Coins and Characters

Read Mark 12:13-17

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” –Mark 12:17

My favorite Kurt Vonnegut book is Cat’s Cradle. One of my favorite parts of the book is a made-up religion he calls “Bokononism.” The core concept of Bokononism is the karass—a group of people who are cosmically linked to fulfill a shared (but unknown) purpose. “If you find your life tangled up with somebody else’s life for no very logical reasons,” writes Bokonon, “that person may be a member of your karass.” A karass is different from a granfalloon—a group of people who think they have a shared identity (like a nationality or political party or even our shared identity as “Hoosiers”), but who in fact possess no real shared purpose. There are plenty of more fun terms from this religion—a “vin-dit,” a “wrang-wrang,” a “wampeter,” or a “duprass”—if you ever want to check it out!

Of particular interest to me is the way that “Bokonon” reinterprets the well-known saying of Jesus above: “Pay no attention to Caesar,” Bokonon wrote. “Caesar doesn’t have the slightest idea what’s really going on.” As ridiculous as this made-up religion sounds, Vonnegut got pretty close to Jesus’ meaning.

It is important to remember that the Roman emperors claimed to possess divine lineage. Augustus Caesar (who reigned at the time of Jesus’ birth) claimed the title of divi filius (“Son of God”) and even imprinted this title upon coins bearing his image. While not all Roman coins bore that inscription, all Roman coins contained the image of a current or preceding emperor, as a way of emphasizing Roman control of the economy (and all the goods and services exchanged therein).

The Pharisees asked Jesus a question about taxation as a way of entrapment—if he said it was “lawful” to pay taxes, he’d lose the support of the people. If he argued against paying taxes, the Pharisees would have grounds to arrest him. But Jesus’ response was about much more than getting out of a jam. We are meant to ask the question: if Caesar puts his image (Gk: eikon) upon a coin, where does God put God’s image in the world? For anyone who knew the Hebrew scriptures, the answer was obvious: “God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” (Gen 1:27)

And then that leads to a further question: We “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” by giving him back the coins that bear his image. But what does it mean to “render unto God what is God’s”? The Greek verb translated here as “render” (apodote) can mean to “repay” (to give back) or to “release” (to give up). It can also mean to “restore” (something that has been lost). This was the mission that Jesus lived out—to “give back” to God those who had been lost and claimed by others. Jesus modeled how we are to “render to God what is God’s,” by loving our neighbor and by treating one another (especially the least of these) as divine image-bearers.

Ironically, the Pharisees did the exact opposite. They took the One who most fully bore the image of God—the true eikon of God incarnate—and instead rendered him unto Caesar. But back to Bokonon—neither the Pharisees nor Caesar had any idea what was really going on. They did not see that Jesus’ sacrifice would “pay back” the sin which humanity could not pay, in order to “release” us from sin and “restore” us to God.

Bottom line: You belong to God. You bear God’s divine image. And the best way you can “render unto God what is God’s” is to give back to God the life He has given unto you. In so doing, you become part of a kingdom that no power—not even Caesar himself—could ever take you away from.  

Thank You, O Lord, for seeing something of worth and value in me. Renew and restore Your image within me, and help me to see in others the same worth—and to give to them the same love—that You have shown unto me. Amen.