INTRODUCTION
One day Satan was traveling through the villages of India with his attendants. Along the way, he noticed a man doing a walking meditation. The man’s face was lit up in wonder. Apparently, the man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Satan’s attendants, noticing the glow emanating from the man, asked Satan what it was the man had discovered. Satan replied, "He has discovered a piece of truth." "But evil one!" exclaimed one of his entourage, "Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of the truth?" "No," said Satan. "I am not troubled in the least." "But why not?” insisted his attendants. "Because," replied Satan, chuckling, "Right after they discover some truth, they make it into an absolute decree."
It is very common for people to seek out absolutes by which to live. But it is a sign of spiritual barrenness to conceive everything in terms of black and white. It is a sign of spiritual poverty when everything is reduced to right or wrong, true or false, proper or improper. It is a sign that you do not understand and appreciate God’s world when you look at a person and declare, without qualification, that he is either good or bad, a sinner or a saint. The Pharisees were the good church people of their day, and yet they were spiritually poor. Because they were poor, they looked at Jesus and got very confused. Actually, Jesus taught many things about the Kingdom of God that they could agree with, things like - God will judge evil doers and condemn them. Yet Jesus associated with people who were obvious doers of evil: prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, and the like. The Pharisees could not understand that. They were also uncertain about how to classify Jesus because he taught that obedience to God and his law was necessary, yet he healed people and allowed his disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath day. Jesus also bothered them, because while he taught the importance of holiness, a concept that was a part of their faith. He kept condemning the very people who seemed to them to be the most holy people, the teachers of the law, and the hard working priests at the temple. Jesus disturbed the Pharisees, He upset the world they had created by their absolutes. And so they ended up rejecting Jesus, because what he said and did would not fit into their neat little boxes, those boxes which defined for them what was good and what was bad; what was holy and what was unholy.
THE TRAP IS LAID
One day - after having decided that Jesus was a danger to the true faith of Israel, (at least to the faith as they defined it,) The Pharisees decide to trap Jesus in his own words. They decide to question him about his stand on the poll tax, the tax that every person in the Roman Empire had to pay to Caesar. They decide to ask Jesus if paying taxes to Caesar is lawful, knowing full well that if he says NO - then the Roman authorities would arrest him
for treason, and that if he says YES - then many of the people would reject him for blasphemy, because it would imply that he did not believe Israel was God’s chosen nation.
They believed that their question was exceptionally clever, and it was. As a black and white question for the time and place that Jesus was in, it was a hard one to beat. It was the kind of question that gets a person, and damns them no matter how they answer it, like the question posed by the old joke: WHEN DID YOU STOP BEATING YOUR WIFE? Let there be no mistake, the Pharisees and the Herodians, were out to get Jesus. They could not accept what he did and what he claimed because his actions and his claims did not fit their preconceptions of what God was like and how God worked in the world.
THE TRAP IS THROWN
The scriptures say that Jesus knew their evil intentions and said to them; YOU HYPOCRITES - WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO TRAP ME? SHOW ME THE COIN THAT IS USED FOR PAYING THE TAX. The Scripture then goes on to tell us that the coin is produced and that Jesus asks them "WHOSE IMAGE AND INSCRIPTION IS ON THE COIN" They reply - CAESAR’S And Jesus answers them - SO GIVE TO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR’S AND GIVE TO GOD WHAT IS GOD’S... You hypocrites, Jesus said, Why are you trying to trap me?..... Hypocrisy is defined in dictionaries as claiming a virtue one does not have. It comes from the root word in the Greek - to play a part or to act on the stage. The part, or role, that the Pharisees were playing was the role of the holy, and Jesus, by calling them hypocrites, suggests that they are not really people who know God, and understand his law. The Pharisees are called hypocrites by Jesus, not just because they are trying to trap him, they are called hypocrites by Jesus, because they refuse to go beyond what they knew of God.
TO KNOW GOD
You can not really know God if you refuse to let God be more than what you already know about him. And what do we know about God? Some of us know God hates sin - and so we feel very bad all the time because we know we are sinners and do not believe that God, or anyone else for that matter, can or should love us. Others of us know that God loves and forgives sinners, and so we feel confident and never really question our actions, because we believe that God will overlook any so-called "small" mistakes we make now that we are his followers. The first group traps God in a box of judgment, the second traps God in a box of forgiveness, and neither, unless their minds and hearts open, can let the real God both judge and forgive them. Neither group really experiences the fullness of God. They trap God by their own understandings and thus end up with only a shadow of what they should have. Sadly, they play a spiritual role, rather than live a spiritual life.
That is the kind of problem Jesus faced when the Pharisees looked at him and compared that he did and said to what they did and said. So many of us, in fact all of us, want to put God and His ways into easy-to-grasp categories. But Jesus wouldn’t settle for God in a box, faith all wrapped up and finished with a bow. Instead Jesus said: "Render that which is Caesar’s to Caesar and to God that which is God’s." Jesus chose to give us a challenging answer to an impossible question. He told his listeners to give the emperor what is the emperor’s, and to give God what is his. But notice! Jesus never told them directly which was which. He left it for them to decide on the basis of their own faith and reason. Christians have been trying to figure out that answer ever since. Many times we look for the easy answer, to decide what part of life belongs to our Caesar’s and what part should we ‘give over’ to God.
But that is not what Jesus said. Jesus asked these religious folks for a coin, and he asked them Who’s image is this? Who made this coin? Who owns the coin? Who gives value to it? Who did you get it from? Caesar, of course. And Jesus said, Give it back to him then.
It’s really quite simple. It’s not yours. It was provided for you to use. But, it really belongs to someone else. So, give it back!" It’s as simple as that. But, then there’s the second part of the answer. Jesus also said, "... and (give back) to God what is God’s." This is the real point of His answer. Jesus was saying their neatly wrapped world was too small. Their black and white rules missed the full color of God’s glory. Their easy answer even missed the heart of their own question. Jesus said “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Jesus was implying there is a realm other than Rome, there is a kingdom not of the earth. And the things that belong to that king also need to be given back to him. Whatever bears the image of God needs to return to God. When Jesus asked to see Caesar’s coin he noted it bore a royal image. And with his masterful reply Jesus reminded us of another image. One we think we already know, but fail to grasp. AND GOD SAID, LET US MAKE MANKIND IN OUR IMAGE, AND LET THEM BEAR OUR LIKENESS. We bear the royal stamp of God upon us, we are his kingdom’s royal coin. Jesus sees that image and he would ask us, Who’s image is this? Who made this life? Who owns it? Who gives value to it? Who did you get it from? Our Creator, of course. And Jesus would challenge us, Give it back to God then. It’s really quite simple. This life is not yours. It was provided for you to use. But, it really belongs to someone else. So, give it back!" It’s as simple as that.
CONCLUSION
A coin may bear the image of an emperor. But you and I bear the image of God. And since God is the maker of heaven and earth and of all the fullness thereof, then God is concerned with the totality of every human life. In living a life which honors that truth, we cannot settle for boxes which compartmentalize our faith, rules that limit our involvement with God, and his involvement with us, easy answers that hide the mystery of God - with - us. The question is not what is Caesar’s and what is God’s, Or what is mine, and what is His. It’s all his, the question is, are you giving back to God what is truly His.