The eCrozier

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mt 22:21)

As Jesus holds the coin, he asks the Pharisees and Herodians about what the coin represents. In our English translation Jesus asks: “whose head is this, and whose title?” But the Greek word translated here as “head” is eikon, which literally means “image.” “Whose image is that on the coin?” And Jesus implies another question: “what power is represented by that image?” They all knew it represented the power of the Emperor and his Empire. The coin imaged the Emperor and the power of Rome stood behind it. That gave the coin its currency. The same is true today. Nations issuing money stand behind their money and give it currency. Jesus is using this interaction to teach his listeners about the nature of images and their power over our lives.

We also find the word “image” in the Genesis creation story where God creates humanity in the “image of God.” This then takes what Jesus says to a higher level. Jesus is saying: “The Emperor may have temporal, earthly power; power enough to cause his image to be imprinted on coins. But you’re imprinted with an eternal image: The image of God. The Emperor’s power is finite, but God’s power is infinite. You belong to God.”

This truth is clearly expressed when someone dies and we celebrate the resurrection. In our burial liturgy we begin with a passage from Romans: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s possession” (14:7-8).

Western culture has inculcated in us the idea that we belong to no one but ourselves; that as William Ernest Henley wrote: “It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This ethos has pushed God further away from the center of our being. It has corrupted and tarnished the image of God indelibly imprinted on our souls. As our image of ourselves has become bloated with our own glory, the image of God imprinted on humanity has become expendable and ignorable. We have created our own god; a god that tolerates our desires and greed; a god who baptizes our thirst for violence; a god, in the end, created in our own image. But it’s not the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

When we humans create a god, it’s always a puny god who doesn’t require much from us. This sort of puny god only demands that we say “thank you” occasionally while throwing a few bucks in the offering plate. This puny god doesn’t require us to make any sacrifices that would upset our lifestyles or call into question our ravenous appetites. But because this god is so puny, it can only love us in superficial, sentimental ways. This isn’t a god who would go to the cross for our sins. This is a god that can’t love us through the grave to eternal life. Only the God who created us in his image and who more wonderfully redeemed us in Jesus Christ has the power to do that.

+Scott