IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5B; Matthew 22:15-21
Looking at ourselves in the mirror—it’s something most of us spend a lot of time doing. And when we take a good hard look, what do we see? Who’s shining back at us from the mirror? Depending on our mood, and how we feel, we may see aspects of ourselves we hadn’t ever noticed before.
Our image. We spend the first half of our lives trying to figure out exactly who we are. We gaze into mirrors and carefully craft the face we want the world to see. When I was a teenager and I thought I was alone, I practiced who I wanted to be. I smiled. I frowned. I quirked my eyebrow. I flexed my muscles. I tried on a humble smirk for my victories and practiced a sneer for my defeats. And when I looked in the mirror, sometimes I swore I could see my favorite celluloid Adonis or my ripped gridiron idol. When you’re 15, image is everything.
We usually spend the second half of our lives avoiding mirrors and trying hard to forget what we look like. Catching an unexpected glimpse of an overweight or balding stranger in a revolving door, and realizing that it is you, can be one of the defining moments of middle age. Our faces become carved by paths taken and shadowed by journeys not taken. And eventually, it becomes safer to just look away. When I look in the mirror now, I swear sometimes it’s my father staring back at me. Even in your 50's, image is something.
Surprisingly enough, Jesus is trying to tell the Pharisees, that very same thing—Image is important. In fact, Jesus would say that image is everything.
It was a loaded question the Pharisees and Herodians asked Jesus. Oh, it was carefully packaged in schmooze, flattery, and even a little warm lather of praise, but it was one of those questions you’d expect to hear at a televised presidential debate—“Are you for or against taxes?” “Jesus, should we pay taxes to Rome whose army occupies our country; to a government whose soldiers press their feet on the back of our necks, bringing us down and crushing our windpipes?” And Jesus asks for a coin. On it was imprinted the image of Caesar inscribed with the words, “Divine One, and “Greatest Priest.” “It has his image — give it back to him.” And then he looks directly at them and tells them, “And repay to God what is God’s!” There wasn’t a person in the crowd who didn’t immediately think of Genesis and creation—“God created man in his image; in the divine image he created them.”
Today, Jesus is inviting us to examine the coin and then examine ourselves. Whose image does the coin bear? Whose image do we bear? While Caesar is in the business of minting coins, God is in the business of minting souls. Caesar gets his own image returned to him in taxes and tribute, but because our souls bear the diving image of God, our lives, our hearts and our talents should be “repaid” to God. For Jesus, the question isn’t “How much do you owe?”, but rather, “Who do you look like?”
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Maybe you see an image of yourself you present to the outside world. Your work or school face—one that’s cheerful, hard-working, efficient, and knowledgeable. An image that’s meant to impress and inspire confidence. Maybe it’s your party face; the jovial, witty, and welcoming image that everyone likes. Or maybe it’s your church face, the reverent, prayerful, dignified, and charitable image, one that others look up to. Or do you see your real face, the one without disguise, the one without a mask, the weary, vulnerable image you alone see whenever you come home and put aside all the other images you present to the world? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you ever see God staring back at you? Is any resemblance of God being reflected in the mirror? Do you look anything like God? Does His image shine back at you?
We are created in the image of the One who anoints us, gives us a title, and calls us “beloved”. We are created in the image of the One who is always with us, and we are deceived if we can look in a mirror, and see only our own face staring back. As St. Paul says in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, “Beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image. FROM glory TO glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
This morning Jesus holds our lives in his hand and asks, “Whose coin is this? Whose image does it bear?” And the answer is, this is God’s coin cast in God’s image. Jesus tells us then, to give that which is God’s to God. Yes, respect the state and the order it brings, be informed about community and state affairs, vote in elections, pay our taxes, obey national and local laws, support policies that help the poor and downtrodden, defend the country when outside forces threaten it. But give to God your worship, your prayers, your service and your love. Not all that you HAVE. But all that you ARE.
So the next time you look in the mirror, or catch your image reflected in a store window, remember who you look like.
Image can be everything.
