Did you know that there are two Christian traditions? Cornel West calls them the Constantinian and Prophetic traditions but others have called them by other names. Constantine was the Roman emperor who having seen a vision of a burning cross decided that the entire empire would adopt Christianity. That same empire which had killed Jesus and so viscously persecuted the early church. The Gospel was never designed to function hand in fist with empire, be it American, British or Roman. Jesus presented such a challenge to the authorities of His day that they went to great lengths, not only to kill Him, but to discredit Him by crucifying Him by the method reserved for terrorists. 

Now it's easy as Brits to point the finger across to the big bad American empire, but the empire that we live under is truly international. For the first time in history we have enough food to feed us all but not the will to make it go round. There are still hundreds of millions in the developing world who live in extreme poverty. There is systemic injustice in the global economy which makes and keeps people poor, and it is that same injustice that gives us a quarter pounder with cheese for £1.19. Meanwhile at home we continue to subsidise the arms industry, to spend billions on war and to perpetuate gross injustices which are based on a financial model which is antithetical to biblical values. Our society has become so creatively and morally bankrupt that there are millions of people who feel that they have no reason to get up for work in the morning, meanwhile we treat the migrant in our land worse than stray dogs.

Yet Jesus' gospel was so radical, so subversive that the authorities put him to death. Jesus famously said "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". I have heard so many people use this passage to justify full compliance with our own empire, no questions asked. If that is you, I'm sorry but you have missed the point entirely. The religious authorities were sick of Jesus and they were trying to catch him out so they asked Him "should we pay our taxes?" Jesus found a coin and said "it's Caesar's head on the coin, so give him what belongs to him but give God what belongs to God" (my paraphrase). Matthew says they were amazed by His answer. Now I don't know many Christians that would find this question particularly troublesome, and I know even fewer that would be amazed by Jesus' response. The religious authorities knew that if He said no, He would be in trouble with the Romans, that much is obvious, but why were they under the impression that He might say yes?! More puzzling still, in what way would He be compromised by saying yes and what was so amazing about His response? You can read the whole story for yourself in Matthew 22:15-22.

I am not going to spend time exploring my thoughts on those questions, I'd rather those come out in conversation in the comments. I'm not smart enough to exegete all the passages which deal with taxation so I am not proposing that you stop paying your income tax! What I am saying is that we should be the kind of Christians that when the religious authorities try and catch us out, they will ask us questions like "should we pay tax?" Being far worse at handling religious authorities than Jesus, I will continue to struggle with my response for far longer than He did. We are living in the shadows of empire, about this there can be no quarrel, but we are faced with a choice. Two Christian traditions, one embedded with power and stately authority and another intertwined with God's power and imbued with Jesus kind of authority, exemplified in one supreme act of resistance on the cross. So what kind of Christians will we be? Which tradition will we choose into? The Constantinian or Prophetic?