Giving to Caesar What is Caesar’s
I often hear “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” in deference to Christians keeping their commitments to governmental powers that are over us. This does not stay true to Jesus’ original intent nor does it honor the context. This story begins when several Pharisees approach Jesus in an attempt to disarm Him with their flattery. They call Him Rabbi, a person of integrity, and someone who teaches the way of God. People like this want to entangle Jesus in a web of their own making rather than submitting their life to the reign of Christ. I have no doubt that there are people like this in our churches today.
The Pharisees question to Jesus that day reveals a politically volatile issue in Israel and not surprisingly we also find it in America today. Are we called to obey a government when that government is asking/requiring us to do something that goes against biblical standards? The people in Jesus day were subjected to intense taxation, which some have estimated that each Jewish family paid approximately 45-50% of their annual income in various taxes and the money bore an idolatrous inscription.
When Jesus was asked his opinion on whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar or not, Jesus answered his accusers by asking for one of the relevant coins. He took the initiative away from them and forced them to reveal their hand. The coin bore an image and superscription, which were, from a Jewish perspective, blasphemous against God. On one side was the profile of Tiberius Caesar with the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” and then on the other was an image of Pax, the Roman goddess of peace, with the inscription “High Priest.” Caesar’s coin becomes the symbol of one who exalts themselves as God and arranges their world around their own ego. Each and every one of us, if left unchecked, will have tendencies to do the exact same thing.
Jesus responds by saying “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” This statement is often times contextually confused to mean the neat division of loyalties: state and church, Caesar and God, held in a delicate tension. The fact is that it is just the opposite. It is a coded statement of Jesus’ own kingdom-agenda for a radical alternative of thought and action. The main question raised in the statement is, “What exactly is God’s?” But the real question is “What exactly isn’t God’s?” If we give everything that belongs to God to Him there will not be anything left for Caesar.
By these words Jesus is beginning a revolution of the heart that needs to continue today in our hearts. Had Jesus told the disciples to revolt against Caesar? Had he told them to pay the tax? Had he told them not to pay the tax? He had done both and neither at the same time. Nobody could deny that what Jesus was saying wasn’t revolutionary in nature, nor could anyone say that Jesus had forbidden them to pay the tax.
Give to God what is God’s is a call to worship the one true God and serve Him only. This also means that we are to give to God alone the divine honor claimed blasphemously by the pursuit of wealth and capitalism. This is not a summons to a detached piety but rather a call to renounce capitalism, and to worship and serve the true God and nothing else. For with God directing our resources how could we go wrong? We have neutered Jesus and his revolutionary ways. Our preference is the meek Jesus holding a baby lamb and not the Jesus that sole desire is to turn over the tables of our hearts.
This serves the question, “Are we going to give God what is His or are we going to continue to serve Caesar?” What God wants is all of you, your whole being, no strings attached.
Jesus declares that there is a revolution that is happening but it will come in quite a different way, through the self-offering to God of His people. This Kingdom does not come through the non-payment of taxes to Caesar. Rather it is a matter of total obedience to, and imitation of Jesus, who is mimicking His Father in heaven.
Jesus invited the group who accused him to follow him in his royal movement, however, it is very clear that those who were coming to “trap” or “catch” him went away amazed; coming back to attempt another seizure at a later time and date. All the while the disciples were amazed about how Jesus could conceal a revolution in such wisdom. Are we ready to join Jesus in his royal movement?
Many years ago an American church leader named Wilbur Chapman asked the founder of The Salvation Army, General William Booth, if he could explain why his work had prospered so. “He hesitated for a second,” Dr. Chapman said, “and . . . I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal down his cheeks, and then [General Booth] said, ‘Sir, I will tell you the secret. God has had all of me. There have been men with greater brains, men with greater opportunities, but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth that there was. And if there is any power in The Salvation Army today,’ he said, ‘it is because God has all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.’”
What did William Booth give to God?—“all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.” The best thing I can tell us today is for us to: Render to God that which is God’s.
Matthew 22:15-21, {15} “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. {16} They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. {17} Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” {18} But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? {19} Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, {20} and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” {21} Caesar’s, they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”