Matthew 22:15-22. After plotting a way to trap Jesus in his words, the Pharisees come to him and say "Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully ... Tell us, then ... Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" Jesus reprimands them for trying to trap him and then asks for a coin. He then asks whose name and inscription are on the coin and they answer "Caesar's," so Jesus tells them to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's. The Pharisees marvel at his words and walk away.

So much has been written about this, I am sure nothing I say is anything new, but I want to focus on the Pharisees a bit here. The first line of this reading is "Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle him in his talk." This so perfectly illustrates how the Pharisees and so many people, especially politicians and people in power, think. In order to get where they are, they had to learn to "play the game." They had to learn to spin, to use words to confuse, to obfuscate, to playcate people in order not to make any group too angry with them (or at least any group with power - they had no problem making the lives of the poor miserable since the poor have no power over them). Once you do this long enough, once you are part of the swamp, you truly come to believe that everyone is doing this - that it is just how things are done and how people are. But it is not! And Jesus is even less like this, since he himself is the Truth.

So in order to try to get the better of Jesus, the Pharisees have to come up with a plan, a trick, because everything they do is a kind of trick, that's how the game is played. But Jesus never has to prepare to confront the Pharisees or to answer the Pharisees, and he is not playing any game, he is living in the Truth. The Truth does not need preparation to be spoken. It may, for us, require us to do some research and have the facts at hand (if they are not purposely being obfuscated by our modern-day Pharisees - but that is another story! 🙂); but Jesus knows all, he does not need research and he does not need preparation. His words just acknowlwedge the truth: Caesar is in power and human nation-states require funding. This simply is what it is. It doesn't mean that you think Caesar is a good guy if you pay your taxes (thus obeying the fourth commandment, by the way).

God's image and inscription is on all of creation, we render unto God by simply acknowledging that he is the maker of all. In his permissive will, he can afford to allow Caesar his pomp and pride in casting his image on a few measly coins (made of gold that God himself created!).

By the end of this gospel the Pharisees are amazed at Jesus's words. At least they are honest enough to admit to themselves that someone has up-ended their game. There may be hope for them yet!