I turned over a new leaf last year: I filed my taxes a month before they were due. This year, unfortunately, I'm back to my old tricks. I'll be with the throng of last-minute filers causing a pedestrian and auto traffic jam at the Capitol Hill post office late tonight.
Easter fell within a day of the tax deadline this year. Most religion reporters wouldn't think twice about it. Peggy Fletcher Stack, the Salt Lake Tribune's longtime religion reporter, wrote a compelling story about it. She interviews local Latter-day Saints who say folks should pay their taxes, libertarians who oppose current tax policy and liberals who oppose tax breaks for those who earn profits. Many have heard Jesus' saying, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." It's a complex saying, one which has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Stack provides some context:
When the Jewish leaders asked Jesus whether it was lawful to pay Roman taxes, they were setting a kind of trap for him. If he said "yes," he would be siding with the despised Jews who collaborated with Rome and if he said "no," he would be arrested.
How to deal with these competing claims?
"In my view Jesus teaches that, for survival, one pays, but one does so knowing a greater loyalty and knowing that soon 'the kingdom or empire of God' will be established in full and it will be the end of Rome," [Warren] Carter[, who teaches at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo.,] says. "Jesus' answer resists Rome's attempts to humiliate, it secures the dignity of those forced to pay, reminds them of their identity in God's purposes, and points to the sure completion of those purposes."
The article also looks at how Jesus treated tax collectors, and puts it in a modern context:
Today's Internal Revenue Service is only slightly more popular than tax collectors were in Jesus' time. Many Americans live in fear of being audited or having to deal with one of its agents, despite filing on-time, legitimate forms.
But they don't have to worry about being cheated or extorted.
In ancient Jerusalem, tax collectors were often locals who contracted to gather a certain amount of wealth to hand on up the imperial system. After paying Rome, these locals -- also called "publicans" -- were free to collect from the people as they wished and free to make a profit for themselves. They were regarded as traitors, as complicit with the exploiting Romans, or as thieves who collected too much and kept the extra, Carter says.
Jesus spent a lot of time hanging out with these tax collectors, choosing one (Matthew) as his apostle, eating at their houses and using them to make a point in one of his famous parables.
In that story, Jesus described two men going to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee (a temple official) and the other was a publican. The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other men - extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even the publican.
The publican, meanwhile, looks down and says, simply, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
Jesus tells his listeners that of the two, the publican and anyone who is humble will be exalted in heaven.
"He never ever taught that there was anything inherently wrong with paying tribute to the Roman Government or collecting the tax," [scholar Marcus] Borg writes. "He was opposed to extortioners, but would fling open the door of repentance and salvation to them. He rejected none, not even the worst."
The prayer of the publican is not something you find in mainstream media very often. And yet it is a prayer that many millions of Christians offer throughout each day. Stack managed to write about both worlds that many of her readers live in -- the world where laws are administered and enforced and the world where Jesus' words reign supreme. It's a delicate art, and she did a great job writing about both Easter and tax day.