A question about taxes becomes a confrontation with God’s claim on our whole lives. Read within Matthew’s unfolding temple scene, Jesus’ answer reaches beyond what we owe Caesar to what we withhold from God. Bearing God’s image challenges our loyalties, authority, and comfort, while promising that our lives belong to the Christ who gives himself for us.
There are a lot of two kingdom takes on this text that are important theologically and for the nuances of our understanding of institutional ethics and Christian relationship within our government structures. But I think that if we begin preaching on the necessity (or lack thereof) of taxes on April 15th, then we’ve strayed a little too far down the money rabbit hole. Instead, the traditional angle helps to keep us centered. As early church writers focus on, this is a call to give of ourselves to God. Tertullian writes, “That means render the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is imprinted on the person, to God. You give to Caesar only money. But to God, give yourself.”[4] And Augustine writes more concisely, “To Caesar his coins, to God your very selves.”[5]
