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Daily Devotions for the Advent and Christmas Seasons
Saturday, December 5
Matthew 22:15-22
by Gregory L. Chan
The common people in this reading were poor and sympathized with Jesus as an activist of the time. If he just said the tax should be paid, he would lose much of his political support among them. On the other hand, if he said it should not be paid, the Herodians were right there to arrest him for sedition.
What if I put verse 21 another way? Give to capitalism what is capitalism’s and to God what is God’s.
In a fictitious scene in Michael Moore’s movie Capitalism: a Love Story, he has Jesus say, “I’m sorry I can’t heal you. You have a pre-existing condition,” and, “Thou shalt work to maximize profits on capital.” Outrageous, isn’t it?
Once when I interviewed for a church position, an interviewer said, “We believe that if we are faithful, God will reward us with wealth. It’s God’s plan for those who are faithful to have financial riches.” I was floored!
Efforts to meld faith with capitalism and turn Jesus into Caesar permeate the health care debate, too. Very conservative Christians make all kinds of offensive claims trying to keep things the way they are. 35 to 45 million poor people have no adequate health care. Are we not about caring for the poor?
Don’t get me wrong. We live in a capitalist country, and we need to make a living and provide for our families. However, when our capitalist culture, which glorifies opulent lifestyles and shocking greed, starts to co-opt the precepts of faith and meld Christ’s values with Caesar’s, it’s time to call it out and be prophets to one another. We must bring our Christ-centered values to the foreground and insist on good stewardship from our governments.
In today’s passage and throughout the New Testament, Christ is making things very clear. Our faith and God’s values are about community service, caring for the poor, doing justice.
Prayer
I pray that we may continually work to bring the values of our faith front and center, questioning the values of our capitalist culture. Let what we say and what we do shine a spotlight on the Christ of love and justice who told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Amen.