asked,
bring me a denarius
and let me look at it.
They bought the
coin
and he asked them,
whose
is this
and whose inscription
Caesar's they
denarius
Then Jesus said to them,
back to Caesar
what is Caesar's
and to
what is
and they were
at him.
It's a very little story,
isn't it?
And we're going to try and understand it
just very briefly together.
The first thing we're going to have to do
to understand this story
is understand who the two groups of people are.
We need to know who are the Pharisees
and who are the Herodians.
So let me give you a little bit of history.
If tax was an exciting,
history will certainly do it for you.
Here we are.
Now,
these two groups of people usually hate each other.
The Pharisees
are a group of religious extremists.
They hate the Romans
who were the occupying force
in Israel at this time.
They are ultra-religious.
The Pharisees hate Romans'
religious extremists.
Here are the Herodians.
The Herodians love the Romans.
They're very political
and they're collaborators.
They work with the Romans.
Do you see how normally
these two groups of people
would not get along at all?
They're actually
opposites to each other.
The Pharisees look down on the Herodians
as being compromises
and the Herodians look down on the Pharisees
for being religious neat-necks.
But here in our story,
we find them working together.
And the reason they're working together
is because they both
are threatened
and they hate Jesus.
In fact,
this collaboration,
this coalition
has been going on
since chapter 3, verse 6,
when Jesus
heals a man with a withered hand
and at the end of that story
it says,
and the Pharisees
and the Herodians
went out together
to plot
how they might kill
Jesus.
It's a story about tax
asked by these two groups of people
and this is how it comes about.
The Herodians
and the Pharisees
come to Jesus
to catch him in his words.
They want to trap him.
They want to catch him out.
This is part of their plot
to try and shut him up
forever.
And so verse 14,
they come with a lot of flattery.
Teacher,
we know that you're a man
of integrity.
Your insides are the same
as your outsides.
You're a good guy.
You aren't swayed by others
because you pay no attention
to who they are.
Single-minded
and focused on teaching
the way of God
in accordance with the truth.
It's very flattering.
Slithery tongues
baiting the trap
and here's the trap
and it is a killer question.
Is it right to pay
the imperial tax
to Caesar or not?
Should we pay
or shouldn't we?
The reason that is
such a brilliant question
is because if Jesus says yes,
then the Pharisees
will condemn him
for being a collaborator,
for being willing
to go along
with what the Romans say.
And if he says no,
the Herodians
will have him
as a rebel,
as somebody
who's usurping
what Caesar says.
If he says yes,
he's condemned.
If he says no,
he's condemned.
Jesus,
should we pay tax
or not?
Brilliant question.
Jesus is in
a catch-22 situation.
He is literally
between a rock
and a hard place.
He's condemned
if he does
and he's condemned
if he doesn't.
What's he going to do?
How's he going to get
out of this trap?
Well, he says,
bring me a denarius.
Here's to warm up.
That's a two-pence piece.
Whose picture is on it?
Liz.
Liz is on it.
But that's not,
they don't,
Jesus doesn't say
bring me a two-pence.
He says,
bring me a denarius,
which was a coin
that was paid
for one day's labor
for a normal person.
Whose image is on this?
Brilliant, Aaron.
Unbelievable.
Tiberius Caesar.
And Jesus says,
whose image is this
and whose inscription?
They say Caesar.
And then Jesus says,
give back to Caesar
what is Caesar's
and to God
what is God's.
And then it comments,
and they were amazed
at him.
They've gone from
trying to trap him
in his words
to being amazed at him
all by using a coin
and asking one question,
whose image is this?
Why is that so brilliant?
What is really going on here?
Well, let me walk you
through the logic.
The reason that you pay taxes
to Caesar
is because your coin
has Caesar's face on it,
Caesar's image on it,
and Caesar's inscription.
So what bears Caesar's image
and bears Caesar's inscription,
you're to give back to Caesar.
But he's making a very profound point.
Because in the mind
of these people,
there's this word image
and this word inscription.
In Genesis 1.26,
God at the very creation
of the world says,
let us make man
in our image.
That humankind
is to bear the image of God.
humankind is indwelt
with value,
dignity,
and worth
as image bearers
of the living God.
And then in Jeremiah 31.33,
God says this,
I will put my law
in their minds
and inscribe it
on their hearts.
The coin bears
Caesar's image
and Caesar's inscription.
I, you, we,
bear God's image
and God's inscription.
And so Jesus says,
give the coin to Caesar
because it's Caesar's.
But the question,
the answer behind
the answer,
well before you get to that,
understand that everything you are
and everything you have
belong to God
and it's important
that you give yourself to him.
That's why they were amazed
at him.
That's why they marveled
at him
because he took their trap
and he flipped reverse to them.
They were left undone
as people who knew
that they weren't giving
all of their lives to God
as those who bear his image
and his inscription.
And so Jesus would say
exactly the same thing
to each of us this morning.
Give to Caesar
what is Caesar's
or give to Liz
what is Liz's
but give to God
what is God's.
And this presents
a massive problem
for each and every one of us
because we're all guilty
of tax evasion.
We've all failed
to give to God
what is rightfully his.
Each individual one of us
has failed to love
the Lord our God
with all our heart,
soul,
mind,
and strength
and none of us
love our neighbor
as ourselves.
And the problem is
for this tax evasion
before a holy God
the penalty
is not a fine.
It's not a prison sentence.
It's death.
Romans 6.23
will say that
the wages of sin,
the penalty for sin
is death.
And we're all undone.
We're all guilty.
We're all fraudsters
and tax evaders
because we haven't given
to God
what is God's.
So a story about tax
actually becomes
a very condemning story
about how we failed
before God.
But there is good news
that the very center
of Mark's gospel
is this verse.
For even the Son of Man
that's a phrase
that Jesus uses
to refer to himself.
For even the Jesus
did not come
to be served
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom
to pay the penalty
for many,
for us.
We were tax evaders
who failed to give
to God
everything that was his.
Jesus came
and gave all of himself
all of the time
to God.
He paid it in full.
And yet he goes
to a cross
and dies a death.
And why?
That the only one
who gave to God
what was truly God's fully
died on the cross
so that we
who have failed
to give to God
what is rightfully God's
could go free.
Could have
a clean bill of health
from HMRC
in the heavenly places.
This is good news.
Give to Caesar
what is Caesar's
but give to God
what is God's
and we failed
but Jesus won
for us.
And therefore
we get a great
credit score
by trusting in him.
How do we
take hold
of this bailout?
By trusting in Jesus
and saying
you did it for me.
I accrued
a load of debt
that I couldn't pay
and yet you came
and died in my place
so that your
perfect credit history
could be replaced
by my fallen
failing
pitiful
credit history.
so you died
for me
so I
can go free.
Start Romans 6.23
for the penalty
of sin
is death
but the gift
of God
is eternal life
in Christ Jesus.
Why?
Because Jesus
didn't come
to be served
but to serve
and to give
his life
as a ransom
for many.
I wonder
if you're
a Christian
here today
in response
to this great news
are you
giving to God
what is God's?
Are you giving
your all to him
trusting him
with everything
and saying
if Christ Jesus
did this for me
then nothing
I can do
is too much
for me
to do for him.
But perhaps
you're not a Christian
here today
and this is the first
time you've even heard
that you owe a debt
that you cannot pay.
Well the only answer
is to trust Jesus
who pays it
for you
and say
Jesus
I'm sorry
that I haven't
loved the Lord
my God
with all my heart
soul mind
and strength
and I haven't
loved my neighbour
as myself
thank you
that you came
and you died
my death
please
will you
forgive me
that I might
go free
that you might
pay my ransom
for me
why don't I pray
Father God
we can come
and we confess
that we owe
a debt
that we cannot
pay
we've sinned
in ways
that we
ourselves
cannot atone
for
but Lord
we thank you
so much
that you
loved us
that you
sent your son
that he
came
that he
died
in our
place
for our
sins
that he
gave to you
what was
rightfully
yours
which was
all of
himself
and so
Lord
would we
trust him
would we
lean our
whole life
upon him
and Father
now those
who are
free
free of
sin
would we
give to
you
our
lives
our
dreams
our hopes
our
possessions
our
all
because you
Lord are
worthy
so come
and take
your rightful
place in
our lives
we pray
Amen