So, we are entering into our season of images, like we do every year. Such a weird time in America and much of the world.
Many across the nation are currently caught up in search of a particular type of squash. And when they find just the right one, they will take it home, eviscerate it, and then carve a face into it. Then plop a candle down in it and call that a job well done. Such a weird thing to do.
Then we will follow that up with images of turkeys, pilgrims, Indians, Santas, reindeer with shiny noses, snowmen.
In the next couple of weeks we will probably see more flags and signs and stickers than we can shake a stick at.
And all of these reflect at some level or another some version of our deeply held beliefs or most cherished traditions. And those images are sort of a shorthand of who we are.
And that's ok. By and large we Americans (and I guess most of the world). . . we Americans tend to hold these images lightly. We aren't too invested in images.
But this is not always the case, now or in the past. And Judea during the Roman occupation is a prime example. The Jews are occupied by an oppressive foreign power. And these Romans demand the Jews pay taxes for the privilege of being occupied. Tensions are always simmering just underneath the surface, and the local political parties are always trying to use this for advantage.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has probably had a busy day of stirring up the crowds when the Herodians and the Pharisees (usually polar opposites) decide to join the fray and see if they can trip him up, find a trumped-up charge of treason or something – anything – to minimize his appeal.
They come up with a plan, they hatch a plot. If we can get him denying the power of Caesar, he's speaking treason, but if we can get him agreeing with the Romans, then he's a collaborator.
So they strike! “Jesus, should we support the empire or not?”
And he asks for a coin. And we 21st century Americans all sit back and hear him talk about separation of church and state and paying your taxes and making sure you tithe. And these are all good things. And they are all things that completely miss the point.
Because the coin is a silver Roman denarius depicting the emperor’s image and bearing the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus, Son of the Deified Augustus. The coin’s reverse declares Tiberius is “high priest.”
The coin makes a claim. It recognizes the emperor’s divinity and proclaims Tiberius as the head of the official Roman state religion. From a Jewish point of view the coin is pure blasphemy in its words and idolatry in its image. It is a constant reminder of the religious loyalties demanded by Roman imperial society. The empire was a “pay to play” world; full participation required a serious commitment to the emperor. All else was treason in the emperor's eyes.
You have to use this coin to stay in the emperor’s good graces, even as the coin itself compromises what you might stand for.
So Jesus takes this coin, has them identify the person on the coin as the emperor, and says, “Well, give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and give God what belongs to God.” Everyone is stunned by his political savvy. Once again, Jesus has threaded the needle. I can imagine these leaders kinda just standing there, thinking, “Huh! Wasn't expecting that.” And they skulk away, waiting to regroup and have another go at him later.
All pretty darned clever, our Jesus. At least that's how it seems in our Revised Standard Version. Clever.
But I think there's something hidden here. And we find it in the old King James Version.
You see in the Lectionary version, Jesus takes the coin and says, “Whose head is this, and whose name?” Essentially, “Who's this guy?” But the good ole KJV has the better of it. He says, “Whose is this image?” Images.
And this is important. An image here in Rome, in Judea, is not a likeness. It's not just a picture or a reflection. In ancient Rome, an image was an agent of power.
The image of Caesar is power and powerful. The image of Caesar projects Caesar himself into the lives of wherever the image is.
That image means you are ruled.
That image means you are owned.
That image is watching you.
That image is measuring your worth.
To have an image in your posession is to commune with a god. To be an image is to BE like a god.
And I think that Jesus has remembered what the Pharisees forgot until he called them on it. Jesus isn't just saying “Pay your taxes, but also give to God.”
Jesus is remembering something that stretches back into the mist of creation (again the good ole King James):
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
I think Jesus knows what the Pharisees forgot until he called them on it and what we so often forget today. It's not a matter of allegiance to the image of power for the sake of power. It's not a choice of who you support.
Because with God, it's not a matter of carrying an image, it's a matter of BEING and image. It is nothing less than who you are.
An image of God.
And that's scary, because we all know that we spend so much time in our life running from that fact. So often we spend our lives tarnishing the image, denying the amazing essence of what being God's image means. I know that I do way more than I'm willing to admit.
But the fact is, from the fall of humanity in the garden, we have devoted so much effort into denying what we are called to be.
An image of God.
Y'all, this world needs us right now. This country needs us right now. Our villages and towns, our friends and neighbors need us right now. They need to look at us and see images of God. As the Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonians, we are imitators (or images) of the Lord. And in spite of any persecutions or trouble the world throws our way, we are to be examples to all. Examples of faith and steadfastness and hope and love.
It's not a matter of paying this to those and giving that to something else. It's not a matter of dividing our loyalties and being one thing one minute and another another minute. It's a matter of recognizing that “Rendering unto the Emperor” is as hollow as a Halloween pumpkin and rendering unto God is a full-time commitment to loving God and loving our neighbor.
Long ago, St. Theresa Avila reminded us just what it means to be an image of God:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
With compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
With compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Amen.