the mint
i just squeaked under the wire this year paying my taxes, and right in the middle of my week of trying to get them done, i read this:
Mark 12.13-17 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” And they brought it (the coin). And he said unto them, “Whose is this image and superscription?” And they said unto him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus answering said unto them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marvelled at him.
nowadays, taxes can be painful and inconvenient, but in Jesus’ time there was no sorer subject. the roman empire had conquered the known world, and laid claim to the wealth of all nations. to the humiliated jewish nation, these abusive roman taxes were slowly but surely draining their lifeblood & rubbing their noses in their own helplessness; and it was totally obvious that the Messiah needed to come (maccabean-style) and overthrow the evil romans. and here after 3 years of rising to fame and notoriety in israel, Jesus had shown absolutely no promise as a military leader.
so this tax question was supposed to be a once-for-all paralyzing blow to Jesus’ credibility and career. there was no way he could win with this question. if he said YES, it was proof that he was no challenge to rome, & therefore not the Messiah. if he said NO, the jewish leaders had all the ammunition they needed to have the romans snuff him out. so Jesus’ answer is amazing just for the fact that it got him out of a jam.
but way beyond that, in taking the focus off rendering to caesar, & placing it on rendering to God what is God’s, Jesus was divinely re-casting the role of Messiah for all who had ears to hear. of course this applies to what we give to God in tithes and offerings, but – what the Messiah had really come for was to re-cast our very nature in the IMAGE of God. as i just wrote that last sentence, so many scriptures flooded my mind that i don’t really even know where to start, except here:
Romans 8.29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
when we speak out as living letters from God, as ambassadors for Christ appealing to people everywhere to be reconciled to God, when we go into all the world making disciples everywhere, warning and teaching them to observe and do everything Jesus commanded so that we may present every man perfect in Christ – we are holding up Jesus (Christ in us our confidence of glory) as living proof of the image of God restored to human flesh. 2000 years ago, rome may have temporarily won the world through years of military conquest; but Jesus subjected himself to a torturous death on a roman cross, and then conquered all death and hell by rising from the grave, and right now has all authority on heaven and earth. just as the coin was the symbol and proof that caesar had an undeniable claim on the wealth of all his subjects, so the unmistakable image and imprint of Christ in us is the symbol and proof God is holding out to men and women everywhere that they belong to him: body, soul, mind, and spirit.
so yeah…taxes whatever…render to God what is God’s >>
A very interesting point you make in all this. It’s fine that every Lincoln goes to where Lincoln reigned, but how much moreso should we, imprinted with the image of Christ, be given back to where Christ reigns. Also, our pennies are not only used in taxes, but also in investments, full expecting returns from all our wisely spent money. Again, how much moreso, while we are present on the earth, should we invest the Christ in us in beneficial returns, which Christians know to be people, unsaved and fallen people, down people, out people, our families, spouses, children, parents, etc… Thank you for this post, it had my mind flooding with joy and ponderings!
Amen…as another author put it, “the coin was made in the image of Caesar, but Caesar was made in the image of God”.And we are God’s witnesses, that the world’s worship belongs alone to Him. I’m currently reading “City of God”, by Augustine. It was written during the crumbling of the Roman Empire, and it’s blowing my mind in many ways very similar to this little ditty of yours.
I like what theologian John Caputo said – in either ‘The Weakness of God: a Theology of the Event’ or ‘On Religion’ – that ‘give ceaser what is ceasers’ means you pay Ceasor his taxes and then you tell him where he can stick them!
haa, yeah…i honestly have no problem paying taxes. you’d be hard-pressed to find a more politically tweaked & abusive system (towards believers) than the roman empire under nero’s reign – yet everything written in the New Testament then was “pay your taxes, honor the authorities.” we like to get all up in arms over anything that threatens us or our money, meanwhile…
what about God’s return on investment? if our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, where in 2011 is the zeal for God’s house? if God didn’t spare his only begotten Son, but delivered him over to torture & death for us, is anyone willing to bear his image?
here’s 2 simple illustrations. 1) there are light years between the statements “christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” and “for you to see me is to see Jesus.” one of them is philosophy, & one comes from the New Testament.
2) my daughter was starting to talk back to my wife a lot a few months back. i sat her down & had her promise me she wouldn’t ever talk back to her mom again. she started crying because she so badly didn’t want to ever break a promise (which i love about her). what she didn’t understand was that every time she talked back to her mom, she was disobeying God, which is just as bad as breaking a promise. so having her promise she would stop doing that was simply taking responsibility before God – instead of saying “well i’ll do my best, but whatever happens happens.” when your conscience meets what you really deeply desire, you have consecration. she did promise, & things really did change.
if we as God’s people are willing to continue on in a christians-aren’t-perfect-just-forgiven (or i’ll-do-my-best-but-whatever-happens-happens) dual-nature mentality, the world won’t have a clear picture of Jesus. but if together we are willing to ask God what it means to bear his image, to live as someone created in the image of God and fully redeemed & Spirit-filled to live as his exact representation – the same passion that gripped paul & john & the entire early church will grip us. at some point the world needs to see the Word of God (made flesh) written clearly all over our lives >>