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“Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” This is a commonly quoted line from Jesus, found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels. It comes when Jesus is asked a question meant to trap him, “Should you pay the Imperial tax?” It was a trap because either answer he gave would have caused trouble for Jesus. Obviously, telling people not to pay their taxes to the Empire would result in Jesus being branded as a dangerous rabble rouser. But this tax was HATED by 1st Century Jews. They were being forced to fund their own oppression. To simply tell people to pay the tax would severely harm Jesus’ legitimacy among the common people, as someone willing to bend the knee to the oppressors to save his own skin. 

However, they didn’t anticipate that Jesus may find a different answer. He asks for a denarius, the coin used for paying the tax. Roman coins were stamped with the face of the Roman Emperor. “Whose image is this? And whose inscription,” Jesus asks. “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Now, the part people quote often ends there, but Jesus continues, “and give to God what is God’s.” 

Jesus did something very clever. Yes, he said to pay the tax, thus avoiding being branded a rebel by the Romans. But the message of his response is anything but “just comply.” In the second part of his answer, he is challenging the very foundation of the Roman State itself. 

Yes, Roman coins carry the image of Caesar and the proclamation of Caesar’s greatness, thus they are Caesar’s. But there is a reference that is unspoken but would be clear to all in his audience of faithful Jews. What is God’s? All that carry God’s image, that is all humanity. Jesus is saying “Yes, give these pieces of metal, which hold no real value, to the one who created them. But you, and everyone you encounter, and all that exists, belongs to God.” Far from being a simplistic encouragement to blindly follow human laws, it is a deeply subversive reminder that we owe everything, our hearts, our souls, our allegiance, our very bodies, to the one who created us in their image. 

St. Augustine, one of THE most important Christian theologians outside of the apostles themselves, once said, “an unjust law is not law at all.” Put a different way, a law that disregards the image of God, the basic humanity, of God's children is a law that Christians are under no moral compulsion to obey. In fact, in our baptismal vows in the UMC we pledge before God to "resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves,” meaning that it is our holy duty to resist such laws. 

In these times, it is more important than ever to remember this simple, basic fact: all humanity is made in the image of God. Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and all the others killed by the State are made in the image of God. Immigrants are made in the image of God. And yes, Border Patrol and ICE agents are made in the image of God. So in our obedience, in our resistance, in our prayers, in our words, and in the way we offer each day up in service to God, may we give unto God’s what is God’s, and see God in the eyes of every person.