What Shall I Render?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

After Jesus has told a series of parables lambasting the Jewish leadership for leading the people astray, they seek to entrap Him and get Him out of their way. Therefore, strange bedfellows come together for a common cause. Ordinarily, the Pharisees and the Herodians would never associate. After all, the Pharisees desperately wanted to maintain Jewish independence so that they could retain their prerogatives over the people and the Temple. They wished nothing more than the retreat and demise of their Roman overlords. On the other hand, the Herodians were extreme political partisans of the house of Herod Antipas. They were staunch supporters of Rome, mostly in the hopes of furthering Herod's goal of ruling Israel as king.

However, necessity creates odd bedfellows, and this occasion is no different. Both of these parties wanted Jesus silenced, so they came together to this end. They would ask Him about paying taxes to Caesar. If Jesus said yes, then the people would see their great hopes of political overthrow dashed and the Pharisees could point to Jesus as unpatriotic. If He said no, then the Herodians could denounce Him to Pilate as an enemy of the Emperor and a seditionist.

Thankfully, our Lord is smarter than any who would deceive Him, and He deftly avoided their trap. Should we pay the tax? “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's.” Jesus makes clear the order of things in this world, and also shows the falsehood of the priorities both of the Jews and the Herodians. For if you will not render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, then you cannot render unto God what is God's. However, if you give to God His due, then you will render what is due to Caesar.

For what is due to Caesar? When questioned about the tax, Jesus asks them for the coin used to pay it. When they show Him, He points out that Caesar's image is on it. Therefore, render unto Caesar what is his. What is his? The things of this world are under the rule of Caesar. God has established government upon this earth for the restraint of evil and the promotion of civil order and peace.

St. Paul tells us the origin and purpose of government. The rulers of this world serve at the pleasure of the King of the universe. He ordains them, and He deposes them. He grants to Caesar his authority to wield the sword of temporal justice. More than a simple social construct or a societal contract, government is established by God as His agent in this life.

Therefore, to the government you owe your allegiance and loyalty, not because those who fill such office are worthy, but because God has established them in their offices. Insofar as they promote peace and good order, and they work to restrain gross sin, they are agents of God. Do your duty to your unworthy masters, that you may be held blameless in the sight of the world, and so heap coals on the heads of those who oppress you. Obey the laws of the land, even when made by crooked lawmakers. Pay taxes, even to evil tax-collectors. “So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Romans 12:18).

This is a God-pleasing service. But you fail to render to Caesar what is his due. You begrudge your leaders the respect and honor due to them according to their office. You “despise and anger” those in authority by your disobedience and your insolence. Rather than make their work light, you heap burdens upon them by your sin and stubbornness. You chafe under the yoke of authority and kick against the goads of the Law. You refuse to help your neighbor, and then complain when the government takes from you to give to him.

And so, because you will not obey your masters, you are shown incapable of rendering to God what is His due. If you fail in a little, you will fail in a lot. For your faith in God should move you not to despise and anger your leaders, but to love and serve, honor and obey them. If you had proper fear and love for God, you would obey the laws of the land, respect your leaders, and gladly do good to all.

However, you fail to surrender yourself to God, and this is shown by your opposition to those He has sent to you. Jesus says, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's”, but you will do neither.

What is due to Caesar? The coin bearing Caesar's image. The coin bears the image of him who made it, and to whom it is due. Likewise, what is due to God? That which bears His image, and was made by Him, namely, man. What is due to God is you. You were created in the image of God. You bear His likeness and His Spirit. You belong to God, because He made you and set you apart.

However, that image within you has been corrupted and infected by sin, death, and the power of the devil. That poison coursing through you holds you back from yielding yourself to God, from loving Him with your whole being, from worshipping Him in Spirit and truth. The coin has been marred, and so the tax sits unremitted.

But thanks be to God that He has not left you in this wretched state. Although you cannot render unto God His due, He in His mercy rendered His Son unto you. You cannot give to God, but He gives to you. Jesus is the perfect icon of God, the pure image of His Father made in flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the face of Jesus Christ, you see the face of God, but you also see the perfect of face of mankind, created anew in God's self-giving. You could not pay the debt you owe to God, so He chose to pay it Himself by sending His Son in your stead.

You could not die to pay the price for your sins, so the Father gave Jesus to you to be your salvation. He gave His life and blood to quench the flames of condemnation and wash away the account of your sins. In your poverty, the Lord gives to you richly.

And in the grace of God, Jesus renders to the Father on your behalf. He offered Himself upon the cross to be the propitiation for your sin, so that the debt you owed is expunged, the record cancelled, the account wiped clean. Your sins are forgiven. You are made clean. In you now dwells the perfected image of God, no matter how weak the vessel.

And so, what now is due to God? What is left is to say “Amen.” The rendering unto God is to repeat His words back to Him in faith, to say, yes, Lord, I believe! As the Psalmist sings:

What shall I render to the Lord

for all his benefits to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the Lord,

I will pay my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people (116:12-14).

Render unto God what is His – yourself. He has claimed you as His own. He has put His name upon you. He has redeemed you by Christ the crucified. He has molded you in His image. Let yourself receive Him and His gifts, and offer your praise and thanksgiving for His grace and mercy.

For when you render unto God, you will therein render rightly unto Caesar. By the grace of God, you fear and love Him above all things, and so be free to pay your taxes, follow the laws of the land, and honor your leaders. The debt owed to God has been paid with the coin of Christ's Body and Blood, and so the coin of Caesar can be rendered to him.

For the children of God, rendering unto Caesar what is his due is a light thing, even when his demands are harsh. For your treasure is in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and tax man does not debit. And because your treasure in heaven is secure, you are free to be generous with your earthly treasure. Fulfill your obligations to the state. Pray for your leaders. Live peaceably with all people. Shine forth into the world the image of the invisible God who has made Himself known in the face of Jesus Christ, and who makes Himself known through your witness in word and deed. And the peace of God will dwell richly in and among you.

Thou art King of Glory, Christ;

Son of God, yet born of Mary.

For us sinners sacrificed,

As to death a Tributary,

First to break the bars of death,

Thou hast opened heav'n to faith (LSB 940:4).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.