In chapter 12 of Mark’s Gospel there is an account of the Pharisees and Herodians laying a trap for Jesus. They imagined he would be backed into a rhetorical corner by their clever question. One answer would allow them to portray him as seditious to the Roman authorities. The opposite would separate him from a large portion of his followers who were hoping he would soon lead them in overthrowing the “oppressors” over the matter of taxation, The surprising answer he gave provides one of many scriputural adages which have become popular cliches. It is usually translated, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are God’s.”
“Render” is the key word here. In Greek it is ἀποδὶδωμι (apo-di-do-mi), a compound of “from” and “give.” Most often it gets translated “give back” or “return.” The emphasis of ἀπο is on motion away from the speaker. As there are other ways in Greek to say “from,” the use of ἀπο in this compound seems indented to convey the idea of separation between the actor and the thing being given away voluntarily.
A completely literal translation might be, “Caesar’s things y’all give back to Caesar, things of God to God.” (The Southern used here is the best way to translate the Greek plural imperative into English.)
If you are willing to accept Caesar as a metaphor for all worldly authority (which I am), you can take a modern lesson from this: Pay your taxes. In fact you can even see it as a two-step process in which you must first pay your taxes before you are able to give God’s things back to God.
I would take step beyond that and say that you must get rid of virtually all your worldly stuff before you are truly capable of giving God everything which is due to Him. This is a hard thing to do. But as Jesus said in another passage of Mark, “With men it is impossible, but…with God all things are possible.”
Even when things are impossible I believe that God expects us to meet Him part way, to give back at least some worldly things on our own accord before He can help us get rid of the rest of the earthly baggage. Recent events seemed to have been designed to heap even more baggage on us, to make us more protective of our stuff and our ideologies, to push us toward one extreme or the other. The most important lesson from this story in Mark may be found in trying emulating Jesus’ answer when dealing with modern problems. He avoided all the extremes. He didn’t pander to the Pharisees, the Herodians, or the whims of the mob. He spoke the truth in a very moderate tone. That’s hard to do but with God all things are possible.
