Citizen & Christian!

Mark 12:13-17

13 Later the religious leaders sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus. They wanted to trap him with his own words. 14 They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of honor. You don't let others tell you what to do or say. You don't care how important they are. But you teach the way of God truthfully. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew what they were trying to do. So he asked, "Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a silver coin. Let me look at it." 16 They brought the coin. He asked them, "Whose picture is this? And whose words?" "Caesar's," they replied. 17 Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give to God what belongs to God." They were amazed at him.

Food for thought!

Jesus never laid down rules and regulations, but principles; that is why his teaching is timeless and never grows old. Rules grow old, principles don't. In today's gospel Jesus lays down a very great and very important principle.

Every Christian man has a double citizenship. He is a citizen of the country in which he happens to live. To it he owes many things. He owes the safety against lawless men which only settled government can give; he owes all public services. To take a simple example, few men are wealthy enough to have a lighting system of their own or a cleansing system or a water system of their own. These are public services, belonging to all. In a welfare state the citizen owes still more to the state--education, medical services, provision for unemployment and old age. This places him under a debt of obligation. Because the Christian is a man of honour, he must be a responsible citizen; failure in good citizenship is also failure in Christian duty. A bad Christian is always a bad citizen, and a bad citizen is first a bad Christian.

That is not all. The coin had Caesar's image upon it, and therefore belonged to Caesar. Man has God's image upon him, because God created man in his own image (Gen.1:26-27), and therefore man belongs to God and owes allegiance and obedience to God. In other words, it is our duty and our salvation to adore and praise and thank and glorify the Lord. It means that when we pray, when we go to church, when we obey God's commandments, we simply fulfill our obligation to the Lord.

A real Christian--and this is the permanent truth which Jesus here lays down--is at one and the same time a good citizen of his country and a good citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. He will fail in his duty neither to God nor to man. He will, as Peter said, "Fear God. Honour the emperor" (1Pet.2:17).