The Stuff of Heaven vs The Stuff of Earth

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?  

Should we pay or should we not pay?"
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,
"Why are you testing me?
Bring me a denarius to look at."
They brought one to him and he said to them,
"Whose image and inscription is this?"
They replied to him, "Caesar's."
So Jesus said to them,
"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
They were utterly amazed at him.

In our Gospel passage today they try to trip up Jesus.  It was a clever ruse indeed.  They asked Jesus if they should pay taxes or not.  If Jesus answered "No," that would be an offense against Caesar and one that most likely carried the death penalty.  If Jesus answered "Yes" then he would alienate his followers who hated the Roman occupiers of Israel.  

You know, the Romans may have been pagans and they may have over indulged in the passions of the flesh, but they were pretty skilled at governing the populations in the lands that they conquered.  In Israel at this time, special coins were minted that did not have the head of Caesar on them.  The head of a man on a coin was considered a graven image and the Jews would be forbidden to use the coins or even touch them.  So it was kind of strange how when Jesus called for a coin that they found one with the head of Caesar on it.  The fact that a Pharisee had one on them showed how deep their hypocrisy went.  Jesus defused the situation by telling his audience to give to Caesar what belonged to Caesar and to God the things that belonged to God.  This clever response astonished his listeners and like the devil in the desert did, they went their way to wait for another opportunity. 

We humans, place a lot of value on what we can see, what we can touch, what we can smell, what we can taste.  It kind of makes sense because it is all we know.  Yesterday, my wife and I went to the local supermarket to purchase a few things.  We pulled into our parking spot and noticed across from our Kia Soul was a large white sedan.  From a distance the logo looked like it was a Chrysler, you know wings with a symbol inside.  But this was not like any Chrysler I had ever seen in my life.  It had the look of strength, power, money.  A closer inspection showed that inside the symbol was the letter "B" as in Bentley!  I had never seen one in the wild before, only in magazines.  The Bently sat there in mute regal majesty next to an old Buick with the start of rust near the bottom of the doors that had once been the pride of both the owner and the finance company.  I wonder if the owner of the Bentley was aware that one day his beautiful car would also begin to rust and become worn out?  We, humans, get confused over the value of things, don't we?  Personally, I think paying a quarter of a million dollars for an automobile is crazy.  I also think that outward signs of wealth and prosperity will serve as their own reward when we close our eyes in death and find ourselves standing before the Lord.  I am not judging the person who purchased the Bentley, that is not my place.  For all I know he (or she) gives freely to the poor and could serve as a great example to me of how to be charitable.  I just have to point out that both the shiny new Bently and the rusting Buick were at the same food store buying food so the Bentley was just a method of moving from one place to the other, just as it was for the rust bucket, Buick. 

Bentley, Buick, KIA Soul, it does not really matter.  What matters is that we do as Christ tells us to do.  Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that belong to God.  Jesus told us to love one another as He loved us.  He went to the Cross for us, and that is a lot of love.  God Bless