A 29 Sun 14
(Mt 22:15-21)
The question about paying the
census tax to Caesar is the first of four consecutive questions in this section
of Matthew’s gospel. Each of the four
questions has a different focus. This first question focuses on a point of law
that creates what the Pharisees hope is an inescapable dilemma for Jesus. It appears that no matter how Jesus answers
the question, he is going to run afoul of the law—either the Roman law or the
Mosaic Law. The consequences for Jesus can only be imagined.
Jesus unravels this dilemma,
however, by responding with a question to the Pharisees. Rather than answer them outright, Jesus asks about
the image and the inscription on the coin.
The image in turn becomes the basis for his claim that one should give
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.
The key in this strategy is the
function of the image. If Caesar’s image
marks out what belongs to him, it follows that the image of God marks out what
belongs to God. The crowds were amazed
at this response because they knew very well that the whole human race bears
the image of God. For, they would have known
from the Book of Genesis alone—the first book in the Law of Moses—that each of
us is made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26). Thus, we all belong to God, including—of all
ironies—Caesar himself.
Clear as it is, however, this
response leaves open the question of what precisely we are to give to God. If our entire selves already belong to God,
what remains for us to give to God? One
way to answer is to say that our true identity, our true selves, our true
happiness lies in our willingness to mirror the image of God in the way we live
our lives. To put it another way, since
God is holy and God is love, we are called to mirror the holiness and the love
of God in our daily lives. But, is this
doable?
There are those who claim, for
example, that the term ‘holy’ in the proper sense is appropriate only to
God. On their view, holy is a term that
designates the absolute otherness of God. They claim that God is utterly
different from the world and from anything in the world, cannot be defined by
any human idea, cannot be measured by any worldly standard, cannot be controlled
by any human desire” (“The Idea of the Holy” pp. 25-30). On their view, God is so
different from us that we cannot possibly understand his holiness. If they are right, then we cannot possibly
mirror his holiness in our lives.
Jesus would likely respond that
this idea misses the mark entirely. For,
Jesus himself speaks of God in very human terms, even calling him “daddy” and
suggests that we do the same. This
implies that the best possibility for us to understand the holiness of God is
indeed in human terms. If we could not
understand the holiness of God on that basis, there would be no sense in the
instruction that God gives to his people:
“Be holy because I am holy” (Lv 20:26; 1 Pt 1:16).
Jesus adds an important dimension
to this instruction when he says to his followers, “Be perfect, just as your
heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Jesus spoke about the perfection of God
in the context of love. From this
perspective, to say that God is holy is to say that God is always true to
himself, or in human terms, God is a person of integrity. That is, God is always and never anything but
God, and all that God does is always and completely consistent with who God is,
namely, love. I AM who I AM, God tells
Moses (Ex 3:14). God always loves, always tells the truth, always does good, is
always joyful and faithful because God is truth, God is good, God is Holy, God
is love. In this sense, we can understand
the holiness of God as the principle of love.
Because God is holy and God is
love, and since we share in the image of his nature, God invites us to be holy
and loving as well. According to the
Apostle John, we can do this—we can love—because God loved us first (1 Jn 4:19). The opportunities to love are endless, and
they happen every day in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.
We are not alone in our response
to the invitation of the one true God.
For, when we say in our Profession of Faith, “I believe in the Holy
Spirit,” we are saying that we believe the Holy Spirit is a powerful creator
who intervenes in the physical nature of human beings, and helps us do things
that we cannot do alone.
We believe that the Holy Spirit
is the Great Inspirer, the Great Nudger, if you will, to live the life that
Jesus would have us live. This is
nothing other than life in the Spirit.
If we live in the Spirit, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians,
then let us follow the Spirit’s lead to live a holy life (5:25). With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can
indeed mirror the holiness and the love of God in our daily lives.
