Monday, February 25

He saw through their duplicity and said to them , “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. (Luke 20: 23-26)

One day as Jesus was teaching in the temple, his enemies questioned his authority. The question asked reflected how unpopular taxation was and put Jesus in a “Catch 22” position. If on the one hand he said: Don’t pay your taxes to Caesar, the Jewish officials would have brought him to the Roman Governor for sedition. If on the other hand he said pay your taxes to Caesar, he would lose his popular support because the Romans were the occupying force and hated by the general population. It was a case of heads I win, tails you lose. However with his answer, Jesus made the coin balance on its side.

It was an answer of pure genius. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” He gave such good answers that they became silent, and no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Jesus uses the occasion of the Pharisee’s question about paying taxes to Caesar to address important truths concerning a believer’s obligation to the State and to God. Coins are made from precious metals and bear the image of authority. We are precious creations of God that bear His image. I believe that the question for me is: How should I be spent as God’s currency? What am I worth in terms of my willingness to support and love others? After all money is really nothing but a tool. Let me use money, as well as all my other gifts, as a force for good.

Sylvia Wadsworth