Icon, before It was ICON

20 Pentecost, Cycle A, Proper 24, October 22, 2017
Exodus 33:12-23  Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10  Matthew 22:15-22

Lectionary Link

What happens if one avoids paying taxes and gets caught?  A person can be prosecuted and charged for tax evasion.  As long as there has been human society, the issue of taxes has been a prominent human issue.  All of us know that taxes are necessary, we just don't think that our own money is necessary for taxes, but it's okay if its someone else's.

If one wants to start an argument in a room, bring up the issue of taxes.  Taxes were controversial in biblical New Testament times, and from the Gospel lesson today we have the famous statement: Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar; Render unto God, the things that are God's.

This Gospel story is set up almost like a Socratic vignette and it highlights the wisdom and the riddle speech of Jesus.

What are some assumptions that undergird this story?  If the Jewish religious leaders could trick Jesus to dissent from the taxes of the Caesar, they could get him to incur wrath of the Roman authorities.  What was the cry during the Passion? "We have no king but Caesar!"  If Jesus was making himself a rival to the Caesar, he would be seen as a political dissident in Palestine.

In the wisdom response of Jesus,  he uses a Greek word that has become common parlance for us today.  Icon.  When the Genesis story was translated into Greek, the word for image was the Greek word that comes into English as "Icon."  Adam and Eve were made as "icons" or "images" of God.  Remember in the Genesis story God takes dust and breathes Spirit life into the dust and creates a "living soul."  So that Spirit life of God breathed into the flesh was the image or icon of God upon human beings.

This should help us understand the numismatic pun of Jesus.  He ask for a denarius a coin with the Caesar image and this image on the coin legitimized the Caesar's right to collect taxes wherever this coin was use.  Whose image is on this coin?  The Caesar's.  Whose image is on the Caesar, a human being living the tradition of people created by God?  God's image is even on the Caesar.  So, Jesus was saying let the Caesar have his coins but let God have everyone on whom God's image is found.  Can we appreciate the wit and wisdom of this rejoinder?

For you and me in stewardship season, if you are worried about taxes or the church taxes called the tithe then consider this: If you and I acknowledge the image of God on our lives then we belong to God, and that means everything we have belongs to God too.  So, acknowledging God's image on our lives means that we offer our possessions for the ministry of God in Christ in our time and place.

There is a further aspect of this story that we should consider.  The Gospels are stories of Jesus which teach the messages of the early church in story form.  St. Paul lived in Rome; he wrote a letter to the Roman churches.  He was aware of the debauchery of the Caesars and the cult worship of the Emperors but at the same time he told the Roman church to pray for the Roman authorities as God ordained agents for keeping order.

What does this mean?  It means that early church had made some peace with the Roman situation.  Taxes built the roads which brought people to the cities.  The church grew as religious social clubs in the cities and the house churches were "under the radar" gatherings for members to embrace their new life in the cities.  The home churches accepted Gentile members without requiring them to live the separate and segregated ritual purity life as was the practice of the members of the synagogue.  So, the message of Christ had more appeal in the Roman situation than what was offered by the synagogue.  The Gospel could travel to the ends of the Roman Empire on Roman roads guarded by Roman soldiers.  So the Roman law included Roman taxes and St. Paul and the early church had made peace with the Roman situation.

The saying of Jesus, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar," is an origin narrative given the authority of Christ for church members to live with a certain public conformity to the laws and taxes of the Roman Empire.

For us today, we find that the Gospel has found success in many countries and cultures.  The churches in many places have had to deliberate on how and when to Render unto Caesar or to kings and governments, the things that pertain to the secular common good.  Every situation is different and Christians need wisdom in different times and places on how to live with "secular" situations.  Different Christian groups are always fighting with the government and courts about "what people of faith are obligated to render unto Caesar, or the laws of our land."

But the more profound issue of this Gospel is the stewardship issue.  Do you and I want to acknowledge or deny the image of God upon our lives?  Perhaps we want to say in a evolutionary sense, "I am more monkey than divine."  If I am more monkey than divine, then I don't need to acknowledge the full ownership of my life by God.  And that is the issue: Do we think that we are closer to  a Darwinian beast trying to be the fit survivors who dominate by taking more for ourselves?  Or do we uphold a doctrine which predates Darwin?  One can hold to evolution and still understand that there is a divine image that directs all of time and human life in the most significant way.

My prayer for all of us is that we would humbly acknowledge the divine image upon us and find it in our spirits energized by God's Holy Spirit.  And then from the Holy Spirit, we can properly render unto God the things that are God's.

And with joyful freedom we can know the things that are given to us can be used in specific ways to fulfill the calling and mission of our parish in this place.  We can represent the image of God on our lives by giving our time, talent and treasure to the common good of our society in general but also the common good, and even the survival, of our local parish.

Friends, let us render unto God the things that are God's.  Let us render unto God our entire lives.  Amen.