Tuesday of Holy week showed that the attention Jesus sought in his protests on Sunday and Monday seemed to have made a splash. The religious authorities came to question Jesus and it must indicate that his protests have produced a large number of followers. There is too much material on Tuesday to discuss in this one post, but I think the most memorable and most misunderstood dialog is the famous quote “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” I always understood that to be a call for separation of church and state, but I was wrong. That type of incorrect interpretation has been used to justify the holocaust, corrupt political practices, economic injustice, and even the current war with Iraq. This statement by Jesus doesn’t mean that we should be blindly obedient to governments regardless of its character and it doesn't mean we should limit God's influence to only personal moral choices. This narrative is marked by attack and counterattack, trap and escape. If we try and make this statement into an eternal truth about how to abstain from politics then we have taken it out of context.

Using the coin as an object of focus Jesus raises another question about what exactly is Caesar’s and what exactly is God’s. He is asking us to question our own understanding of what we credit to God. If we look at the parable he told earlier on Tuesday about a vineyard, commonly called the parable of the wicked tenants, we can see that Jesus is making another reference to the fact that the temple leaders (and/or the Emperor) have stolen and misused God’s land and God’s people. The central theme to both the parable and the reference to Caesar’s coin is that neither Rome nor the Religious leaders own God’s people. God is the rightful owner of the vineyard and God is the rightful owner of everything. The end result of this narrative is that if we really give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God then we will end up giving God everything and Caesar is left with nothing. Another beautiful use of sarcasm! This is not a license to limit God to only spiritual matters. Instead it is a command to give everything we have and everything we do to God.

God, forgive me for limiting your influence in my life to personal spiritual matters separate from the rest of my life. Help me to infuse the compassion of Jesus in my character, politics, business, consumption, and relationships. Everything is yours and nothing belongs to the empire.