Posts
“... Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mk 12: 14b-17)
St. John Chrysostom’s commentary on this passage from today’s Gospel-reading underlines that the " image and inscription" (Caesar's) denote civil obedience (taxes), while the " things that are God's" refer to the human soul, which bears the image of God. Our ‘soul’ (that is sometimes called our ‘heart’) is that which makes us ‘tick’ and without which we would be dead. Our ‘soul’ contains our innermost allegiance, sense of belonging and purpose, and our conscience or sense of right and wrong, holy and not-holy. We are not to offer our ‘souls’ or hearts to Caesar, because we are not Caesar’s but God’s.
In our fallen state, when our heart or soul is split in its allegiances, our vision of who and whose we are becomes obscured, and we begin rendering to Caesar (or someone else) the things that are God’s, like our primary allegiance, our very conscience or even our worship. We cease to ‘see’ clearly, because of this mixed-up kind of heart, this impure heart. The Pharisees, who together with the Herodians posed the above-quoted question to Christ, were known to be hypocrites who loved “ to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others” (Mt 6:5). So, their vision was focused not on God but on ‘others’; rendering to ‘others’ the things that are God’s. In our own personal lives, we might slip into a codependency, in which we are willing to do anything for a certain someone, even if it means overstepping our own conscience. This would also be an example of rendering what is God’s to someone other than Him.
In our political lives, we might slip into accepting ‘Caesar’s’ sense of right and wrong as our own, even if it does not correspond with God’s, in which case we are rendering unto Caesar the things that are God’s. There’s a lot of that going around these days, when many Christians seek to justify the unjustifiable when it comes to politics or geopolitics, arguing from a perspective of ‘pragmatism,’ ‘Realpolitik,’ ‘ the law of the land,’ or some other phrases that are supposed to make what is clearly wrong right.
Lord, grant us wisdom and heal our hearts, so we can see more clearly, who and whose we are. “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
