Render Unto God

When I was younger we once went on a vacation out West. I may have forgotten a lot about it, but I do remember one thing. I remember setting pennies on a railroad track and waiting for the train to come by and smash them. I still have those pennies and I take them out to look at them sometimes. The thing about them is that they are no longer usable as money, even though you can still tell that they were once pennies. On some of them you can even still make out the profile of Abe Lincoln, stretched and distorted as it may be.

Many of you will probably wonder how I made the connection, but this reminds of a verse in the Gospel of Luke. In chapter 20 some of the religious leaders sought to catch Jesus in a trap. Once again, they thought they had Him pinned. They asked Him whether or not they should pay taxes to Caesar. If He said “no” they had Him for rebelling against the government. If He said “yes” then most of His followers would abandon Him because they hated the Romans and their oppressive rule.

Jesus did not answer right away; He simply asked for a coin. He held it up and asked, “Whose image is this?” Of course the people knew that the image on the coin was Caesar. Jesus answered them, “Render, then, unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”

What I love about Christ’s answer was that He did not only spoil the trap that was set for Him but He also spoke a powerful message. Though we may be twisted and smashed, just like those pennies I mentioned, we still bear the image of God. Yes, we have been distorted by sin, but His fingerprints are still evident on our souls. Perhaps we are a little hard to recognize, and perhaps we cannot be fully used as we once could; but He would still have us. And, though we rightfully belong to Him, we would try to hold ourselves back from His possession. Jesus clearly commanded, “Render unto God the things that are God’s. Give Him what bears His image. Offer yourself to Him. Render unto God the very essence of your being.”