Do we give the
best of ourselves to God?
When, in Matthew’s
Gospel the Herodians and Pharisees gang up on Jesus, asking him, Is it lawful to pay the census tax to
Caesar, or not?, Jesus knows that their question is meant to trip him
up. It is also profoundly
misguided. In actuality, the Pharisees
and Herodians have themselves invested in the Roman empire, the very empire
they seek a messiah to save them from; in so doing, they have lost sight of the
essential question, which is, what does God ask of you? Repay
to God what belongs to God, Jesus says.
In other words, make of your life a blessing; do no malicious acts. Make your life
itself a tribute to God before all else.
Coins are of little interest when compared with God’s currency, a
currency the men confronting Jesus simply do not understand.
We are made by God
to be stewards of the gifts God gives us.
Even the foreign king Cyrus, in the Book of Isaiah, allows God to work
through him, God’s anointed, sending
the Israelites home so that they might rebuild the temple where they can pray
to God on Cyrus’ behalf. Our bodies, our
very lives, are God’s gifts; Psalm 96 reminds us that we must return those gifts,
transformed, back to God: Bring gifts, and enter his courts. We must therefore ask ourselves daily,
What gifts has God invested me with, that I might best serve him? Yet service to God is not without cost: the Thessalonians have engaged in a true work of faith and labor of love to
maintain their Christian community, and Paul commends them on their endurance and persistent hope.
They have put their gifts to the service of God; they have invested
their entire lives in proclaiming God’s kingdom.
Our treasure is
not money; our treasure is our very selves.
If our lives are God’s gift to us, then our goal must be to take that
gift and put it to service, proclaiming the kingdom of God. These are our first fruits, the best we have
to give – to return to the generous, awesome
and wondrous God who gifts us with life.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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