By Deacon Richard Hay
“Repay to God what is God’s.”
The principal of a Christian elementary school became concerned about her student’s behavior at lunchtime. She observed that instead of just taking one apple each, some students were taking two or more and then the apples would run out before every student had a chance to get one.
She decided to apply some divine assistance to the situation and left a note with the basket of apples for the students to see. The note read – “Take only one apple, God is watching.”
She was quite pleased in the following days that the note seemed to work and with the students complying, there were finally enough apples for everyone.
However, not long after that was solved, one of the cafeteria workers told the principal that they were now running out of cookies and many of the students were not getting one during lunch.
The principal went to check things out and noticed a note that had been written by one of the students and was placed near the cookies.
It read – “Take as many cookies as you want, God is watching the apples.”
We often put boundaries on God and believe that God is only present where we choose to have him in our lives. I mean, if God is watching the apples, there is no way he could be watching the cookies too – right?
Or in other words, what we do at work, school, or outside of church is only known to God if we choose for Him to know that part of our lives.
Of course, this is not the case. We all know this in our heart of hearts, but I suspect many of us have approached our lives in a similar manner at some point. It is simply not possible for us to pigeonhole God into certain places or restrict what parts of our lives He sees because he is all-knowing and all-seeing. He doesn’t do this to spy on us – it is out of his unconditional love for us that he wants us to include Him in every part of our lives.
In the gospel today, the Pharisees and Herodians partner together to get Jesus to make a statement that taxes should not be paid to the Romans. They are looking to create a controversy.
Of course, He knows their hearts, remember what I said earlier – all-knowing/all-seeing – and he knows their intent is to trap him. Knowing this, he first calls them on their subterfuge and then asks to see the coin that is used to pay taxes to the Romans.
When asked whose image is on the coin, the Pharisees and Herodians confirms that it’s Caesar’s. Then, Jesus surprises them when He says, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
But wait, earlier didn’t I say that we can’t partition off parts of our lives from God because he is all-knowing and all-seeing?
What does Jesus mean by “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”?
In telling the Pharisees and Herodians that the taxes should be paid, Jesus affirms that we, then and today, are intended to be good citizens of our community, our city, our state, and our country. We do that by paying our taxes, obeying just laws, and contributing to society in a Christian manner. All these secular taxes help keep the infrastructure in place that in turn helps us get out in the world to assist others and do things like get here to church. There is value in our society and what it provides all of us.
In the same sentence and in the same breath, he also tells us that we are to give to God what belongs to God. Well – what belongs to God? It gets back to Jesus’s reply when He was asked what the greatest commandment is in an earlier encounter with the religious authorities.
He said – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’” The answer is us – we belong to God and he wants us to experience His grace in every part of us.
He didn’t say just in certain parts of our lives, or just with the apples and not the cookies – he said with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.
Remember in the book of Exodus when God was telling the Israelites that they should have no other God before Him? He told them that he is a jealous God and that there are consequences for having other God’s before Him.
However, in the next verse he adds that he will “show love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
For those of us who “repay to God what is God’s” – when we choose to give all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength to God, then the reward for that dedication and love will be un-ending. There is nothing in this world which can match that gift.
St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians affirms this for us when he writes about giving ourselves totally to Christ. “We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is also beautifully described In 1st Peter, when Peter tells us to “Enthrone Christ as Lord in our hearts.”
Today’s gospel is about being all in for God – not 25% – not 50% – but 100%.
All our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. There is nothing lukewarm about this expectation and we should approach it with total joy and commitment.
I follow quite a few priests, deacons and other religious on social media. This past week one of them, Fr. Joseph Krupp from Michigan, shared something he prayed to the Lord, and it perfectly encapsulates today’s gospel, and with his permission, I would like to close my homily with it:
I have no secrets that I can keep from You, Lord;
nothing inside me is invisible to You.
You see into the deepest part of me;
even that which I am not aware of myself.
You see it and you wait, ready to heal, to restore, to strengthen.
You do not wait passively, You wait patiently.
You do not wait so that You can love me,
You wait because You love me.
And so here, in the quiet of this moment,
I give it all to You.
I give You all that is within me, good and bad.
I give You the lies I believed that bent me and
the truths I’ve embraced that free me.
I give it to You, Oh Lord. Take it and transform it.
Change it all into the beauty, truth and light that You intend.
Then, place it back within me, so that I can be a clearer vessel of You.
Amen
