Masaccio, Tribute Money, detail
Matthew 22:15-22
The detractors of Jesus know that the only thing that will topple His high ratings in the popularity polls is to have Jesus make some kind of blunder. But they can’t wait on chance for this to happen, so they scheme to entangle Jesus. The verb Matthew uses, and it’s a word found only here in the NT, is a hunting term for trapping or snaring animals. And they go off to lay the trap.
“Tell us then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Jesus’ enemies are going after Jesus on a major pocket book issue. They try to trap him in to making a politically incorrect statement on one of the hottest questions of the day: paying Roman taxes. If Jesus says that the census tax should be paid, he alienates the vast number of Jewish nationalists. If he says that the tax should not be paid, then he is vulnerable to Roman arrest.
But Jesus carries no such coin. With the wisdom of Solomon, seasoned with irony, Jesus traps the trappers. He asks for one of the Roman coins with which the tax is paid. It’s a subtle point that Jesus does not carry such a coin, but even though the scene takes place in the Temple, a coin – with its idolatrous citation – is given to Him by one of his detractors.
Jesus responds to one of the most important political & religious problems of His day by treating it as if it were an obvious case of restoring another person’s property. If the coin has Caesar’s image, then “render it” (apodote – “give it back”) to Caesar – pay Caesar, the state, its due. “Give to Caesar that which bears the image of Caesar,” Jesus said, “but, give to God that which bears the image of God”.
Just as the Roman coin carried the image of Caesar, giving him proper rights over it, so every person bears the image of God, giving God proper rights over us. We owe our lives – our selves, our souls and bodies – to God alone. We owe our ultimate allegiance to God, and we are God’s prized possession.
We all – rich & poor; black, white, red or brown; tall or vertically challenged; gluten intolerant; Democrat or Republican – have been made in the image of God. The next person who comes into your line of vision; the next time you look in a mirror – an icon of God. God has impressed God’s image on you, claimed you as God’s own. A little tarnished, a little worn for the wear, but nevertheless, as the Psalmist assures us, just a little less than divine.
Jesus comes into our midst, and we want to have a cocktail party talk about taxes – to complain mostly. But Jesus won’t have any of it, & the subject of our conversation is changed. He strikes a deeper chord. He reminds us that we are all made in the image of God, and with tears dwelling up in His eyes, He wants to know why we don’t treat one another, or ourselves, as such. And “their” response that day was to crucify Him.
