Day 3537 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 22:20 NIV

Coming from the One known to have quite the penchant for a good parable, perhaps this particular question was asked in what may remain an unseen plurality as asked within the unasked rhetorical.

For it’s clear to read that Jesus was referring to this Denarius which the people had produced as part of His proving His point as paved perfectly level within the next verse. It’s this coin that Christ asks for in regard to this debate as the paying of taxes as asked from a people wondering about such worldly loyalty as to listen to and succumb to the overall structure of what society still remains. And yet as Jesus goes on to explain within the simplicity of His answer, perhaps there’s more to the point than just proven upon some coin.

And honestly, we shouldn’t really at this point expect anything less of this One who spoke and speaks still such life unto us through a Word written well before we began our own fall away.

Yet we do, right up and into the point in which we take everything at face-value, pun intended. For that’s a cliché used to define this tendency of ours toward the widely accepted understandings of basically everything, money in this case. Maybe. Indeed, we’re a people who determine such things as value and worth based upon the cents and bills it would demand to buy something or to have something bought replaced at some point. And so within this constant evaluation of our life’s valuation, we’ve come to lean entirely headlong into the long known and vastly understood.

Such as money. We know what a penny is worth, and that these days that worth isn’t what it once was. We know whose face is on a hundo, even though some still think him somehow a past president. Granted, I get the precedent as all coin and currency tends to feature the face of some politician, be it a president or other presiding party such as an emperor or a king. But the point is that we all know quite well the worth of worldly wealth, so much so that it’s in many ways become allowed to define at least a part of our personal worth and a majority of our personal priority.

The degree into which such a definition has descended is different for all of us, but those varying valuations don’t change anything about the fact that we’ve all come so far into this world that we can’t help but blur the line between even death and life.

Because there shouldn’t be such a complexity to our understanding of our existence. It should have never become a matter of dollars making more sense than the calling of the cross. But, alas, since here we are, well, here is where too we must start in what is an unraveling of worldly concession and consensus that is going to be proven, at one point or another, entirely so unrealized to our blind eyes that we’ll likely be amazed at just how much we look like this place.

For as we talk all the time, such was never meant to become the norm.

No, made in God’s image, we all know this. And yet this commonly understood fact of our being the creation of a Creator who created us to be His, and too in such a violently profound way that He made us to look at least somewhat like Him, it seems that we’ve come to this place in which we’ve forgotten so much of our face that we think it worth less than the time we spend worrying about such things as “death and taxes.”

Indeed, so many here seem only to believe that that is the overall purpose of our existence. You hear folks say all the time, “Ah, well, it’s all just death and taxes.” It’s this idea that we’ve accepted so deeply that it’s anymore an outcome alluded to whenever we’ve found ourselves once more up against something that doesn’t seem to add the sort of spice to life that our lives have come to crave. For indeed, we do so love the excitement of it all, all this fame and fortune that we’ve fought to find having heard we could.

Again, such as that proven upon the pennies in our pockets.

All this currency and coinage that’s come to be considered a reasonably equitable evaluation of our life’s value, it’s the very epitome of what it is to be worldly. It’s fortune in that it’s able to purchase, and too it’s fame as it’s all plastered or painted or produced with the likeness of some notoriety or celebrity. And make no mistake, the line between politician and performer isn’t as distinct as it should be. Not anymore at least.

Anyway, back to my point for today’s post.

Plurality.

For something to be a plurality means simply that there exists inside it a plural. It has more than one point or purpose or profit to be proven. In its ecclesiastical definition, a plurality is defined as “the holding by one person of two or more benefices at the same time”. And a benefice is as the reading seems, a benefit. And so in an ecclesiastical understanding, a plurality is the holding of one person something which exists in plural state. It’s something having two or more benefits. Two or more purposes. More than one point.

Which is my point.

See, often when I’ve read this passage in which we go on to read about how Christ is teaching the people through this little coin that they should “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”, we think of it in our normal perspectives as proven mostly these days to be worried about such things as “death and taxes”. Mostly the taxes, mostly because we are afraid of death and even more so because we just love money. In fact we love it so much that any time any hint or allusion to money is made, we miss whatever else might matter.

Yes, we have created within us this ability to become all but instantly blinded by dollar bills and gold bullion. Just love the stuff!

And so that’s why I found this idea that hit me this morning one of quite impressive novelty. I, as far as I can remember, which is usually pretty far as, if anything, I struggle mostly to forget, but as far as I can remember, I can’t remember thinking this thought in regard to this passage ever before.

“Whose image?”

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…’” Genesis 1:26. 1:27 – “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Whose image?

“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

The coin in question, this Denarius used by Christ to prove His point, what if it wasn’t the only part of His point? What if it was only half of His point? What if, as is yet another definition of a plurality (something being more than half of the whole; the majority), what if is the coin was the least of His focus? What if He was asking, without asking, as to the image of the ones worried about the coin? What if it’s something of another brand of parable in which He spoke to something without speaking of it directly?

Trying to help the people see just how confused they’d become, just how confused we still remain. Trying to flip their perspective away from this little piece of metal that belonged to the world back to the God who created everything in the world. Trying to help us all understand that we cannot afford to live our lives for what some king or president or neighbor or know-it-all wants us to be convinced makes our lives worth something.

What if He was trying to help us see that our time would be better spent worrying about another image than this one on some little coin?

Yes, what if He meant both whose image is on the coin as well as whose image was on the person asking? Give back to Caesar. The coin is his, but the person focused on it, not at all. And such the same remains for us. Give back to God what is God’s. And well my friends, we’re all made in His image. And so whose image? Well, it depends upon the perspective as proven within what we’re most worried about.

Because, granted, if our focus is on such things as fame and fortune, well then coins and controversies will be our concern. But what if we flipped life back to the living side of death and looked at it from a different point of view, one not proven within the obviousness of words spoken in what can often be a superficiality which hides underneath the truest point and purpose? Yes, what if we listened so closely to Christ that we learned to look for the parable in between the lines?

As this is a thought I’ve not thought before, maybe I’m out of my mind. Perhaps I’m in too deep. Maybe I’m reading something into all this that shouldn’t be there. What if I’m not.

See, I think so often we exist inside this status quo that’s so normal that we don’t want to think beyond the barricades, to read between the lines, to actively seek for something deeper than what we see. Because that’s scary to go where we know nothing. We don’t want to know nothing. We don’t want that kind of risk, that all but guaranteed uncertainty of our venturing beyond what most everyone else is comfortable with.

But what if that’s where life is learned?

This all has this sense of depth to it that I, at least personally, find to make more sense than just reading what was said. Why? Parables. Jesus loves parables. He speaks in riddles, asking those listening to listen deeper, to look for the lesson left buried beneath the words. Who’s to say this passage isn’t yet another parable, only one spoken in both word, yes, but also one shown in a physicality that we’re not used to looking for, learning from?

Whose image? And too, whose inscription?

Revelation 22:4? “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Granted, Revelation was written well after Matthew, but as the entirety of Scripture is the cohesive account of God’s creating this creation and then saving this creation and then leading this creation to His promise for them as inscribed in His covenant with them, with us, for us, does the distance defined within years or decades really matter? It’s all the same story of God’s glory. His face we will see, the image in which we were made. Whose image? God’s. Whose inscription? “His name will be on their foreheads.”

Romans 2:15. “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”

Law written on hearts? Jeremiah 31:33? “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Whose image and whose inscription? Sure, Caesar’s face and words were probably plastered all over both coin and culture within the context of this passage in Matthew. But Jesus’ point is that while they were, while we still, were and are surrounded by Caesars and celebrities and politicians and popularity and profit and platforms praised for their power and prestige, it’s not us. We are not anything of this world. We do not belong to Caesar, that is the point. Give him his coins. Pay him his taxes. But leave it at that, because we have another image, another inscription that makes us who we really are.

We are God’s children, His creation, made in His image. And we are His inscription, law written on our hearts, His Name written upon our foreheads (someday). And even connecting us to Christ, Isaiah 49:16. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” This one is perhaps the most poignant in that it is the image of God as has come in Christ engraving, inscribing us on the palms of His hands within the holes that held the nails that didn’t hold Him to the cross.

No, that’s yet another physical parable. Because this world didn’t nail Him to that cross, as if some metal could overcome the Messiah. No, His love held Him there. And that is the image, that is the inscription, THAT IS US!!! For we are not our own anymore but rather have been bought at a price that was paid to remind that we are not of this world just as He is not of this world. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Because in our doing that we’ll hopefully learn just how little we owe to this world as encompassed in such novelty as coin and currency. Yes, let this world have what belongs to and in and is of this world. We are not!

Let us stop living as if we are. Friends, we are more than how much money we have. We’re more than the taxes we have to pay to some country in which we reside momentarily. We’re more than the quotes of some coins, E Pluribus Unum and the like. We are more than what this world can see, more than this world will hear, more than we have here or want here or lose here. We are His, and so let us give back to God what is God’s.

And if we ever become unsure as to what of us is God’s, remember then that we are made in His image and His Word is inscribed upon our hearts. Do not tie your life to a coin, a culture, a commonality, a confusion. We’re more than anything in this world can compare with or compete against. Let us stop living as if all we are is some negotiation.

We are His holy creation. So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, and please, for the love of everything good, stop trading what is eternal for what isn’t!

#LeaveNoSoulUntold