Give God what is God's.(Matthew.22:21)

Give God what is God's. ( Matthew.22:21)
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Some people question us not to get an answer.

They just want to make a  show of their ability to ask unanswerable questions.

One day a friend of mine said to me, "You must answer my question with yes or no."

" You mean to say that no other word can be used?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Ask."

"Are you a Christian or
non-Christian?"

"Yes or no"

"I want your answer."

"I have answered  as per your direction."

The Pharisees asked Jesus a question not to get a clarification for any of His teachings, but for trapping Him.

We must first know the political atmosphere of the country at the time of Jesus.

The Jews were under the rule of the Romans.

They longed to throw off the foreign yoke and to be ruled by their own king.

They prayed for an anointed king who would free them from the Romans.

According to them  anyone who advocated  collaboration with the invaders could not possibly be the hoped-for Messiah. 

Supporters of the Romans would be considered as  traitors.

If anyone preached resistance to Rome, he would be branded an enemy of the Empire and would be punished.

Their question was such that any possible answer to it would brand Him supporter either of the Jews or the Romans.

If He supported the  Roman Rule He would be a traitor in the Jewish view.

If He was against the same, He would be a traitor in the Roman view.

Keeping these in their mind, they asked Him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”

Knowing the malice of the Pharisees, Jesus answered their question with a question, “Whose head is on that coin that you have in your pocket, the coin that you are using to pay for the temporal necessities of life?” 

The Pharisees answered,
“Caesar’s.” 

Jesus said “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”  (Mat 22:15-21)

Now the Pharisees could not trap Jesus because he answered that as the coin had Caesar's image, what is his should be given to him.

Jesus did not refer to tax, He only said, 'what is Caesar’s'.

We cannot find fault with giving one his.

He did not stop there.

He said, "Give to God what is God’s.” 

The implication is, "The coin has Caesar's image and so it should be given to Caesar.

We have the image of God, so we should give ourselves to God.''

''What is God's'' is ourselves, because we bear the image of God.

So we should give ourselves to God.

We are already His, then why should we give ourselves to him?

True. But God has given us a free Will. He wants us to accept Him with our whole heart using our freedom.

When we offer ourselves to God voluntarily we are united with God.

We are God's and God is ours.

We must remember another thing.

For the Jews the Romans were Invaders and foreigners.

Though Jesus is a Jew by His human birth, He is the Creator and King of the whole world.

Jesus was born not only for the Jews, but also for the whole human race, including the Romans.

The Romans also were His children.

Jesus was born

not to bring about political freedom,

not to bring about economic freedom,

not to bring about social freedom,

but,

to bring about Spiritual freedom.

Jesus was born to free our Spirit (soul) from sin.

We are His and to redeem us from sin was He born.

Let us offer ourselves to God.

Not only ourselves, but also whatever we have, even the material things.

Material things will have Spiritual value if we use them for the glory of God.

For instance, money is a material thing.

But when we use it to help the needy for the greater glory of God, it attains Spiritual value.

We and whatever we have are gifts of God, to be used in His service.

Lourdu Selvam