Whose image and inscription is this?

The Tribute Money (Caesar's Coin), Peter Paul Rubens (1612-1614).  Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think?  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?  Show Me the tax money."  So they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

- Matthew 22:15-22

Yesterday we read that Jesus answered and spoke to leadership once again by parables and said:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.  Again, he sent out other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, 'See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready.  Come to the wedding." '  But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.  And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.  But when the king heard about it, he was furious.   And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.  Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.'  So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good.  And the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came into to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.  So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?  And he was speechless.  Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  For many are called, but few are chosen."

  Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think?  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?  Show Me the tax money."  So they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.  My study bible notes that this question is designed to trap Jesus, as the text tells us, the attempt is to entangle Him in His talk.  Let's note that the Herodians are those followers of Herod's court, and so are close to the Roman state.  So, this question is a trap, in the sense that if Jesus answers "yes," it will turn the Jewish people against Him.  But if He answers "no" (especially in the presence of the Herodians) it will bring a charge of treason by the Romans.  My study bible says that Christ's answer defeats their cunning and shows that a believer can render the state its due while serving God.  As the coin bears the image of the emperor and is properly paid to him.  At the same time, each person bears the image of God and therefore belongs to God.  A conflict forms, my study bible says, only at those times when the state demands that which is contrary to God.  It also adds that Jesus' answer doesn't imply that there is a division in our lives into the secular and the sacred.  Instead, we know that God is Lord over all life, including the secular.  But to fulfill governmental requirements that do not conflict with our first responsibility to God is appropriate and important (see (Romans 13:1-7; contrast with Acts 4:19, 5:29).  To pay taxes and fulfill civil duties is not detrimental to holiness.

For our earliest Christian ancestors, this particular teaching would remain key to their lives, for many of our earliest saints and martyrs had to make precisely this distinction.  When was it proper to render to Caesar, and when to God?  Early martyrs and saints included young women who had decided to devote their lives to God, and so resisted being married to men of high rank.  This meant even a defiance of parents, and their stories include several young women who perished through collusion of parents and state.  Some martyrs died simply from local persecutions by mobs or citizens agitated against Christians for all kinds of reasons, including simple prejudice.  But others were those who had to choose between allegiance to God and allegiance to other secular authorities, such as parents (in the case of the young women who did not wish to be married or forced to give up their faith), or the state, as in the case of soldiers who, having dutifully served in the military, did not wish to participate in pagan services, or even in some cases, to receive the laurel crown, also associated with pagan worship.  At any rate, studying these histories gives us a sense that the real crisis occurs precisely as my study bible says it does:  when governmental or other requirements from authority conflict with our first responsibility to God, especially the care and allegiance of our souls.  Those faithful, for example, might be slaves who chose to resist particular compulsion to worship idols.  In any case, from the stories we have we can conclude that at some crisis point -- just as with the Passion of Christ -- it comes down to having to choose a loyalty especially of the soul.  That is, to whom do we have a greater allegiance?  There are all kinds of ways in which we serve our countries, our communities, our governments, and other forms of secular institutions.  There will be things we support and even things we don't support, such as various political or social or cultural opinions.  But the real conflict comes when there is a question of loyalty and allegiance in terms of the soul's dedication to God, and there each must make a choice in accordance with a prayerful life for what is appropriate.  In the example cited by my study bible of Romans 13, St. Paul writes, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities" and "Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."  From this we can understand a Christian life as one which seeks in righteousness to maintain peace and honor with neighbor through the institutions of our governments and communities, but that there may come a time when it becomes a matter of having to choose between the soul's love of God and such duties.  Jesus' answer tells us something very important about the balance between the secular and the sacred.  In a "holistic" pattern of life, where we do not divide up where God is and isn't (for God is "everywhere present and filling all things," according to an Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit), we seek to serve God at all times, even when fulfilling our duties as good citizens and good neighbors, as dutiful children or responsible family members.  But our prayerful life keeps us also participating in the life of Christ.  We note through the Gospels that He chose His battles; there were times to avoid the authorities, and now, finally, He is in Jerusalem and the time of His hour of Passion is coming.  So we are to do likewise, to see fit to live our lives in accordance with prayer and the guidance of our communities; to live in peace, but to understand the deeply loyal allegiance of our souls to our Creator.  In this we begin and we also end.  We are called not to complacency but rather to a higher kind of order of awareness and also of responsibility.  Our lives are not worthless tools of any state, but neither are they merely resistant to anything we don't necessarily "like."  We are called to something better and deeper, to a responsible mindfulness, a reverence for life as created by God, a valuing of the true worth of the soul -- we're not to give it away easily.  Consider that this is the real basis for our freedom.  Let us be truly mindful and grateful for the Incarnation we are about to celebrate.  Advent is a traditional time in the Church not for hustle and bustle and material preparations and consumption, but rather even of fasting and reflection in preparation for our feast.  Let us take time out for what is important, for where our souls must truly dwell -- but most especially, to deepen our understanding of whose image and inscription they must bear.