Dear Family...
Have you ever noticed that parents rarely see the thorn, twig, or log in the eyes of their own children? Sure they can, as i know personally, point to the faults of other children, quickly and loudly as i am prone to do, but when it comes to their own little progeny; it seems their own sons and daughters fell from the tree of perfection. The kids are the best behaved, most intelligent, could win any beauty contest, and can run faster than Usain Bolt. We, at least as i have experienced, think our children are perfect. Oh, how love is blind...
And it just isn't our children that we favor, is it? We point out how badly the Michigan Wolverines have violated NCAA rules, or in my case the Missouri Tigers, but when KU or the Ohio State face sanctions, we argue well why are they picking on our school? Everyone does it. Our politcal candidate can get away with eggregious acts, but his/her opponent, from the other party, no way. Love is not the only thing that opens the door to blind eyes; allegiances, cliques, or sports teams have a way of making us see roses, while the rest of the world sees the thorns.
But it has always been this way. Perhaps the greastest example of how allegiances, or perhaps national identity, can blind us to truth comes to issues involving our own country. We can justify certains acts, even if the UN and other international courts question our motives, we, as the people, stand behind the government's actions. Why? Because we are America, and we know what is best for the whole, right? Or put another way. Its ok if we torture "terrorists" because we are protecting America, but if the Viet Cong or the Taliban or any other group were to torture American Soldiers, we would cry injustice and demand severe punishment for the parties at fault. We do it; we justify it. Others do the same thing, and we see it as a deep violation of humanity.
This is nothing new. In the Greco-Roman world, if you or I were born as a Roman Citizen, we could and would get away with certain things that the other occupied people, could not get away with. We wouldn't be taxed as hard. We had rights. We couldnt be thrown into prison without a fair trial, or at least offering our arguments for innocence. Being Roman, in the Roman Empire, had a lot of perks, similiar to being a naturalized citizen of the United States now.
This is what Jesus is dealing with. He didn't want to pay taxes to an unjust empire, one that was forcing him to pay into the treasury that armed the soldiers who would kill and oppress and violate Jesus' Jewish brothers and sisters. And Jesus, with a full awareness of how the taxation worked, names it when he suggests that the empire will only tax its citizens a fair amount, but for the occupied people, for those people seen as less than, well they can and will be taxed as hard as the Romans could get away with, without causing a coup.
We love to protect our own, even at the cost of others. But Jesus makes it clear that even in the face of what is clear injustice, the people of God are to do all they can to create a culture of peace. When asked if he was going to pay the taxes, Jesus tells Peter, go fishing. Get the drachma coin. And pay Caesar. Why? Because to not do so would have brought a severe retribution and punishment, and it would have gotten many killed. Jesus chose, even knowing it was unfair, the path of the greater peace.
And it cost him. More than two drachma coins, choosing the path of peace cost Jesus his life, as it will cost any and all who choose to be makers of peace. To create a world of peace requires that we give up more than two drachma, we have to give up our entire being so that peace can and will emerge from the cold, hard, oppressive hand of the world, a world which loves violence, war, and oppression.
We must do it in a way that doesn't do violence against the oppressor, which is the hardest act of peacemaking. We have to see the violator as our sister or brother and name and identify their value and worth as human beings, only then are we true peacemakers. To do violence against those who do violence against us, or in the biblical language that so many people rush to quote: An eye for an eye, well in the words of Gandhi, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
Arent we blind enough? Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
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