Scripture Daily

Context No. 2177 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 22:20-28: in context

20He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” 21They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they heard it, they marveled, and left him and went away. 23On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, 24saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. 27After them all, the woman died. 28In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

When his opponents try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar, he asks for a coin and inquires whose image and inscription it bears. Caesar's, they answer. Then Jesus gives his famous reply: give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. The coin bore Caesar's image, and so was owed to Caesar; but the deeper implication of his words is that we, who bear God's image, owe ourselves to God.

Jesus' answer orders our obligations wisely. On one hand, there are things owed to earthly authorities: the coin bears Caesar's image, and Jesus says to give Caesar what is his, affirming that we have genuine obligations to the governments and structures under which we live. Pay to all what is owed them, Paul says, taxes to whom taxes are owed. Faith does not exempt us from our earthly duties; give to Caesar what is Caesar's. But on the other hand, and more deeply, there are things owed to God: give to God the things that are God's. And here the logic of the coin presses further. The coin was owed to Caesar because it bore Caesar's image. What, then, bears God's image? We do. God made man in his own image; and so, by the very logic Jesus uses, we owe to God what bears his image, which is ourselves. The coin belongs to Caesar; we belong to God. This searches whether we give God what is truly his: ourselves. We may be willing to give God certain things, our money, our time, our religious observance, while withholding the deeper thing he is owed. But the logic of Jesus' words is that we ourselves, bearing God's image, belong to him and owe him ourselves. You are not your own, Paul says; you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. We are God's, made in his image and bought by Christ, and what we owe him is not merely a portion of our resources but ourselves, wholly. This orders our giving to God rightly. It is possible to give God the equivalent of the coin, a portion of what we have, while withholding what really bears his image, our very selves. But give to God the things that are God's; and what is God's, most deeply, is us. This calls us to render to God not merely a portion but ourselves. We give to earthly authorities their due, the things that are Caesar's. But we give to God the things that are God's, and chief among these is ourselves, made in his image and belonging to him. The coin bore Caesar's image and was owed to Caesar; we bear God's image and are owed to God. And the call of Jesus' words is to render to God what is truly his: not merely our resources, but our very selves, glorifying God with the whole of who we are, made in his image and bought by his Son.

Am I willing to give God certain things, my money, my time, my religious observance, while withholding the deeper thing he is owed, and can Jesus' words, render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, together with the truth that I bear God's image as the coin bore Caesar's, move me to render to God not merely a portion of what I have but myself, wholly, made in his image and bought by his Son, glorifying him with the whole of who I am?

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