Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’ They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’
Matthew 22:19-21 NIVUK
I received a nice surprise recently. I was at my daughter’s last ever concert at school when the girl who took my ticket recognised me.
That might seem like nothing. However, she wasn’t one of my daughter’s friends. She wasn’t even in her year. She might have come to know my daughter through her teaching music to first year students, or from her work for an anti-bullying campaign, or because she was Depute Head Girl.
But connecting her to me was quite a surprise. I didn’t know this girl. I had never met her before in my life. My daughter and I look a little different. I'm a white Scottish, balding with flecks of grey, middle-aged male. She is a pretty mixed-race teenage girl with long, dark, wavy hair.
Yet this girl I didn’t know saw something of my daughter in me and realised I was her dad.
I’m still wondering how my daughter feels about that.
These verses show Jesus at His intellectual best. With just one sentence, consisting of two phrases, He not only gets Himself out of the trap the Pharisees and Herodians have set for Him, He also hits them with one titanic challenge: give to God what is God’s.
But what could He mean?
Well, I’ll go back to my earlier illustration, and add Jesus’ too. The Roman coins all had Caesar’s face stamped into them. It let the world know that these are legitimate Roman coins. It’s a tradition carried on for many centuries. Many coins have the profile of famous people stamped into them – ours, for example, in the UK, have the Queen’s likeness.
But Jesus is alluding to the Biblical fact that each of us has the likeness of God stamped into us. Like my daughter had enough of me in her to be recognised as my daughter, we have each have enough of God in us to be made in His likeness.
And this is not a new teaching. It’s thoroughly ancient – from the very moment when humans were created:
Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27 NIVUK
There are two words here to describe us: image and likeness. The word ‘image’ is related to the words for ‘shadow’ and ‘to cut’. Its implications are that we are like a shadow of God – onlookers can see His outline in us, but that’s all. Or we are a copy, a representation of God – like a photocopy, if you will – but it’s clear that we are not ‘the real thing’.
The word ‘likeness’ compounds this idea. We have parts of us that are like God, but we are not God.
And, in case anyone tries to say otherwise, this applies to both Adam and Eve; both the male and the female.
Jesus developed this idea even further. He said that since Caesar’s image was stamped on the denarius coin, then they ought to pay Caesar what he was due. It was his currency, after all. But since God’s likeness is stamped on every human being, we also ought to pay God what He is due.
But what is He due?
The Jews had long struggled with this, particularly when they returned from Exile. Malachi, the last prophet before God fell silent for four hundred years, encapsulated this struggle:
‘A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘It is you priests who show contempt for my name. ‘But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for your name?” ‘By offering defiled food on my altar. ‘But you ask, “How have we defiled you?” ‘By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 1:6-8 NIVUK
‘Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. ‘But you ask, “How are we robbing you?” ‘In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – your whole nation – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:8-12 NIVUK
Do you see it? The Jewish leaders were treating the worship of God half-heartedly and were not tithing as they had been commanded (c.f. Deuteronomy 14:22-28).
But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here. He is talking about something way more radical. He is talking about this:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIVUK
Or, as The Message puts it:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:1-2 MSG
In other words, a religion that simply expresses itself outwardly in singing songs and praying nice words is not enough. A ten percent tithe is not enough. Fasting, pilgrimages and piety are not enough. What God wants is every moment of our lives to be given over to Him as an act of worship.
And that doesn’t mean that you finish every sentence at work with ‘Praise the Lord!’ or ‘Hallelujah!’. In most occasions, people might think you were a little crazy, and in some situations, when you have to deliver bad news to people, it would be downright inappropriate.
No, what it means is that you give Jesus every waking moment. You do everything for Him. You seek to please Him, and not yourself or other people, in everything you do.
Then your worship is not about an hour on a Sunday or a Wednesday. No, it’s a lifestyle. It’s every day.
Let me tell you, the Pharisees might have been outwardly very religious, but Jesus knew they weren’t living like this. He knew they were not giving to God what is God’s. The seven ‘woe’s He later pronounced against them made this very clear (Matthew 23:13-32).
His indictment against them was serious and painful. They had turned their religion into nothing but rule-keeping and had neglected the broader strokes of the law. Jesus had summed up the whole of the law into just two commands: love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 10:27). But the Pharisees had been so ritual and rule focused, they were not obeying either.
In other words, the reason why Jesus pronounced these words about giving God what is God’s is because His hypocritical Phariseeical audience was not doing it.
And therein lies an awesome challenge for us. It is absolutely possible to do all the right things, say the right things, dress the right way and still completely miss the mark.
Jesus’ searing, almost laser-guided point is this:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6 NIVUK
‘I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:21-24 NIVUK
Outward religion will always miss the mark. An inward conversion is what’s required. Animal sacrifices are not enough. A living sacrifice is what’s required.
God has made us in His image. We are His. So what does He want? Not our money. Not our influence. Not our political allegiance. Not our religiosity.
He wants us. All of us.
And since He gave us everything we have and are, He is more than entitled to it.
Questions
1. Why is tithing or simply going to church on a Sunday not enough? What does God demand instead? Is He entitled to it? Why?
2. Why do you think the Pharisees in particular would have found this so hard to accept?
3. How can you ensure that you are giving to God what is God’s?
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