This saying from the Gospels is perhaps one of the more misunderstood of the sayings of Jesus. It is answer to a question about whether to pay the census tax or not. The enemies of Jesus think they have Him trapped. The tax was levied by the hated Roman Empire which occupied the land of Israel. The Pharisees send their disciples with a group they hated, the Herodians to try to pose an unanswerable question. Should the Jews pay the loathsome tax or not? If Jesus says 'yes', the Pharisees can turn the people on Jesus, dismissing Him as a Roman puppet. If He says 'no', then the Herodians can run to the Romans and have Jesus executed as a rebel.
Jesus asks for the coin used to pay the tax. It is a Roman coin with the Emperor's image on it. He then says the famous quote of rendering unto Caesar that which are his and unto God what is His. So what is Jesus saying? What is He not saying?
Render unto Caesar...
We live as citizens of the countries in which we inhabit. The general upkeep of that country is to our advantage. Infrastructure, public safety, defense, are among the things that fellow citizens pool their monies together through taxes to build and maintain such things. Living in a country such as the United Sates, we have a duty to vote for those who govern. Our common bonds as citizens does mean we should work to the common good.
That said, we need to remember every form of government and every nation are man made entities. History shows us countries and governments rise and fall. The mighty Roman Empire that existed in the time of Jesus and the early Church has faded into the annuls of history. Caesar and his ilk are temporary beings at best.
Because they are mere beings and not gods, Caesar is not all powerful nor can he rule without boundaries. Whether it be in the form of a monarchy, a republic, or even a dictatorship; any authority Caesar has, he is answerable to God for how he exercised that authority. The founders of this country recognized that rights were bestowed on us by our Creator. A government may help in the protection of those rights, but is cannot give rights and withdraw rights that are not theirs to give or take. Caesar is not a god, however much he might think himself one.
Bigger Than Government
I see the Caesers of this world as more than just mere governments. Governments are constructs of societies from which they rose. Caesar, by extension, is the societies we live in at large. They are the cultures to which we belong. Being social beings, we humans form bonds of family, friendship, and community to sustain the common good. It is good thing to have mutual support. We can band together for common purposes as education, food, defense, and so on. We build economic systems to help enrich the lives of each other.
These socioeconomic systems, like our governmental systems, work better when we contribute to the common good. It is a Christian principle that we are vested in the good of not merely myself, but of those around me as well. Like the governmental systems, these socioeconomic systems are also man made entities that rise and fall. Like governmental systems, they are also not free to rule without constraint. Those who run these enterprises are just as answerable to God for the use of their authority as much as kings and presidents are.
Little Caesars
Any enterprise can serve to common good. Schools, sports leagues, fraternal orders, and other social constructs can be good. Certainly if we commit to their growth, we have a duty to help in such things. We can form these entities for such things as entertainment, health, or education. It must be understood that these too are mere human creations that come and go. Even those that run these little Caesars are answerable to God for what little authority has been delegated them.
Frankencaesar
Left unchecked or left with slavish devotion, any of these Caesar can morph into insatiable monsters. Whether it a government who taxes its citizens heavily, to businesses that demand inordinate amounts from their employees times, to schools and athletics that forget they are not a first priority but demand to be treated as such, the Caesars can gobble up as much as we allow them to have.
First come promises to cajole us into the surrender of more time, energy, and resources. Every inch given is answered with more cajoling for more and more and more. The promise is made that is we surrender this time, resources, and energy that Caesar will grant us whatever it is we desire.
Left uncheck, Caesar will not only want what is proper to his realm, but will want what isn't proper to his realm as well. He will want what is God's as well. He will do so without apology.
There was a time, when I was child, that with few exceptions, everything was closed on Sundays. Sundays were a time for God, rest, and family. But Caesar wanted Sunday too. First, not the mornings. But the mornings were taken as well. We complained, but Caesar got what he wanted. If the stress of a 7 day week got to us, not his problem. If that time for God was reallocated and our relationship with God was limited to an hour at best, not his problem. If time with our families was limited to car time, again, not his problem. God's creation, Caesar put his heel to God's nose and we suffer for it.
The Real Challenge
The real challenge with humanity is not rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar, but it has always been rendering unto God what is God's.
Why?
This is my theory: Caesar takes from you and gives you some of it back in the form of goods and services. He determines what an hour of your life is worth. The state takes and redistributes as it sees fit.
God, however, gives freely from Himself. He ask for a little of it in return. He doesn't have a IRS to come and seize it. Because God gives in love, He expects us to give in love as well. Caesar is motivated by what he can be given, God is motivated by what He can give. This makes it easier to take God for granted, to ignore God, and to take what is His and give it to Caesar.
Caesar needs to be told no. For his good and ours...he needs to be told no.
Why?
Because all things of Caesar pass away. Every government, country, economic enterprise, every form of entertainment and sport will in its turn pass into the dustbin of history. All we give to Caesar turns to ash...every single molecule. The Caesar, especially the Frankencaesars, are not gods; they are not eternal. What we invest, sometimes as a right necessity, will one day be no more. When we take from God what is His, we lose our investment and what goes with it.
We must render unto God what is His because it is to our benefit as well. rendering unto God what is His gives us the ability to know Him more. That relationship strengthens all others. In giving to Him what is His, He in return gives us far greater. He doesn't make us dine on ashes, but promises eternal life for those who will love as He does. To give Him thanksgiving is to our vested interest. The portion we give to Him is returned many times over.
Be aware though, that we cannot take what is His and either hoard it to ourselves or give it to a Caesar and still expect to reap the benefits of what we render to Him. God isn't a dupe. God gets the final word. All Caesars great and small will stand before Him. They will be judged. their kingdoms, great and small will disappear into nothingness and rot.
A Necessary Pushback
We need to push back on what we give to Caesar, especially if to give to him required our taking from God what is His and our taking from our family what is theirs. We should not need laws to tell us to give holy the Sabbath. We should know better and act accordingly. We should be pushing back at what demands our time on the day of the Lord that is not worship of God nor the rest that He commanded us to do.
If I am shorting God on my tithe because that money is going elsewhere , but I still want God to bless me, we set ourselves up. Those resources were to go to worship, religious formation, and to the poor. When my time to care for a love one is supplanted by Caesar's demands, we have to push back. We do this because it is in our own best interest to do so.
The Caesars in life are not always bad things. Kept in their proper priority, they can do wonderful and helpful things. The frankencaesars, though, must die.
We human beings are not made to be perpetually drained like livestock, but were made to be loved. So what will it be? Do we ally ourselves with God who first sees us as someone to love or do we ally ourselves with a Caesar who sees us as something to take from? The choice is ours. I will render what is needed in the form of taxes, votes, and looking to the common good. But Caesar does not get what is God's. That includes the Caesar I see looking back at me in the mirror every morning.
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