Money was no easy matter in Jesus’s day. Different kinds of currency were in circulation at this time. The Roman currency was the denarius with the head of Tiberius the then Roman Emperor; it seems that Jerusalem had its own commercial Shekel – a currency different from the rest of Palestine; and then there was the currrency used in the Temple. Hence there were many money changers dealing in these currencies.
Taxes for Rome were collected in denarius of which one was to be given as a poll tax each year: this gave rise to much political unrest. The tax had been one of the bones of contention in the recent rebellion of Judas which was brutally suppressed by the Romans.
“Tell us, then, what you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” the question asked by the Pharisees was intended as a trap; Jesus was aware of it. It was an explosive question; they were asking him, ‘are you a Roman sympathizer or a terrorist?’ Either answer would lead to trouble.
Jesus answered by pointing to the image on a denarius offered by a Pharisee. (Notice neither Jesus nor his followers produced such a coin, possibly because they did not have one or use them).
“Whose head is this and whose title?”
They answered, “the emperor’s.”
Then Jesus said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
He seems to say – you’ve got some of Caesar’s property in your pocket, why not give it back to the minter? But then – give to God.
And what belongs to God?
Well in one sense everything, as we sing in a modern hymn: “O Lord all the world belongs to you”. But maybe Jesus meant something more specific.
The coins were ‘made in Caesar’s image’ but what is supposed to be made in God’s image? We are: humankind. ‘God said, “Let us make humankind in our own image and likeness”’ (Genesis 1,28).
So Jesus tells the clever questioners to make less fuss about paying taxes, focus more on how you spend your own lives.
That implies some global questions, so now let’s take this step by step. We are invited to take three big steps.
1. Recognise to whom we belong(‘Give to God what is God’s’):
We belong to God because God Created us, shaped us and gave us his Spirit.
More than that, when we failed God, Jesus Redeemed us at the cost of his death.
So we can join with John Wesley’s words in the Covenant service:
‘I am no longer mine, but yours.’
2. Accept that its payback time; time we gave back to God the life God has given.
We do this in worship – we give glory to God, which means giving away our own claims to glory. And we do this in service, when we make our lives available to do what God wants of us.
Thank God that we serve a liberating creator and redeemer: God’s service is perfect freedom, God wants us give ourselves up in order to become our true selves.
3. Take stock of how we spend our days and our money. Do we try to live as though everything we possess is held in trust – as trustees for God?
To quote John Wesley again: ‘It is not a question of how much of my money will I give to God, but how much of God’s money will I keep for myself.’
Does it sound tough? Not really, because we are handing our lives and our goods back to the one who alone can bring us to perfection.
Rev’d Canon Peter Fisher