Over the past weeks we have covered quite a bit of the Book of Matthew. Chapter 21 and 22 has held a special place for us as we have studies the authority of Jesus questioned, The Parable of the Two Sons, The Parable of the Tenants, The Parable of the Wedding Banquet, and this past week, Jesus questioned about paying taxes to Caesar.
The paying of taxes to Caesar, I feel, was especially appropriate as we find ourselves in a time of presidential re-election. Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees disciples and the Herodians about taxes. They really didn’t care about an answer as their motivation was to trap Jesus in His words.
They began by first flattering Jesus to sound sincere, and then asked if, “it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not” (Matthew 22:17). Of course, Jesus saw through them and their motivation for asking this question immediately. He asked for and received a Denarius. He held up the coin asked his questioners, “Whose portrait is this? And who’s inscription? (Matthew 22: 20). “Caesar’s” was their reply. And Jesus replied simply, “Give to Caesar what is Caesars, and to God what is God’s.”
That simple reply from Jesus is a great theological response and prophetic word for us all. Jesus refuses to play the game. He doesn’t answer their question; at least not in the way they want. Instead he deepens the question and turns it into a question of faith and life. If the coin belongs to the emperor, then the human being belongs to God. Each has been marked with the image of its owner. We have been coined in the image of God.
In a time of endless political commercials, name calling, angry outbursts, misleading answers to tough questions, we must never lose sight of who we truly belong to, and that is to God. To quote a portion of my sermon on Sunday, October 18th 2020, there will always be issues to address: taxes, economics, church-state relationships, war, personal finances, marriage, children. The list will go on and on. Some are global while others are more local and personal. The danger is that in dealing with the issues we sometimes deny, confuse, or forget in whose image we and “the other” have been coined.
Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus is not separating the secular and the sacred, spirit and matter, divine and human. He is inviting us to hold them in tension; to unite the two and in so doing become the currency of God’s life in the world. Peace be with you all,
