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Genuine Stewardship
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax."
They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Matthew 22:18-21)
The key to genuine stewardship is remembering who owns what.
Elsewhere in this edition of Focus On Jesus, there is an article by Dean Scott on personal and family finances. I recommend that you read it before this one. He begins by discussing stewardship. I believe that's the right place to begin.
Jesus has a great deal to teach us about being good stewards. I'm sure you are very familiar with most of what he teaches about it. The encounter Jesus had with the Pharisees which resulted in his statement above is generally not tied by many teachers with the subject of being a good steward.
When Jesus said this, the Pharisees were trying to trap him into saying something negative about the government or even about Caesar himself. That way they could have "evidence" for manufactured "charges" on which they could arrest and kill him. Eventually, they did do just that. They trumped up charges against him and sentenced him to capital punishment.
But, when Jesus spoke to them this time, they were trying to get him to say that his followers were not subject to the Roman government, nor its laws, nor to the Emperor, and did not need to pay taxes. They were playing off the claim that Jesus had a kingdom, or a reign, therefore, he must be planning an rebellion against Caesar to take the throne in Rome for himself.
His response was characteristic of him, and in consummate harmony with everything else he taught us. Looking at a coin, he asked, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
When their response was, "Caesar", his conclusion was totally and completely logical: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God." They had nothing else to say after that. They couldn't deny his point of view.
In all my formative years (yours, too?), my teachers focused on the coin, the image and inscription, and on paying taxes. Some also used this scripture as a text for teaching about government, and whether it is ordained of God. Even though that also was the focus of the question posed by the disciples of the Pharisees, I believe it was not the focus of the answer Jesus gave them.
The significance of his response was carried in the latter part of his answer: ". . . and give to God what is God's."
Within that concept lies the whole purpose for our existence.
We're born and we grow up, and if we are not his followers, we seek to serve and to please ourselves. Think about that for a moment.
Isn't that the way we are? Sadly, aren't most of us - even Christians - like that? What pleases me? What makes me happy? I'm hungry and I want to eat. I'm cold and I want to be warm. I'm too warm and want to be cool. I'm here and I want to be somewhere else. I don't like where I live, I want to live somewhere else. I have an old car and I want a new one. I don't like being with that person. I want . . . I want . . . I want . . . Everything centers around me! Around what I want!
Even if someone asks me to describe someone else, I tell them, "He's taller than I am," or "He's younger than I," or any other number of comparisons. In any case, we usually compare others to ourselves. I find that interesting, don't you? In the purely natural sense, each of us seems to be the center of our own universe.
A central theme of the teaching of the entire bible is "repentance". For now, focusing only on the Greek scriptures (our New Testament), repentance was the message John the Baptist brought as he prepared the way for Jesus.
Jesus came and - though he did not use the word as often as John had - repentance was his central theme.
It was carried on by his apostles, then his other disciples: Repent!
A changed life is what Jesus wants in us. He wants us to change from seeking our own selves to seeking only what God wants. This is the beginning of genuine stewardship.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
But he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:4-10)
This is what God wants of us. We cannot serve him and Satan at the same time. We cannot serve him and ourselves. He wants us to change from wanting things just for ourselves. He wants us to move out of ourselves. He wants us to quit caring about ourselves and what is "ours". Forget me . . . me . . . me . . .
Then . . .
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 3-10)
Several things are important here. First: our motivation. "Don't do anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit . . ." Hey, boys and girls . . . that's putting ourselves first. God said through Paul: "Don't do that!"
What that means to me is that - to have the mind of Jesus Christ - I should not be doing anything from the basis that it satisfies me!
I know that's quite a foreign concept to many of us. For example, I know several Christians who have divorced their mates because they were "not happy". More than one has told me that, "God would not want me to be unhappy!" So, in some kind of reasoning where that seems to make sense, those have concluded that, "my happiness is what matters. My happiness comes before any vows I make, and every other responsibility I have committed to keep."
The truth really is, that's doing something out of consideration only for self. Vain conceit - that also means to be totally centered within oneself. God doesn't want us to live that way. God himself is not like that. God does not like it when we're that way!
Next is the beginning of the kind of attitude God wants us to have. ". . . in humility consider others better than yourselves." Without God empowering our motivation, I believe that's next to impossible. It is very difficult for any of us to consider anyone better than ourselves. That's just not man's nature. And that's the point. Our nature is not to put others first. Even though Jesus taught that we should do things to other people as we would like for them to do to us - it goes against the grain of our human desires and motivations.
"Look out for number one!" "You can't trust anybody, anymore!" "If I don't blow my own horn, who will?" You've heard (perhaps you've said) all of those things - at least that describes my attitude at times in the past. How about you? He wants us not to "look out for number one", but to "look out for others." That's what he meant when he said, "look not to your own interests . . . look also to the interests of others."
God wants us to consider all others as being better than we are - and the key is humility. When I have real humility, then I can and will feel that way about others. But, I can't just decide to be humble and wake up one morning humble all over.
Paul tells us how . . . we must absorb into ourselves the mind of Jesus Christ. Our Lord's "mind-set" is one that caused him to empty himself of everything that he was . . . in other words, he emptied himself of himself. He gave up his "God-ness" for others.
Jesus could have continued to be who he was - everything that comprised being God. And all the honor, fame, power, and glory that went with it. But, instead, he gave up all that he was and could have continued to be. He gave it up so he could become like us. He was willing to do that because of his immeasurable love for us.
Pause and think of that for a few moments: Jesus gave up his "God-ness" to become like human beings, so we could give up our being like human beings to show us how to be like God.
And that's the way he wants us to be. That's the way he wants us to think. That's the kind of a "mind-set" he wants us to have. Living with the kind of attitude Jesus has must become a way of life for us. His kind of a life.
When we can do that, when we can really "consider others better than ourselves", then we have begun to acquire the mind of Christ.
Along with this attitude, comes the knowledge that I am nothing. Others are everything. I am worth nothing without God working in and through me. That's the only way I can ever accomplish anything worthwhile - only if I allow God to work his will through me. That's also when I begin to learn that nothing that I have is my own. I am a temporary custodian of it.
Remember where we started this? Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to give to God what is God's."
The coin the disciples of the Pharisees showed to Jesus had an engraved picture of Caesar on it. The inscription was also the name of Caesar. We're not furnished with any more detail of the conversation. Even without it - if there was more - the meaning and weight of Jesus' message still rings in our ears.
That is - if
Caesar's image and name is on the coin - then give it to Caesar. It's his. That
was his way of answering their question quite dramatically.(1)
Then he said, ". . . and to God what is God's."
What he left totally unsaid is the most important point of that conversation, and is the whole point of this brief examination of stewardship. The simple fact that Jesus left it unsaid, gives even greater emphasis to the idea.
The other - unspoken - question for us is, "What does bear the image and name of God?" That's what Jesus said should be given to God.
Remember what God said in Genesis 1:26?
". . . Let us make man in our image, in our own image, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Man bears the image of God . . . man is the only creation in the entire world which does.
The full impact of what Jesus said is to pay taxes to rulers - the money bears their images and their names. But give yourself totally to God - you bear his image and his name.
Then, please don't forget that at the time God said, "Let us make man in our image . . .", that he also gave man a stewardship over all of creation. All creation belongs to God, but he created man to tend, care for, and improve it.
So, let's each (daily) give ourselves totally to God. That's the beginning point of genuine stewardship.
1. The coin in this image is from the time of Jesus on earth. This photograph is used by permission. We invite you to visit http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6193/index.html, Ancient Greek & Roman Coins. The page is updated each Friday.
