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Give to God what is God’s.  This is Jesus’ reply to some enemies who hope to entrap him on the horns of the “church and politics” dilemma (Matthew 22:15-22).  The initial question has to do with taxes, and in the Israel of Jesus’ day, do you pay taxes to the idolatrous Roman Emperor?  It can be interpreted as a question of loyalty to Torah (the Jewish Law) and justice.  Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”  It would have been easy for Jesus to go on a diatribe about how dysfunctional the government was, or how immoral or corrupt “Caesar” was.  We could easily do the same.  We could endlessly debate what we should properly owe our government—whether it’s taxes or our deference to the decisions our government makes.  Should we defer to the judgment of the Defense Department when they want to livestream an execution?  No.  Should we defer to the judgment of the state when they decide how to allocate funds for schools.  Depends.  Or where our tax dollars go to improve infrastructure?  Sure.  “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” can get a lot more complicated than just taxes!

            Lost in all the political criticism that people of faith can make—which Jesus makes possible, by the way—is the much more fundamental question about giving to God what is God’s.  For “Caesar” the example is taxes, but Jesus leaves open what is God’s.  So, if we were to just stick with financial matters, what would be God’s?  “In God we trust” is printed on our money; is money the god that we trust?  Trust is what God asks from us.  Trust as in faith.  Do we trust God?  Give to God what is God’s—give to God our trust.  Do we trust Jesus’ words, do we trust his Way of living and serving?    Everything is God’s!  I think that is why Jesus leaves it so open-ended.  We are to “love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind” (Matt. 22:37).  I know the next question is:  “Well, what does that look like??” 

            Jesus consistently gets to the heart of the matter but leaves a lot of questions open-ended and unanswered.  That doesn’t make faith easy, especially in a messy world with messier politics.  Jesus’ Way of living and dying is also his way of being raised and is our way of new life in this life.  “Caesar” can never offer that.

Peace,

Pr. Christian