Render Unto Caesar

 

 

The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus into saying something that would either violate Jewish law and anger the Sanhedrin or would alarm the Roman authorities and cause a brutal response against him. Either situation would have served their purposes.

 

They asked a simple sounding but highly loaded question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?

 

Jesus took a coin and asked whose image was on it. His answer was that Caesar has his place and God has his place. The authorities should be honored and obeyed, even those authorities with whom we personally disagree. Caesar’s image (Man) is on the coin; we are made in God’s image.

 

This passage means many things, many deep things, but it has temporal meaning also. Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s would mean that we are expected to be good peaceful citizens who fulfil their civic responsibilities and who avail themselves of their civic privileges. Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his sentence directly to Caesar.

 

This blog post is for every Christian in whatever political system they find themselves to be, but, right now, it is especially relevant to Christians in the United States of America. The election for President of the United States will be held on Tuesday 5 November 2024.

 

This particular election is being hotly contested and polling data shows that it is so close that it is statistically impossible to predict which candidate will win.

 

A very disturbing truth is that, apparently, many American Christians find both of the major candidates to be objectionable and have decided not to vote. I would urge them to listen to Jesus and to Paul the Apostle in Romans 13:1-7. Paul said this, and meant it, about a government which ultimately executed him. This was not blind obedience to a government but was a statement that government authority is to be considered to be legitimate.

 

The only valid reason to disobey the government is if, in order to obey the government, we would have to dishonor our ultimate allegiance to the Lord. Not liking the candidate choices available to us in an election does not seem to rise to that level.

 

Genesis 1:27; Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25; Acts 25:6-12.