There has been a lot of debate over the last few months on whether the new stimulus package is necessary or even moral. One of the biggest objections that I have heard is that people don’t want the government spending “their money” (that the government collected through taxes) on things that they don’t believe in or support. I fully understand this point of view and being fairly conservative would appreciate the government letting me support my own causes with the money I earn. But I was reading the Gospel of Matthew the other day and came upon chapter 22 where the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus in his words by asking if it was right to pay taxes to Cesar or not.

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Mathew 22:18-21)

It reminded me again how little ownership we really have. As stewards, we understand that the possessions, talents, and gifts that we have are all given to us by God to manage. But we forget that the money we use on a daily basis is minted and given value by the government. In fact, according to Matthew 22, the government owns the money that we use every day. Now this obviously does not supersede Gods ownership of everything on earth but it does show us that the money that the government collects for taxes was never our money to begin with. Just as we are to give to the Lord from our first fruits, what is already his, Jesus tells us that we are to give to Caesar what is Caesars. It doesn’t matter if we agree with what the Government is doing with the money because it is theirs to do what they want with. The stewards that are in charge of it, will be judged accordingly just like in the parable of the talents. God will not hold us responsible for what is done with the taxes collected.

So while we may agree or disagree with the way the Government is spending tax dollars, we have to remember that it was never ours to begin with. We are fortunate enough to live in a time where we can choose who will be in charge of spending our money but that is the extent of our tax accountability. If there are any other opinions out there I would be glad to hear them.