That which is inscribed with God's likeness

This is a passage of scripture that will never be out of work, for all the times and all the occasions for which it is employed to uphold the laws of the land. It can feel like carte blanche permission to uphold whatever it is in government or politics or civics that frustrates us, because look here is an example of Jesus upholding a law of the land with the line "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" never mind the words like 'plot', 'entrap', and 'malice' that frame the entire exchange. But the more important question that this passage raises isn't "what belongs to the emperor?" but rather "what belongs to God?" or moreso "what doesn't belong to God?"

For me, so many of the theological questions I have about scripture come back to Genesis chapter 1 and the Gospel of John chapter 1. God hovered over the deep as God made the world, God inscribed God's own image into every person, gave us dominion, made us in his likeness, and all things came into being through God, who was the Word, who was there in the beginning. We are the coins that bear God's face. All of creation bears God's imprint on it. And the extent to which you believe that to be true, tremendously shapes the extent to which you believe God's laws of life and love and mutual care apply to you, to our community, and to this world.

If there are great domains of public life, that we really believe that God abdicates to the ways of the world, then there are domains of public life where we believe that violence, extortion, and vengeance are warranted, where we don't have to love our neighbors as ourselves, where it's actually just okay if we don't do unto the least of these what we think we ought to do unto Jesus himself.

This is where the beliefs we hold as Christians shape the world that we think is permissible. Does God decide that there are parts of creation that belong to the emperor? Does God decide that there are people who belong to the emperor? Does God decide that there are people for whom the judgments of the world can - ought to - and will overrule the judgments of God? I don't think so, but it's less about what I think, and more about acknowledging that what you decide here greatly shifts how you treat the Christian project and the world around you.

Jesus is doing something coy in this passage - he's answering a question with a question that sounds like an answer. What belongs to God? Well what belongs to the emperor? Give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor. Does anything really belong to the emperor?

It's true that we live in a society and in a culture and in an economy and in a country with laws and a gov't. And I guess what Jesus would have us wonder is - at the end of the day - is the law of the land what constitutes the true, the universal, the final, or is it the law of love? Yes, pay your taxes, but don't forget whose image you and everyone you meet bears. Amen.

The Reading from the Gospel Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus,

aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.