Synergistic Exegesis

Here’s a little exercise in using two disparate, seemingly unrelated, scriptures in the Bible to cast illumination on each other. One is from the New Testament and the other from the Old Testament. I’ll comment on the process elsewhere, but for now, consider this New Testament passage:

13 And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. 14 And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? 12:15 Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
16 And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. 17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him. –Mark 12:13-17

Now, this has an obvious application to citizenship, and standing alone, just on the surface it provides reason enough for those who claim to be Christians to scrupulously avoid cheating on their taxes. But of course, “render to Caesar” means much more than just paying one’s taxes. It also extends to obeying the law, as people who claim to be Christians are specifically enjoined to do in other New testament passages—unless those laws seek to prevent the practice of their faith (real Christians do not need the protection of the First Amendment, because they already have their marching orders from their Founder.).

But consider further what Jesus was saying, something His audience must have grasped immediately, something which eludes most poorly-taught Christians of today entirely. Remember, some who wished to trap him sent some Pharisees (“religious lawyers,” if you will, well-trained in the Jewish faith and tradition) and Herodians—a mixed political party consisting of Saducees (“religious lawyers”of a different sect to the Pharisees) and others who were politically aligned with the rule of Herod. These were people who knew the Jewish scriptures and theology inside and out, and when Jesus asked them,

“Whose is this image and superscription?”

…they knew they were trapped. Jesus response to their answer (“Caesar’s”) was just what they didn’t want to hear… and could not refute.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

You see, Jesus invoked one of the oldest, most fundamental teachings of the Jewish faith, what is known in Christian theological discussions as the imago dei—that Man is made in the image of God—and tied it to the circumstances His enemies attempted to use to entrap him. It was the teaching of both the Pharisees and the Saducees, indeed of all orthodox (small “o”) rabbis, that God owns title to mankind, that evidence of this is that we are indelibly stamped with His image, marred though that image may be by our wrong choices.

Just as God’s likeness stamped into our very being marks us as His rightful, though more often than not rebellious, property, so, Jesus said, does the stamp of the ruler mark the coin of the realm as owing to the ruler.

But the thing that gave them the bitch slap of their lives was when Jesus reminded them of what they owed to God. Here they were trying to trap Him into political and popular suicide and what he did was remind them that while they owed taxes to Caesar and obedience to his laws, they owed their very selves to God Everything they were or ever would or could be…

And that particular landmine is still stepped on almost daily by those who call themselves Christians and seek political solutions to spiritual issues.

But let me take this a little further. Let me ask you to consider the coin in a way that Jesus Himself did not, to step beyong the first and second level meanings (which are indeed the only meanings Jesus implied) and take a ride on the wild side with me for a minute.

Consider the coin. It is stamped with an image and some words identifying it as issuing from its originator. but further, as coins are wont to do :-), it has two sides… and a middle (for without a middle it could hardly have even one side. *s*). Take a quarter out of your pocket and look at it as an example. Modern quarters make this rather easy, since they are “sandwich” coins with two rather easily identified metal surfaces sandwishing a differently-colored metal between them.

See? Two sides and a middle holding the sides together. It would seem to be a fundamental nature of coins, yes?

Now, stretch your mind around this analogy: YOU are the coin. You owe your very existance to your Creator. What would He say your two sides and middle should be comprised of? What sort of metal and composition would He best stamp (or re-stamp) His image onto?

Consider Micah 6:8 for a possible answer:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Would it not be fitting to consider those “metals” as proper for impressing the imago dei?

Justice. Mercy. Humility.

Be fair in our dealings with one another. And, yes, that includes recognizing that justice often requires punishment as well as treating others ethically and morally. Parents, to establish a sense of fairness and justice must sometimes punish their children. Evildoers should be justly punished by lawful authority. Self-defense is a just behavior.

But we must also be willing to forgive. To accept the true repentance of those who have wronged us and forgive them their guilt. (Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean we must be gullible fools. heh)

And the “metal” that welds the two sides together: seeing ourselves as we really are, and being willing to submit to being both just and merciful.

Ahhh, there’s a lot more to this lil model, but this is already far longer than the usual blogpost, so I’ll leave it to you to expand (or not) in comments.