There
was a cartoon I’m fond of that depicted a somewhat
portly, well-dressed man looking out of his living room’s picture
windows with pride and satisfaction at the domain before him. The caption
reads, “God’s country. And it’s all mine.”
I’ve
thought about that cartoon and a few questions occur to me that might
occur to you, too:
- Is
there a mortgage he’s paying? If so, he has to at least
concede that part of it is the bank’s country.
- Is there a riverbank nearby? If so, is it in a floodplain? If
yes, then he has to concede that his house and his view are assets
more liquid than he might like.
- Is
there a joint ownership with his wife? Moreover, is there a contested
divorce in the works? If so, he’d have to say, “God’s
country. And either my ex or I own it!”
Ownership
kind of depends on your vantage point, doesn’t it?
The
vantage point is everything in today’s story from Matthew’s
Gospel. It’s a story about a coin with the Roman emperor’s
image on it. From the vantage point of those who asked Jesus if it
was legal to pay taxes to Caesar, the coin represented a way to make
Jesus appear either seditious or blasphemous.
Seditious because
if he said, “Don’t pay the
tax,” then the Romans could accuse him of being a rebel and a
troublemaker, someone who would not recognize Roman authority.
But blasphemous also
because if he said, “Pay it,” then
the Jews could accuse him of paying tribute to the emperor who claimed
divinity.
It was,
as they say, a lose-lose proposition. That was their vantage point,
however, and not Jesus’. And so we get this classic answer
from him: Pay Caesar what is Caesar’s and pay God what is God’s.
From Jesus’ vantage point, it wasn’t the image on the coin
that was truly important, but rather that which is imprinted on the
human heart, and it’s the key to the truth he wants us—you
and I—to understand.
The
image of the emperor on the coin meant that the coin was Caesar’s.
We can use it for taxes or as a means of exchange, but at least in
the ancient world, it signified his ownership. “The Emperor giveth
and the emperor taketh away.”
And
so “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” Jesus
says, because Caersar’s image is imprinted on it. “But,
then, give to God what is God’s” And what—or rather
who—is imprinted with the image of God? You and I are.
Jesus
knew that and above all else wanted us to know that. He wanted us
to recall the earliest words of the Bible: “So God created
humankind in God’s image…and behold, it was very good.”
You
and I come from God. Our spiritual DNA is stamped with God’s
image. In one sense we have God written all over us, and while
it’s often hard to see or to feel or to be certain of it, Jesus
sees it and feels it and is certain of it and says, whatever is stamped
with God’s image belongs to God, and whatever is created by God
is very good.
Perhaps
in the debate between Evolutionists and Creationists this is one
point of agreement. The Creationists have a literal interpretation
of the Bible which says that God created humankind and that it was
very good. The Evolutionists, at least those who don’t see
any conflict between science and religion, would resonate with John
Polkinghorne, Anglican Priest and Professor of Mathematical Physics
at Cambridge University, when he wrote:
We do not have to choose between the God of the bible and the God
revealed in the pattern and structure of the physical world. The world
discerned by modern science has an openness in its becoming which is
consonant not only with its being a world of which we are actually
inhabitants, but also a world which is the creation of the true and
living God, continually at work within its process.
Another
way of phrasing the beauty of that truth comes to us from an astrophysicist
who reminds us that humankind is literally “animated
stardust.”
But
God’s
creating is not finished: the universe and humankind in it are still
a work in progress. Paul in his letter to the Romans says:
The
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children
of God…and
the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and
obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
How long will that be? God knows. But in the meantime it is enough
for me to realize the loving claim God has on me and the claim I would
have on God, from the beginning of time and forever. Amen.
