The setting of our story today can be found in Matthew 22:15-22. The Pharisees have planned to try to trap Jesus with His words by asking him about paying the Imperial tax. It is from this story that we get the oft repeated phrase “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s”. I encourage you to review the text, but a brief summary shows Jesus understanding the trap that the Pharisees are trying to set for Him, and, as usual, not only avoids it, but also teaches an object lesson as well.

The coin in question here was most likely a silver denarius which bore the image of Caesar. There had been controversy over this as conservative Jews had been instructed to avoid images, even causing a revolt at one point, so this was a serious matter. The coins were necessary to pay the Roman poll taxes across the empire. It was a necessity of Jewish life no matter how distasteful it was to them. The observation, on its face, is a simple one. If the image of Caesar is on the coin, then Caesar has authority over the coin. In essence, it belongs to him, so giving it back is right and proper. There are other implications to consider however.

Render Unto God

Being a Libertarian Christian, I hear this type of sentiment fairly often, and it in many ways is the same attempt at a trap that the Pharisees used with Jesus. To make a couple of things clear, I do not believe that we are a “Christian nation”. I do believe, as history bares out, that there is an underlying Judeo-Christian ethic that is evident in the traditions and functioning of western civilization. It is not the point of this writing to argue the political points of a public safety net, but rather to address the Christian matters of this. The simple reality is that if Caesar is helping the poor, then the glory is Caesar’s. This is on full display each time a politician brags about how much they have done to help those in need. The public safety net, whatever you may think of it, does not fulfill Christ’s instructions about His followers caring for those in need. When a church opens a soup kitchen, when Christian food banks and free stores provide needed items, this is when the glory is God’s. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.

In this rather well known account from Matthew, we often focus on the rendering unto Caesar portion of it, but we neglect the lesson of the second half of the well known phrase. If the coin baring the image of Caesar is his, then we, baring image of God, are His. If Caesar has authority of all that bares his image, then surely God has authority over all that bares His image. It is in this reality, that the often neglected, and arguably most important, portion of the account comes into play for our instruction on the path to perfection.

Are We Doing It?

One of the difficult questions that this passage challenges us to consider is simply, what are we holding back from God? This is of course where things get dicey. Is it loyalty to a sports team that causes us to treat our rivals unkindly? Is it friendships that cause us to stray? It can be any number of things really, especially in a time of so many pleasant distractions.

In a time of all the distractions, I am willing to bet that the single biggest thing that we do not render unto God, is our time. Many of us will give 10% of their earnings, but not 10% of their time. Do we spend over two hours a day that we specifically dedicate to God whether it be in prayer, in study, in doing good works? Over the course of a week, that is a part time job hours wise. Do we render that to God? It would not be strange for me, personally, to watch more football in a week than that. I suspect that if we are being honest, we are better at rendering to Caesar than we are to God. The truth is that it is easier to render to Caesar than it is to God. Caesar doesn’t expect much of us after all.

The truth is that rendering to God, which is to say living a Christian life that is moving on to perfection, is a difficult task. We struggle with giving even 10% over to God when the requirement of the Christian is that our entire lives, and everything in them, are to be for God’s glory. In western Christianity the standard has become what John Wesley described as “almost Christian”. The season of Advent is coming near and will give way to the Christmas season after. As we prepare for the birth of Christ, we would do well to include preparing to give everything to God, through Christ without holding back. We should prepare to render unto God.