As we listen to Jesus speaking to his questioners about their responsibility to an occupying government, we can hear one of two emphases. Jesus says, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’ We might find ourselves gritting our teeth thinking of the ways the government has so much control of us: taxes, health care decisions, compliance requirements in our jobs, the curriculum in our schools. And we shake our heads in despair. Or we may hear the other side of Jesus’ response and dwell on His insistence on our ‘proper relationship with God.’
What do you hear? Both are the words of Jesus to us, these twenty centuries later.
Some things never change. It’s hard to believe we have another major election coming up, with all that involves. I, for one, am still trying to get answers to what happened three years ago. Or we might be thinking on a broader, more painful scale, of the victims of wars that were begun by Caesars who seem to have little regard for the lives of their citizens. How do we think about giving anything to keep those war machines moving? How can we ever avoid the searing sense of chaos and hopelessness gripping our world?
But it’s a fact of life, one that Jesus as a citizen of His homeland here on earth knew all too well. Perhaps He is saying to us, do what you have to, to be a productive citizen, but avoid or seek to change those things in your corner of the world that are unjust, especially as they concern ‘the little, the lost and the least’ among us in today’s world view.
On the other hand, there’s the need to hear deeply, deliberately and carefully His words to give to God what is God’s. You wouldn’t be reading this site if you weren’t already seeking the Kingdom of God. But with all that faces us in the course of a day we sometimes find ourselves missing the intentionality that keeps us grounded in doing the Will of God for His own sake. How important it is not to let our striving for goodness to become a habit, something we do because we’ve always tried to be good. We can run the risk of recalling why we do what we do to make our world a better place: for the love of God. Our fidelity to our consecrated relationships in marriage as well as our commitment to the demands of the workplace, and our care for people who have become our neighbors can become habit, albeit good habits, or they can be joyful, deliberate acts of love for God who created us in His own image and who gazes tenderly on us as we live prayerful lives according to the Gospel of Jesus.
How, then, to keep the fire burning? How to prevent a sort of lackluster existence that is pleasing to God for our obedience, but fails to bless us with the realization that we are sharing in the creative love of God?
Give to God what is God’s. Remember your morning offering at first light by saying, All for you, My Jesus. Or whisper, Let me be of service to You in others this day, dear Lord. Hear Him say, Good and faithful servant as you close your eyes in sleep. In this way, the nagging question of how to give to Caesar when Caesar is asking too much becomes part of your desire to be the person you were created to be. Then you will set the world on fire.
Have a blessed October week, full of love for God, remembering consciously how much He loves you.
and then