What’s on the coin? We’ve all played the game of spinning a coin in the air and calling out heads or tails before it lands. The coin eventually lands with one side or the other facing up and depending on who called correctly – heads or tails – they get first choice. This is a tried-and-true method of deciding between two possibilities by entrusting the decision to fate’s choice.

Ancient coins were – as modern British ones still are – stamped with image of the reigning monarch along with an inscription – just in case there’s any identity confusion.  Jesus was presented with such a coin by his opponents – increasingly disturbed by the challenge of his message and its appeal to the ordinary folk who flocked to the Temple to listen to him. Keep at the back of your mind the question what’s on the coin.

As we watch the playing out of the internecine struggle within the House Republican caucus – confirming the current fractious and fragmented state of America’s body politic – picture the state of Roman Palestine in the time of Jesus. Like the Palestinians of today, occupation led 1^st-century Jews to sometimes unite in common cause but more typically – fracture around different responses to occupation and how to bring about its end.

In 1^st-century Palestine, five major Jewish factions faced the central choice presented to all occupied people – collaborate or resist. Those on the resistance side of the tension further divided over the use of violence as a tool of resistance.

The Sadducees, the religiously conservative priesthood – jealous for their hereditary privileges along with the Herodians, the aristocratic oligarchs of the Hasmonean Dynasty of Herod the Great – the last ruler of an independent Israel before the Roman occupation – chose to collaborate with the Roman occupation. In fact the Herodians went one step further as the Greek-speaking, culturally cosmopolitan globalists – the designer clothes wearing, fast living, pleasure-seeking 1^st-century .1%. The Sadducees clinging to unchanging tradition. The Herodians for whom God was simply a primitive artifact from a superstitious past.

The parties of resistance were the Pharisees, the Zealots, and the Essenes. The Pharisees, religiously progressive – the party of moderation resisting the occupation through keeping themselves apart from any involvement in Roman administration – while firmly rejecting violence as a tool of resistance. While the Zealots – also known as the Sicario were a 1^st-century Hamas or Hezbollah – engaged in violent resistance through assassination of Roman officials and Jewish collaborators alongside widespread intimidation of the Jewish population. The Essenes, on the other hand, are known to us principally through the excavation of one of their settlements at Qumran where archeologists unearthed the treasure trove known as the Dead Sea Scrolls – were separatist-survivalists who refused to have anything to do with both the Romans as well as their fellow Jews. Hold-up in communities in isolated parts of the Negev – they waited for the coming of the Messiah whom they pictured as God’s warrior king who would free them from the occupation. John the Baptist presented a very Essene image and preached an Essene message.

Matthew 22:15-22 therefore paints the startling picture of Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees consorting together to entrap Jesus. Adversity makes for strange bedfellows. It’s a testament to the power of Jesus’ message that factions who normally would have had nothing to do with one another were forced to come together to try to take him down by tricking him into convicting himself of blasphemy and or treason.

So, what’s on the coin? For the Pharisees, Roman coinage was a source of spiritual contamination because the inscription on the head proclaimed Caesar not simply as emperor but as Kyrios or Lord – a title only Yahweh could claim. The gist of this encounter between Jesus and his interlocutors centers around the legitimacy of taxation. In this context, the question concerned the dispute among Jews as to whether it was breaking the Covenant with God to pay taxes to a false god – that is Caesar – or simply a civic duty forced upon them.

In a somewhat surprising alliance of convenience, the Pharisees and Herodians pose the taxation question to Jesus. If he answers that it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar – he will be acknowledging the emperor as a god, and thus convict himself of blasphemy. To advise not paying taxes, he commits treason against the Romans. So, the strategy was to flatter him with the title of teacher and watch which way he jumps.

We know how clever a debater Jesus was and so we are not surprised when Jesus avoids the trap by stating the obvious. Asking for a coin – most likely from one of the Herodians as no Pharisee would ever carry such a thing – Jesus is suggesting there is no conflict between a civil duty to pay taxes and a religious duty to honor God as an ultimate responsibility. The beauty of his answer is that he offends both groups while depriving them of the satisfaction of hearing the jaws of their trap snap close.

Render to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar and to God the things belonging to God seems a simple solution. But as we know all too well, it’s one that requires an examination of and balancing between competing allegiances. What and how much is owed to Caesar? What and how much is owed to God?

The reading of Matthew 22:15-22 in parishes up and down the land, marks the launch of the fall pledge drive. Eschewing gimmicky stewardship campaigns much loved by Episcopal Church Central, this year’s annual stewardship letter will soon be dropping into your letter boxes. The focus of this year’s letter is to thank everyone for their support last year by highlighting the vibrancy and extent of our outreach ministries in 2023 – the wonderful fruit of your support. In the mailing you will also find a supporting budget narrative with a pie chart of expenditure along with the all important estimate of giving card for 2024. After prayerful contemplation please complete the estimate of giving card and return it to us asap – please.

However, having noted the connection between Matt 22:15-22 and stewardship themes I want to take Matthew’s text in a different direction by returning to coin design – or more explicitly – what coin design can tell us about ourselves.

US coin design is traditional and for the most part unchanging. It tells us that original designs never need to change. By contrast with the accession of Charles to the British throne, the Royal Mint has issued a whole new set of coin designs. Each coin’s head features Charles in profile -facing left as his mother faced right. His image bears no crown– a nod to less deferential times. On the tail the coins depict examples of endangered species of British flora or fauna – reflecting the King’s conservation and ecological concerns.

The coin images – head and tail – of his mother’s reign projected images of national greatness and political unity. As did the humble coin in Matthew’s story – a symbol not only of economic value but also a representation of worldly power and political values.

As representations of economic value and national pride the design of our coins and banknotes has tended to project values and qualities that lie at the root of our plunder of the earth’s resources as a celebration of human achievement. Too much deference to Caesar and not enough honor to God.

Therefore, it’s curious to see on a nation’s money images expressing a godly concern for the protection of the environment against the human instinct to plunder and despoil the natural world. Alongside being tokens of economic value, the new British coin designs project the spiritual values of our growing desire for economic power to be better harnessed to the project of environmental restoration – heralding a more equal balance between the interests of Caesar and those of God.

A rereading of Jesus’ statement Render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God the things which belong to God – might lead us to see that he’s not making a sharp distinction between civic and spiritual obligations so much as offering a picture of balance between the expression of earthly power and our spiritual aspirations. Facing up to the serious challenges ahead still requires of us some hard choices as we bring our material and spiritual aspirations into closer alignment. What better way to do this than in the redesign of the humble coin – reminding us of a need for greater alignment between political and spiritual values as hinted at in the new British coin designs. Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God – of earthly power harnessed to the fulfilment of God’s work of restoring the face of creation. What better project to meet the challenges ahead.