Monday, October 28, 2019
676 - Getting to 'No!'
Spirituality Column #676
October 29 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Getting to ‘No!’
By Bob Walters
“Render therefore unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” –
Jesus to the Pharisees, Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25 (KJV)
Today we address
the significance of human behavioral boundaries, so let’s begin with Jesus very
succinctly and elegantly telling the treacherous Pharisees, “No.”
Jesus’
answer above – in the “Tribute Episode” that appears in all three synoptic
Gospels – is often misrepresented as Jesus supporting taxes. No, Jesus is cleverly telling the Pharisees
that they have 1) failed to trap Him and 2) lack a proper understanding of God.
The question is about taxes, the answer is about who is Lord.
Jesus keeps himself out of political
trouble here by never directly answering the preceding direct question whether “one ought to pay tribute to Caesar?” Jesus instead engages in a bit of customary rabbinical
rhetorical jiu-jitsu by countering with a disarming response about the coin
rather than answering about the taxes.
“Whose
is this image and inscription” on the coin? Jesus asks, thereby changing the subject from secular taxes to the
Lordship of God. “Image” and
“inscription” are bell-ringer words the Pharisees would have immediately recognized
as referring to the Second Commandment (no graven images) and the Shema (inscription of Deut. 6:4-9),
Israel’s most pious prayer, “Hear O
Israel, the Lord is our God – the Lord alone…” etc.
The Pharisees who amid their hatred
of Jesus and fervor to trap Him as a traitor had lost both their sense of the
limits of Caesar and commanding holiness of God.
Often in today’s cultural maelstrom
of secular aggrandizement and self-elevation – e.g., “You do you!” – we humans, and specifically let’s focus on
Christians, do a poor job of remembering the importance of restricting to the
most holy that which we worship. We mash
up societal fashion, civic trendiness, worldly appetites, and ease of material acquisition. Then – opposite of Jesus’ imprecation against
the Pharisees about Caesar – we query, approximately: “Must I really render Godly things to God? Really?”
Both Jesus and the Pharisees knew
that the trick part of the Tribute question was Caesar’s false lordship. Yet we still accept Caesar, i.e., the World, and
question God.
Writer John Waters – whom editor R.R.
Reno in First Things magazine (November 2019, current issue) described as
“diagnosing the distempers of our time” – opined, “A man without limits is as incapable
of satisfaction as a man without hope.”
Reno added his own thought that “a man without limits is also incapable
of love, for love limits. And a loveless man is incapable of happiness.”
Reno then mused, “… a culture of permission
promises happiness but delivers dissatisfaction. In such a culture (our culture), the greatest
gift we can give our fellow man is the word that limits. And that word is ‘No!’” which love often requires us to say.
Wouldn’t we all like to possess the
rhetorical polish of Jesus? I would. We are daily confronted with ridiculous
societal, governmental, and academic propositions that force the public suspension
of limits of what we know to be true and right; of how things work best, and of
what decisions are most honoring to God. God is love; we are sinners.
Jesus isn’t telling the Pharisees
or us about taxes; He is warning us all about false gods and keeping our
priorities straight. To love properly and divinely should be our greatest
aspiration; and to embrace the importance of “No!” is our greatest grace.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) understands the moral rectitude and
practical necessity of paying taxes … but harbors not the slightest inclination
to worship the IRS.