The Third Way: There's Always a Choice

'The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.'

--Matthew 22: 15-22

At this time of year one of my favorite traditions is the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Halloween Special. Among the very best of these came in 1996, just ahead of that year’s presidential election. In the episode it was revealed that the two candidates – Bill Clinton and Bob Dole – were, in fact, aliens bent on conquering Earth. When the big reveal comes the people of Springfield are mortified, but the aliens point out that there’s nothing they can do, it’s a two party system and they have to vote for one of them. The people look around and mutter to each other, "They're right! It's a two party system!" and after one of the aliens wins – does it matter which? – the people are enslaved and the world falls apart. It’s not like they had a third option, right? Right?

From The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII 

We operate much of our lives from a two-party system, an either/or mentality, without considering that there might be a third way. Jesus wasn’t about either/ors. He never said that someone was with him or against him. He never operated out of a binary. So often he was put in positions where folks tried to force him to make a choice between only two options, but oh so often Jesus would get creative, throw them a curveball, and offer a third way that no one had considered before. Granted, this meant Jesus made enemies on both sides, but his example of finding a creative third way continues to be one of his most impactful teachings for us today.

In our Gospel texts from the previous three weeks, we’ve heard Jesus using parables to answer a question from the Pharisees concerning where his authority came from. Now that he has totally not answered their question, we find the Pharisees today aligning themselves with the Herodians in an attempt to trap Jesus.

Let’s pause for some context. The Pharisees were the folks who desperately tried to hold on to their faith and its practices in the face of Roman occupation. They were anything but pro-Roman, and they strictly observed the Law of Torah as a sort of defiance against Rome. The Herodians, meanwhile, were a group of Jewish folks who were totally ok with Roman occupation. They got their name from their loyalty to Herod, a puppet of the Roman government who had been put “in-charge” of the region of Judea and given the title “King of the Jews.” The Pharisees and Herodians had no love for each other, but hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?

So they come at Jesus as a kind of tag-team. And after buttering him up a bit – “you’re sincere”, “you show no partiality.” – they ask him if it’s lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not. 

This may come as a surprise to a more educated modern audience, but folks didn’t like paying taxes back then. The question seems legit, and at the same time volatile. Ever since this area had been added to the Roman Empire in 63 BC, Rome had required a large annual tribute from the Jewish people, which was collected by local authorities through an assortment of taxes.  Folks were itching to hear Jesus’ answer, probably hoping that he’d give them some kind of out.

But the question isn’t sincere. The two groups just want him to pick their side, knowing both chooses spell trouble. If Jesus says no and sides with the Pharisees, he’ll be charged with sedition and arrested, having said the quiet part out loud. If he says yes and sides with the Herodians, he risks losing his credibility with the crowd, who for both economic and religious reasons resented Roman occupation and taxation on their land. Taxes to the emperor implied that he owned the land, but Torah was clear that all land is God’s, and that we are just tenant farmers – that’s Leviticus 25: 23. What’s Jesus to do? Gotta pick one or the other, right?

But Jesus does something unexpected and offers a third option. He asks for a coin, which his interrogators produce. He looks at it and asks, “Whose head is this and whose title?” Their answer, of course, is the emperor’s. This move by itself shames them. You see, in Judea at this time, there were two types of coins : one type, because of the 2nd Commandment, bore no graven images of people or animals, while the other type, used by the Romans, had such images. The denarius featured the head of the current emperor – in this case, Tiberius – with the title “Son of God.” No self-respecting Jewish person would’ve carried the second coin, and thus Jesus exposes them as part of this collaboration system that kept both the religious and Roman authorities in power. If it’s got the emperor’s face on it, give it back to him; otherwise, give to God what belongs to God; after all, it may be the emperor's coin, but it's Jesus title! Their trap is evaded by Jesus’ brilliant rhetorical strategy, and they leave amazed.

Render unto Caesar art from the English School.

Some of y’all may have heard this passage preached as a kind of establishment by Jesus of what we might call a separation between church and state. Christians have had a tendency to read it that way, as if Jesus is telling us that we have to split ourselves between our so-called secular and sacred lives. The 20th century theologian William Barclay, for whom I hold a lot of respect, wrote that the Christian had a dual identity as a citizen of both earth and heaven, and should pledge allegiance to earthly authorities because of the provisions and protections they provide while also praying to God. This, however, creates a kind of  psychological splitting within us, which can – and often does – lead to justifying some pretty bad behavior: consider Christians in the 1930s that acquiesced to dictators or those today who decry peaceful protests, all because they’ve been told that Jesus says to obey whatever the civil authorities tell us to do. But that splitting between secular and sacred lives is a modern construct – the truth is that there is no such distinction, it’s all sacred because it’s all from God.  What, then, is Jesus trying to teach us now?

This is one of those Gospel moments that is tough to apply to our time due to the specific context of the Pharisees’ and Herodians’ positions, the occupation by Rome, and the ancient Jewish relationship to foreign political powers. None of these really apply to our modern context. Besides, Jesus doesn’t even give a real answer to the question about taxes because that wasn’t the point of the encounter. If you were looking for either a justification for loyalty to the state or an excuse to not pay taxes, you’re outta luck this week. There must be a third option for how this text can apply to us now.

As I see it, the Good News that lies in this text is the fact that Jesus finds a creative third way. Bombarded by people who insisted he had to take an either/or stance, Jesus doesn’t bite. And right now, in so many facets of our lives, we are hit with that rhetoric. You’re either with our team or the other one. You’re either a fascist conservative or a godless liberal. You’re either one of us or one of them. Gotta pick a side, right? Not like we have another choice.

But we do. We have the choice of finding the third way. Because that’s the path where we’ll find Jesus. Not on one side of an issue, blaming the people on the other side, but being with the people caught in the middle. That’s where Jesus is. That’s the third way. Whenever we get caught up in either/or thinking, we need to be more like Jesus. We need to find our third way and discover an option that we had not thought possible before. The key to doing so is creativity, wonder, and imagination. There is, in every scenario, in every argument, in every debate, in every question of life, a creative third way. And that’s the way of Jesus. The way of love. What does it look like for you?