Irreverent Reverent 33: Exodus 15 16 and Matthew 22

Yeah, those Pharisees kept testing Jesus with a lot of questions that I probably would have asked too. For example, the question of whether it is good to pay taxes or not?

Hey, morally, I'm not certain I can justify taxes. I mean, it is money that I give the government which they use for God only knows what. Since a lot of you are in the process of paying your taxes, I suppose this would be a "contemporary devotional", but in order for that to be true, most of you would be reading this in April.

Of course, Jesus realized what it was all about. If he had said "Yes", then they would have said "a-ha, you support the emperor". If Jesus had said "no", then they probably would have said, "a-ha, you are planning to overthrow the emperor". So their question both supports and not supports the emperor.

Instead, Jesus just asks them to "show him the money", and asks him who is on it. Then God said, render unto Ceasar and all that. By the way, Caesar was quite dead by the time Jesus was around. Still, does that matter? After all, George Washington is our money, and he's been dead for over two hundred years.

So money then and money now has pictures of it of those who shouldn't get any. Of course, if Jesus had been around, "Render unto Washington that which belongs to Washington" could be interpreted differently. After all, some of us are going to render Washington some serious coinage come April.

The point that Jesus is trying to make is that whoever owes, owes, and whoever collects, collects. Both Caesar and Washington get something because these respective societies say it is true. However, what does God own? Everything.

Sadly, most people give to God the way they pay their taxes. Reluctantly and out of some sense of avoiding penalty.

When we realize that God owns everything, then we also need to realize that personal possessive pronouns (my, mine, your, our) are an illusion. The only thing that God doesn't own is that which we claim is ours. It's not that it still isn't God's, it's just that it cannot be used for God.

This includes our mistakes! If we are willing to give them up, then they are God. They are no longer ours, which means we are no longer connected to them. You don't even have to pay taxes on them. Isn't that a reason to be glad to give!