"... give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God"
Matthew 22:21
A wedding ceremony was about to begin. Members of the bridal procession anxiously awaited for the organ music to accompany them down the aisle. But there was only silence. One of the ushers tried to get the organist's attention by snapping his fingers. Still there was silence. The usher then tried clapping his hands. Still no response. Finally, the now panicking usher called out the organist's name. "Neil ... Neil," he fairly shouted and all the people in Church obediently dropped to their knees.
"Kurios Christos!" (Christ is Lord!), was the creed of a group in the Roman Empire of the First Century A.D.. The members of this group, called "Christians." lived in a time and place in which all "loyal, patriotic" citizens were required to kneel before the altar of Caesar, so to speak. Once each year they were required to assert, "Kurios Caesar," which means "Caesar -- the State -- is Lord!" Thus, when these Christians pronounced their creed, "Kurios Christos!" not only were they saying "Christ is Lord! but also "The State -- Caesar -- is not Lord!"
They were affirming what their Jewish forebearers had said at Mt. Sinai: "We will have no other gods before the one true God
A middle-aged businessman, returning from a business trip was met at the airport gate by his wife. An extremely attractive flight attendant walked by. Beaming, the businessman said to the flight attendant, "I hope we can fly together again, Miss Saunders." "How come you know her name?" his wife immediately demanded. The man replied smoothly, "You see, dear, her name was posted right up front in the plane, under the names of the pilot and co-pilot." To which the wife replied, "OK, now give me the names of the pilot and co-pilot." He had flunked the course. His hypocrisy was uncovered.
Jesus came down hard on hypocrisy. And when He did, the condemnation was always against His own people -- the good, Church-going, law-abiding people. He condemned them for "show-boating" when they gave alms: "Hyprocrites, looking for applause," He called them. He condemned then for show-boating when they prayed. They go to Church and pray "in order to be noticed," He said. He condemned the pillars of the Temple who paid only "lip service" to God and offered Him only empty reverence.
In today's Gospel the Pharisees try to disarm Jesus with smooth talk. Their true intention is to trap Him into making a political statement that could result in His arrest for treason. They put to Him the question of whether or not it was proper for Jews to pay the Roman census tax.
The Parisees imagined that Jesus' position would be against payment of the tax. This would please the Jewish Zealot Party which favored the use of force to gain independence, but it would probably result in Jesus' arrest by the Romans. If, on the other hand, Jesus spoke in favor of the tax, He would alienate the Zealots. Either way He would lose, presumably. But Jesus' answer merely evades the problem without attempting to solve it. He does He attempt here to identify precisely what is Caesar's and what is God's. Jesus sees through the Pharisee's hypocrisy, refuses to play their game, thwarts their plan to entrap Him (outsmarts them), and there is no sound basis for reading more than that into this episode.
Jesus' answer should not be taken to mean, therefore, that God and Caesar are traveling along parallel courses, that God is God, and secular society is secular society, and never the two shall meet. It does not mean that our contributions to God's interests and our contributions to worldly interest do not converge. They do, in fact.
What is Caesar's? What is God's? That is the question! It was not only the Pharisees problem, but the Apostles' problem too. And it continues to be the problem of religious men and women through the Ages. Governments change, forms of government change, national boundaries change, social conditions change, entire cultures and civilizations change, but the problem never changes -- it never goes away.
Jesus laid down the rule when asked for His opinion on which commandment in the Jewish Law was the greatest. "You must love the Lord your God," He said, "with all your heart/with all your soul/and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second resembles it: you must love your neighbor as yourself."(Mt. 22:37-38).
This then, is the general rule for determining when and how the duty of loyalty to State is in conflict with the duty of loyalty to God. What is at stake here is man's inherent, God-given right to his neighbor's love. That is the precise meaning of our human "dignity," so-called. The right to human love and respect is our God-given right. The State possesses neither the power to confer it nor the power to usurp it. But it does have the clear duty to protect it and secure it. When Government carries out this function, the demands on our loyalty to God and country remain compatible, and we can kneel before God and express allegiance to the State simultaneously. But when Government policy seeks to institutionalize the denial of basic human rights, we can no longer do the two things at once. We then are forced into the choice of asserting "The State is Lord," or staying on our knees before the altar of God - "Kurios Caesar" or "Kurios Christos."
A little boy was riding his bicycle furiously around the block, over-and-over again. Finally, a policeman who had been observing the boy's frenzied activity, stopped and asked him why he was going around and around at such a furious pace. The boy said that he was running away from home. "But why do you just keep going around the block?" the policeman asked. "Because," the little fellow replied, "my mom said that I'm not allowed to cross the street." The point is clear: the boy's obedience was keeping him close to home, close to those who loved him most.
God is not "out of this world," as the saying goes. God is in this world. This is where we give to God what belongs to God. This is where we exercise obedience to God. This is where we stop going around in circles trying to run away from God. This is where we drop to our knees and come home to God -- the One who loves us most!
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