Today's Gospel

Who Is Your Caesar?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we are exploring the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospel, the genius of Catholicism, and looking for a word or a phrase or an idea from today's gospel to anchor our day in as we go out into the world and struggle to live our lives and live our faith in the midst of the world.

Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Mark, again, chapter 12, verses 13 through 17. And they sent to Jesus some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to entrap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true and care for no man for you do not regard the position of men but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not?" But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a coin and let me look at it." And they brought him a coin and he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's." And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him.

What jumps out at you today? Is there a word or a phrase that jumps out at you today? Well, clearly people been having issues with taxes ever since Jesus was around and long before Jesus was around and still a big issue today. The other thing that jumps out at me is who is the Caesar or what is the Caesar of our modern age? And are we giving to Caesar what is Caesar's? And are we giving to God what is God's or are we confused about, you know, what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? But what word or phrase jumped out at you today? Jesus talks about the hypocrisy. Maybe you're experiencing hypocrisy in your life. He talks about, "Why did you put me to the test?" They bring him the coin. He looks at the likeness, the inscription. Maybe that makes you think about what's inscribed on our coins today. But it all leads up to this idea. Give to the world what belongs to the world. God doesn't begrudge that. God doesn't expect otherwise. But give to God what belongs to God. And are we confused about what belongs to God in our lives? Have a great day and remember, be bold, be Catholic.