Today's passage is Matthew 22:15-22.
The Pharisees try to trap Jesus into saying something against the Roman government by asking if it's right to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus confounds them by telling then to give to the world what belongs to the world and to God what belongs to him.
Before the Pharisees' stooges ask the key question about paying taxes, they try to flatter Jesus into a corner. They compliment him on teaching the truth about God and not being swayed by the attentions of men of power and high social standing.
They think they will trap Jesus into voting for God against the rights of the rulers of the world.
I am a creature of flesh and blood. I live in a world of governments and make use of government services for which I must pay all manner of taxes.
But I am also a spiritual creature with one foot in heaven. I owe my spiritual allegiance and obedience to God the Father Almighty and his son Jesus Christ my Saviour.
I have to be able to acknowledge, accept and discriminate between my physical and spiritual realities. The spiritual is higher and must control my desires for comfort and pleasure that interfere with serving God and my neighbour.
My physical needs and desires can only be fruitfully disciplined by my spirit in obedience with God's will. If my desire is in control then I am no better than a beast.
I'm afraid this is often the case.
I eat too much for my health, I distract myself with lustful thoughts, and I want to punch at least one person in the course of a day. I want to be Caesar, thus serving the world.
Jesus understood this problem. So did Paul, who wrote the most about it.
Jesus' questioners in today's passage ask a great question. But they didn't understand the real struggle implied by their question.
They weren't even interested in seeing there was a struggle so deep that only Jesus' death and resurrection could bridge it.
They thought they knew the answer.
They thought it was wrong to pay taxes to Caesar because they were Jewish nationalists.
But they wouldn't say it. They wanted Jesus to say what they believed so they could have the Romans arrest him.
They were not interested in understanding their faith and how they needed to operate in a world hostile to God's will for us.
They were not interested in the truth.
That's why Jesus called them hypocrites.
His answer stunned them because it made them think about the deeper issue.
For most of my life I didn't want to serve God or Caesar.
I tried to avoid taxes and resented paying them because I was greedy.
I justified my attitude by blaming greedy and unscrupulous politicians taking my money for their pleasures.
I didn't want to serve God either because I didn't think I needed to.
Afterall, what had he done for me?
Where was he when I needed money to save me from my creditors?
Where was he when I couldn't control my kids?
Where was he when I got fired?
When I got fired, the government at least gave me just enough money to live at the YMCA and eat two small meals a day.
I was angry at that pittance because of the tens of thousands of dollars I'd paid in taxes. I deserved more.
God didn't give me anything except hardship and suffering.
What did I owe him for that?
It took me years to discover that I needed to give God everything I had, beginning with my suffering. Only then could I start to give him the rest of me.
So now I pay the world what it demands of me because that's the price of living in the world. And I'm learning how to give God what he asks of me because he loves me.
The world doesn't love me and never will. But God does.
That's the difference.
Lord, help me always to give you my suffering and my complaints so that I can see your love. Help me drop my desire to live in the world so that you can live in me. Forgive me my wretched pride, my selfishness and my fear. Give me your love so that I can give it to others and back to you.
