Honour your leaders, but remember whose image you bear.
As you go about today thinking about what to give—nay, what to render—to Caesar, begin with your religious leaders. Think about how a religious leader can become Caesar, because that is what many have turned themselves into in our society. They may command your respect and demand your collaboration. But before you give either, ask what they are asking you to surrender. Whose image does it bear: God’s or Caesar’s?
Today, the cult of “men and women of God,” even within mainstream religious communities, has crossed the threshold of paying respect to Caesar. We are now rendering to Caesar what belongs to God.
There is nothing wrong with respecting religious leaders or collaborating with them. But when respect becomes unquestioning allegiance, and collaboration requires the surrender of conscience, we must ask whom we are serving.
If your religious leader makes you insult the God in your brother or sister, you are rendering to Caesar what belongs to God. If your allegiance to your religious group makes you lose your dignity or deny another person theirs, you are rendering to Caesar what belongs to God.
You cannot defend a servant of God by dishonouring the people who bear God’s image. Neither does calling someone a “man of God” or a “woman of God” make everything they demand a demand from God.
This is idolatry in its simplest form: making a god of someone God created.
“Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” is not a refusal to honour Caesar. It is a call to understand the limits of his authority. Though Caesar has political authority, our lives and dignity belong to God. Religious authority has limits too. No title, ordination, anointing, or claim to spiritual power gives anyone ownership of another person’s conscience.
Caesar’s image is stamped on the coin. God’s image is borne by the human person. Before you surrender yourself to a leader, remember whose image you bear.
Your religious leader could be the very Caesar who makes you worship an idol. That idol may be the leader, the institution, or the religious group whose reputation you have learned to protect at the expense of human dignity.
Honour your leaders. Collaborate with them. But when they ask for what belongs to God, recognise the demand for what it is.
Pray you do not fall into that trap.
