Render to Caesar? Huh?
Uh oh. That’s an ominous-looking headline.
If you were in church last Sunday, or have listened to the sermon online, you will have noticed that I rather skillfully, though I say so myself, chickened out of commenting on the challenging and troubling aspect of the Gospel lesson. The key verse, you’ll remember, was Jesus’ famous saying. “Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.” Yellow-belly that I am, I focused on the second half of the phrase and left the first half to hang in the air like the blade of a guillotine.
Well, in the cold light of Monday morning, I feel like I have nowhere else to run. So I thought I’d return to that verse and see if I can say something bland and inoffensive about the ‘rendering to Caesar’ thing. (Hey, I’m Church of England; we turned blandness into an artform.)
So here are a few thoughts on that troublesome instruction.
- ‘Rendering to Caesar that which is Caesar’s’ is a stumbling block that trips up all political tribes. Face it, it is hard to give to ‘Caesar’ what is Caesar’s, when Caesar just defeated the candidate we had spent so much time, energy, and even money supporting. Many Christians have found it difficult to respect the Caesar the US has had for the last three years, just as many others find it hard to respect the one who came before him. (Yup, I’m talking Presidents.) And yet, respect is surely the least that Caesar is due. Caesar is a human being made in the likeness of God, capable of extraordinary acts of love, goodness, and creativity.
- Of course, Caesar is also a fallen creature – a sinner – whose thoughts, words, and actions fall short of God’s perfect standard. And so, as well as respect, Caesar is also due Christian correction from time-to-time. Giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s includes reminding Caesar that he has God-given duties towards the people he leads. It also includes reminding him that he is a frail human being whose empire will end one day.
- Caesar governs by the will of God. This doesn’t mean that he can do whatever he likes and receive God’s stamp of approval. Caesar still has the free will to perform his God-given duties or not. Rather, it means that Caesar is the Governor because God has willed it to be so. In this way we can always say that whoever is President, they are there by the will of God, for whatever reasons God has in mind.
- Don’t forget just who Jesus was referring to – the Emperor Tiberius. So, try this perspective for size – Jesus instructed his followers to ‘render to Caesar’ when Caesar was a blood-thirsty, merciless tyrant. Now if Jesus could say this about him, then we don’t have much to quibble about with our modern-day American Caesars.
- Jesus could not have anticipated a modern democracy, a Constitution, or a Bill of Rights. All of this was unimaginable 2,000 years ago. This begs a fascinating question – ‘who or what is Caesar in our time and place?’ So far in this article I’ve assumed it is the President and other human leaders. But, as a democracy, surely it is WE, the people, who are our own governors. In our context, is Caesar not so much a person as he is a body of law and a Constitution? Interesting. Maybe Caesar is ’we the people’. Maybe Caesar is the Constitution. What does Jesus’ instruction to ‘give to Caesar’ mean if that is correct?
- And don’t forget that second half of the sentence. ‘Render to God that which is God’s.’ We must place Caesar in context. He is powerful, worthy of respect, and (as long as he is not dehumanizing people) obedience. But Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. God is still God. Empires come and go and each one is destined to die. Caesars are forgotten, but God is eternal. We must worship God only.
Duncan