Posted on 08/13/2020 8:26:27 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
St. John the Baptist confronted a difficult question. Soldiers came to him (it’s not clear what kind of soldiers these were). We are told:
Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” Luke 3:14
The implication of his answer is that extortion and brutality were a common practice. It was certainly common in battles to “plunder” a city and engage in terrible acts of brutality. St. John’s answer is quite simple. Unanswered, and unasked, are the larger questions. What about the role of soldiers and the empire? What about the right relationship of people to an occupying power? Crickets…
Christ seems to side-step the implications of such questions when confronted with the matter of taxes. Rome’s domination of the world came with a price: taxes – lots of them. Those taxes were not used for the public good, building roads, police protection, and the like. They enriched Caesar and supported an ever-expanding military project. Christ famously says, holding a coin with Caesar’s image, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” It is an answer that has spawned 20 centuries’ worth of unanswered questions.
This is an excerpt...I missed that part when posting. My apologies.
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