Taxes for Caesar, Myself for God

 Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

 September 28, 2020

Taxes for Caesar, Myself for God

 “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Mark 12:17

Read: Mark 12: 13-17

 “Still waters run deep” is what I think of when I read Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees over the issue of paying taxes. At that time, the Jews had lived their entire life under Roman oppression. The Jews hated the Romans. Adding insult to injury, the Roman coin had an inscription of the Roman Emperor with text affirming him as divine and high priest. Because the Jews were forbidden to make an image of their God, just to hold a Roman coin was completely offensive to a devout Jew.

The Jews were burdened with Roman taxes, local taxes, Temple taxes and taxes to King Herod. The Pharisees thought Jesus had no choice but to anger either the Romans or the Jews by his response. However, Jesus’ response went in an unexpected direction.

On the surface, Jesus’ reply seems simple enough; pay your taxes. On a deeper level, it is important for us to grasp what Jesus intended and what he did not.

Jesus was not making a statement about separation of church and state. God never intended for his values, ethics, and principals to be separated from mainstream society. History has an abundance of examples of where humans got it wrong in their attempts to forge a society governed by God’s word. However, there are examples of when they have come closer to getting it right, such as the forging of our Declaration of Independence.

What, then, did Jesus mean other than to simply pay your taxes? Jesus asked the Pharisees whose image was on the coin. Because Caesar’s image was on the coin, Jesus said “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” The image of God is not on a coin, it is within human beings. We are created in the image of God. When Jesus says “give to God what belongs to God” Jesus is teaching us to give ourselves to God.

My Takeaway: Jesus’ teaching today inspires the lines in my favorite prayer:

“I acknowledge you to be my Creator and my God. I render to you the reverence of my being and my life. I am not my own. I am yours. By creation and redemption, I am yours. I will devote myself to your service this day and forever.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.