Marriage, Nation, and Allegiance

Matthew 22: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22&version=NIV

            In some ways, chapter 22 is just more of the same: Jesus is in controversy with the religious leaders of Israel; He speaks judgment against Israel, and He asserts the priority of the reign of God. That narrative framework is familiar from the rest of the Gospel. There are, however, two particular topics I think warrant comment. First, there is the issue of one’s relationship with the powers of this word, and, second, there is the question of marriage in God’s new age.

            The incident around the temple tax is a trap for Jesus. If He affirms paying Caesar’s tax, He looks like a collaborator with a hated enemy. If He says not to pay the tax, His opponents have occasion to charge Him as a revolutionary before Pilate, the Roman governor. (They may not like Pilate, but they will use him when he suits their purposes.) Jesus neatly sidesteps the trap with His aphorism, “Render to Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Caesar (and his coins and taxes) belong to the order of the fallen age; insofar as we live in that age, we obey it. However, we also live in God’s new age and our ultimate loyalty belongs to that age.

            I don’t know if I have space here to lay all this out. American Christians seem to struggle with this. Many of us are deeply suspicious of our government, but we deeply love our country., and both are, in their own ways, problematic. As far as the government is concerned, I refer you to Romans 13, where Paul asserts that everyone in authority is there because God has placed him there. So, the Christian is called to obedience to the government, except when the government would order us to do something contrary to God’s will (compare Acts 5:29). As far as loving our nation, we face questions of syncretism and of allegiance. Syncretism is when you try to merge two different things and worship them together as if they were the same thing. And indeed, since the founding, Americans have often conflated their nation and their faith. (The Puritan settlers in New England were the most obvious offenders with their talk that their new colony was “the city set on a hill.”) Syncretism is an attempt to be equally loyal to two different things, to have the best of two worlds. And throughout the Gospel, Jesus has been clear—primary allegiance belongs to God and to God alone.

            These are difficult questions, and they’re not as simple as yes and no. They are about living with the appropriate balance. I’d be happy to speak to this in our Wednesday Bible study on April 22. Bring it up then, if you’d like to pursue it further.

            The second topic is marriage. Here again, Jesus’ enemies are trying to trap Him, and He neatly avoids the trap. But His answer gives us pause, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” We live in an era of family values. For many of us, nothing is more important than family, whether our children or our spouses. And this is just the latest in a series of sayings in which Jesus is almost dismissive of family.

            I’ve been studying the Biblical teaching on marriage for two decades; I even wrote a chapter for a book (never published) on the topic. Here’s a summary of that study: marriage is a penultimate estate. This statement is plain even in our wedding vows, where we declare our faithfulness “until death parts us.” Marriage lasts until death, not beyond. In the resurrection.

            Consider this: if my spouse is a believer (and for the record, mine is…), then we relate to each other in at least two ways: first, we are husband and wife, but we are also brother and sister in Christ. When one of us passes, we will cease to be husband and wife; what will remain into eternity is our relationship as brother and sister in Christ. This, too, is a difficult topic and one that I am happy to address at our midweek chat next week.

            To briefly summarize: Christ’s people are to keep their priorities straight. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 (incidentally, my confirmation verse): “Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” It is good to rejoice in God’s good gifts of country and family, but let us never fall into the trap of making them the highest value, a position that belongs to the Giver of all good gifts.