Jesus calls us to image God in our lives.

by Arthur E.Zannoni

Entrapment is as old as the bible. In Sunday’s gospel two religious groups — Pharisees and Herodians — partner to entrap Jesus. They deliberately set Jesus up when they approach him with the question, “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

Either a no or a yes answer will get Jesus in trouble. If Jesus says no, they have grounds to accuse him of sedition before the Roman Procurator. A yes answer will make Jesus unpopular with the people who find the Roman tax quite burdensome.

Jesus dismisses their flattery and in typical rabbinic fashion responds to their question with a question. He asks whose image the coin for paying the tax carries. When his questioners identify the image as Caesar’s, Jesus evades their trap and responds, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Jesus’ saying uses the Greek word apodidomi, meaning to repay or give back. This word gives Jesus’ saying a special nuance. Jesus is talking about the just reimbursement of someone who has a legitimate claim on us. The saying evenly balances two legitimate claims — God and government. Jesus’ challenge to repay or give back suggests that one can indeed be loyal both to a religious tradition and to a secular power.

  • What of immeasurable value do you work to pay forward?

Jesus’ answer to his entrappers is more than clever. Taking into account the original cultural context underscores how perceptively Jesus reads the confrontation. When his questioners promptly produce the coin Jesus asks to see, he immediately exposes their hypocrisy.

Any Jew of Jesus’ day who was observant of the Mosaic Law would not carry a coin minted with the image of the emperor on it. These coins picture the emperor as divine. The second of the ten commandments forbids making or worshiping idols. Anyone carrying the Roman coin with its “graven image” has already settled the issue of relating to the Roman Empire and its taxation.

The Pharisees raise a question still with us. To what degree do we accommodate religion to culture? The Pharisees encouraged and practiced keeping the Law of Moses strictly, both as a way of being distinct from foreign occupation and at the same time surviving as a faith community in the midst of its cultural influences.

  • What, if any, American valuesseem unchristian to you?
  • How do you respond to PopeFrancis, who strongly critiquesan “economy of exclusion” that deifies the free market (Joy of the Gospel #53)?

Making the Pharisees into the “bad guys” of the gospel can foster anti-Semitic stereotyping of Jewish people today. Jesus did not abolish the law and the prophets or everything the Pharisees taught. The first Christians were Jews who kept the Law of Moses along with Jesus’ interpretation of it and his own unique teachings.

Like the Pharisees Jesus was a practicing Jew and a reformer of his Jewish religion. As a matter of fact, many of Jesus’ teachings are derived from the Pharisees. The Pharisees addressed God as Father, so did Jesus. Their teachers were called Rabbi, so was Jesus. They believed in the resurrection, so did Jesus. They both taught the common people and functioned in synagogues.

Both the Pharisees and Jesus taught how important the good deed was (Hebrew mitzvah) and encouraged their followers to practice such deeds. The Pharisees were not all hypocrites. The gospel tells stories about just and devout Pharisees such as those who warned Jesus of the risks he was taking (Luke 13.31) and Nicodemus who dialogues with Jesus (John 3.1-21).

  • What stereotypes do you regularly resist?

The question of whose image the coin carries contains an allusion easy to miss. Jews of Jesus’ time knew from the book of Genesis who carries the image and likeness of God. “So God created humankind in God’s image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them” (Genesis 1.27).

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and Herodians is more than a clever dodge. Jesus confronts a worldview about who images God—Caesar or the human person. Jesus insists we cannot keep separate our obligations to God and those to government. God blesses and calls us to integrate the spheres of our lives and image the One who made us.

The image they bear and project must concern Christians even more than movie stars and athletes. These celebrities worry how they look, the make-up they wear or the muscles they have developed, their ability to act and appear on the movie screen or playing field. Being made to God’s image and likeness calls the Christian to act as God acts with compassion and forgiveness toward everyone.

Christians image God by helping the poor, caring for the abused and sick, visiting the imprisoned, feeding the hungry, grieving with those who mourn, and listening attentively to those who ache. We give to God our very selves through our goodness to others.

We carry the image of God into the civil sphere of government. Our advocacy for just and compassionate government policies toward the poor, toward health care, education, and immigration are examples of how we image God in the public square.

The conflicts and dissent we have with the civil rule also show God’s image in us. Conscientious objection images a God of peace. Christians who oppose the torture of prisoners and capital punishment reveal a God of compassion. Believers who protest the abuse of the environment reveal a respect for the Creator of all that lives.

The conflicts of our lives challenge us to ask: who do I serve? How we image God will reveal our answer

  • How do you see God imaged in you?
  • How do you see God imaged in others, including politicians?
Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0