Journey’s End
This is the last installment of my series exploring the scriptural basis of pacifism based upon the seminal work of Jean Lasserre, War and the Gospel. The last section deals with the role of the state. I will conclude with comments on the general role of the state in the Christian conscience. Lasserre goes on to apply his thesis to several topics, but this is unnecessary for me as there is no role for the state, therefore nothing to apply. The only real conversation to be had is how to peacefully dismantle the government. Let’s unravel the case for the government as being in any way consistent with the Gospel. First, let’s tackle the sinful nature of the thing itself.
Original Sin and the Conflation with God
Original sin is not much talked about anymore, but we have institutionalized it in the form of government. Let me explain. If we look at the story of the Fall it is not about simple disobedience. Genesis 3:5 has the serpent stating about the forbidden fruit “for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Thus, Original Sin is really about conflation of humanity with God. This has been our problem ever since. Even Paul recognizes the issue with this as he states that Christ “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,” (Phil 2:6). If Christ does not grasp equality with God we had best not even consider it.
Government’s Astounding Claim
So, what has this to do with government? Everything, as it turns out. Governments of any size claim for themselves the knowledge to make decisions for other people. As governments grow this claim only grows with it. By the time, you get a government the size of the U.S. government the claim is astounding. The federal government regulates everything from how much water flushes down your toilet to the shape of your electrical outlets to how your cars run. This is just the micro regulations. At the macro level the government sets the interest rate (the single most important price in the economy), regulates hundreds if not thousands of agricultural and industrial prices, subsidizes production across industries as well as managing the labor market via union policy and immigration flows. In short it massively interferes with the interactions of 340 million Americans who make billions of decisions every day.
The Limits of Centralized Knowledge
There are many theoretical economic and practical arguments showing how governments create distortions that retard wealth creation. See Hayek and Mises for a practical demolition of the idea that the government can effectively utilize economy-wide knowledge to manage human affairs. If you want the easiest to understand explanation of how information is shared in a modern society read Leonard E. Read’s masterpiece I Pencil in which he states of a #2 lead pencil that “not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me.” It is astounding that anything gets built in our world and yet it occurs because information is diffuse and available and actionable by those who know what to do with it: individual market participants, not an all-seeing government bureaucracy.
Government as Institutionalized Original Sin
What these works will drive home is that there is only one entity in all the universe that could possibly possess enough knowledge to command an economy and that is God. It is the height of human arrogance to believe otherwise. Therefore, it is clear that government itself is the institutionalization of Original Sin. God, after having justly kicked us out of Eden, gave us the resources, in and on the Earth, to create an unimaginably high level of comfort for an unimaginably wide range of people if we but follow His direction and peacefully cooperate. That cannot happen when we allow a group of potentates to conflate themselves with God.
Romans 13 and the Christian Response
Now I know that the standard Biblical justification for government is Romans 13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God”. Using this and subsequent verses as a justification of government is a serious misinterpretation of this text. God is working out everything in His creation for His purposes, which as Christians we believe are merciful and redemptive. Yes, somehow, government serves these purposes, often in ways we do not understand. We are called to respond to government and everything else in a Gospel manner; with love, patience and absolute non-violence. As Paul states “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.” (Rom12:17) What we are never called to do is to remain silent. That government and everything else is a part of the Orders of Creation and is used by God is not at all the same thing as granting moral acceptance of government and anything it might do. To go down this path leads to all sorts of moral danger, like justifying genocide or total war. A good, accessible view of Romans 13 can be found here. As well as in the basis of this series, the work of Jean Lasserre.
Violating the First Commandment
Further, government violates the First Commandment. The first thing a government, any government, wants is obeisance and worship. As an example, consider the first words above the statue at the Lincoln Memorial “In this Temple…”. Seriously, a temple? From Pledges of Allegiance to standing during the national anthem (like it is Amazing Grace or something) to all the other outward forms of religious observance, governments demand worship. These are only U.S. examples; it is worse in other countries. No matter the epoch or the culture, government places itself as the highest most important power in the world. Few things should be more offensive to the Christian conscience than this.
Violating God’s Other Commandments
While we’re at it government violates the Fifth Commandment not to kill. I offer as proof, all of recorded history. Government also violates the Seventh Commandment not to steal. Taxation is theft and being in a majority does not make this acceptable as moral rights don’t accumulate. Clearly government violates the Golden Rule as nobody would have done to themselves what they ask government to do to others. It also violates the New Commandment (JN 13:31-34) as government does not allow us to love one another as God loves us. In short there is nothing in the life and teaching of Jesus that should make us grant an imprimatur of Christian approval to government. In fact, Jesus explicitly rejects this “and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ (MT 4:9-10). Given this scriptural backdrop, how do view what Jesus had to say on the matter?
Attempted Entrapment
To do this I will look at the text in Matthew 22:15-22. This is the famous story of the “render unto God what is God’s and render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” statement by Jesus. It starts with one of the frequent attempts of the Pharisees to entrap Jesus and put Him in an uncomfortable situation. My view of this text is heavily influenced by Jean Lasserre’s War and the Gospel, specifically pp. 86-94, which I will first briefly summarize before adding some thoughts of my own.
In this text, Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and the Herodians whether it is lawful to pay the Roman tribute or not. That is, is it contrary to the First Commandment to do so. They are of course trying to trap Jesus. If He says yes, then He is acting contrary to the law, and is not the Messiah. If He says no, then He is a threat to the Roman state. The nationalistic Pharisees want a no, the collaborationist Herodians want a yes.
An Escape with A Stunning Response
In His answer, what Jesus does not do is offer a generalized defense of the state or its activities, contrary to what many commentators believe, far from it as I shall argue. Nor is He relegating the church to a simple spiritual role of “caring for souls”. He is answering a question regarding the payment of this tribute. In His answer, Jesus avoids both a yes and a no.
Jesus forces the questioners to produce the very coin they are discussing from their own pockets and making them verbalize whose image and inscription is on the coin; that of Caesar. In so doing, He unmasks their hypocrisy and clearly shows that they have answered their own question. He simply says that if it is Caesar’s coin, then give it back to him. That He does not comment further indicates that He is alright with paying or not paying, He is not blaming them. Jesus knows the insoluble problem here; pay and possibly violate the First Commandment, refuse and be crushed by Rome. He leaves it to each to determine what they are called to do. In answering this way, He simply indicates that Caesar has de facto political authority.
What Lasserre points out, however, is that Jesus gives a truly Messianic answer to this question. First, by answering in a way that gives Him the decision as to what is God’s and what is Caesar’s He is answering as Messiah. That there is even an idea of a split was a serious challenge to Caesar, who considered himself a god. Second by forcing them to produce the coin and offering a recognition of Caesar’s de facto power Jesus emphasizes the earthly limitations of Caesar’s authority, also a Messianic statement.
By saying give to Caesar what is Caesars’s, a coin and give to God what is God’s, Jesus is making an explicitly Messianic claim. We know what He thinks we owe to God; everything. Later in the same chapter of Matthew (MT 22:34-40), Jesus indicates what He thinks is the greatest Commandment “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” (emphasis mine). Yes, Caesar has de facto earthly authority, but that authority comes from God, as Jesus would remind Pilate later. All political authority serves God’s purposes for the merciful redemption of His creation, whether we understand it or not (that fact does not make it morally tolerable, however). By positioning Himself as the arbiter between God and the world He is also making another explicitly Messianic claim. In the process, He clearly delineates the truly limited authority Caesar possess. As Lasserre states “Caesar demands this coin, which belongs to him; so return it to him. It makes absolutely no difference to the Messiah’s kingdom”.
A Very Seditious Jesus
It is here that I think Lasserre fails to grasp the importance of his own insight. In stating Caesar’s irrelevancy, Jesus is not offering a withdrawal from politics or a life of quietism. He is in fact making a bold political statement and a profoundly radical and seditious one at that. If you want to make a Caesar red-faced with apoplexy, then claim that they are irrelevant. Earthly powers would rather you pick up a gun and attack them than to claim they are irrelevant. All regimes depend upon what Ludwig von Mises termed “ideological might” for survival. This is the widespread belief that like it or not the political authorities are relevant and legitimate. If a state loses this, they lose control. It would not even take anything close to a majority for this to happen. If, say 20% of U.S. taxpayers simply refused to pay then the game’s up and the IRS knows it.
This is what makes the message of Jesus such a threat to the state. In giving all our lives to God there is no room for state idolatry. Yes, they can exercise all the earthly power they want, God is using them for His purposes and there is nothing the state can do to change this fact. The life death and Resurrection of Jesus destroys any allegiance we may feel to earthly powers and turns all our attention to serving God. So, give to God what is His; everything, as for Caesar… you decide. Reasonable people of good faith will earnestly debate the limits of state authority. I have clearly staked out my position. The state is violence, violence is proscribed to the followers of Jesus, therefore there is no role for the state for the followers of Jesus. Many will disagree, but at least understand that this passage, like all the others I have discussed in this series is calling us to place God before all, out of our faith that His word is true. That is, believe and then obey.
Praise Be to God
