In Matthew 23, Jesus calls the Pharisees out for a strange practice – they tithe their household spices, but they “neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faithfulness.” What Jesus is doing here is not denouncing the practice of tithing, but rather pointing out that the Pharisees have gotten to a point where they are misunderstanding the practice.
I don’t know how the Pharisees got to that point, but I imagine that it was probably by not talking about it honestly enough. At least that is how I think it happens for American Christians. American Christians are loathe to talk tithing. Maybe it’s because we’re a part of a materialist culture, maybe it’s because our nation was partially based on tax reform and sometimes tithing sounds like a tax. Whatever the reason, we don’t talk about it often. But because we don’t talk about it often, there can be some misunderstandings about it.
So this week with our red letter challenge being “do not neglect the tithe,” we can talk about some of that in the hopes of you actually understanding and feeling more free (as opposed to compelled by guilt).
First the word. Tithe. This word literally means “a tenth” and was the expectation from Leviticus for people to give of their crops. This is why the Pharisees in Matthew are likely tithing their “mint and cumin,” because they were probably growing those things in their garden. The idea expanded out to cattle and other trades to the point where 10% of one’s livelihood was sacrificed. This was the base giving for most Israelites, but most Israelites didn’t stop there, but offered additional “offerings” as well, some of which were prescribed by the Old Testament laws.
Sacrificed. So the expectation in Israel was that your tithe did not go to the temple, but rather that your tithe was actually burned up on the altar. So realistically, you’re doing an awesome job tithing if you take 10% of what you earn in cash, take that into your driveway in a metal bowl, pour lighter fluid on it and set it ablaze. A later practice actually allowed the offerings to go to the temple as long as the donors themselves didn’t have control over the funds themselves anymore. This means that it is still a sacrifice for you to give to church or to a non-profit or even just another person as long as you’re not receiving anything back in terms of value.
Your tithe, if you give it to University Lutheran, actually goes into the budget. In that budget, the Council and finally the congregation decide what kinds of good work we can get done in God’s name. A good chunk of that goes to having a weekly worship service here, it also goes to providing counsel for people, helping run the administrative things of the church, and a few specific good deeds. Most of this we do with most people not giving their entire 10% tithe to University Lutheran, and with many of our tithers being students who don’t have much income to tithe from.
But it’s important for us in this discussion to ground it in what Jesus said in Matthew 23, our tithing is still less important than the “weightier matters of the Law: justice, and mercy, and faithfulness.” Those are the things that Jesus says matter more to God than our tithing. And those are the things that Jesus took upon Himself for us – He submitted to God’s justice for us, He showed us mercy, and He was ultimately faithful to the Father and to us. All of that means that our lives are in His hands no matter if we tithe our incomes or our cumin, because He paid for us.