Friday, August 15, 1997

This morning the family enjoyed comments on Matthew 22:21: "Pay back, therefore, Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things to God."

How did some children in the Philippines follow the command in today's text? Some years ago a report was received about little children who had been expelled from school for alleged disrespect to the flag, to their teachers and to their parents. The Society's attorney, a Roman Catholic, sped to the scene. There he was joined by leading provincial school authorities, who were to conduct an administrative investigation of the complaints. Teachers and children were called for the investigation. The charge was that the children had refused to salute the flag in school when ordered to do so by their teachers. For this they were accused of being disrespectful to the flag and to their teachers. Because they referred to their mothers and fathers as "brothers" and "sisters" in a spiritual sense, they were accused of being disrespectful to their parents. The children were called upon to explain their conduct. With the Bible in hand they calmly expressed themselves against idolatry, which the recognized flag saluting to be. Never have they been intentionally disrespectful to their parents. The parents verified this. The children were dismissed from the assembly. The school officials then turned to the teachers and reprimanded them for giving false reports about innocent Christian children and ordered their reinstatement. Both attorney and school officials were amazed to see children putting up such an intelligent defense for their faith. As the attorney himself stated: "There, among simple farm folk, I found real Christian faith."

Our chairman made the observation that today's text doesn't contain many words, yet what an impact those words have on our worship! The text sets a line of demarcation. Jehovah's Witnesses respect that line and are at pains to avoid crossing it. In contrast, Caesar's men don't always appreciate the line Jesus set and will often cross over that line, interfering with God's people and their true worship, whether it be over our right to preach the Kingdom message, our stand on blood, custody of our children in religious matters, and so forth. No law or action is a valid exercise of government's power if it invades the right and duty we have as part of our worship of Jehovah. Does that mean we have an excuse to retaliate? Only the faithful and discreet slave class have been given Scriptual authority to take action when Caesar crosses the line. What action does the slave class take?

Philippians 1:7 tells us: "In the defending and legally establishing of the good news." There are three points to be isolated here: (1) The action taken by the faithful and discreet slave class is that of "defending" the good news. Whether it be over the issue of blood or freedom of worship, when Caesar attacks, God's Word gives the slave class the right to "defend" his people, not to attack Caesar, in an attempt to bring him back in line with Matthew 22:21. But is the slave class timid in its approach? By no means. They have a similar determination as that expressed in Nehemiah 4:14: "When I saw their fear I immediately rose and said to the nobles and the deputy rulers and the rest of the people; 'Do not be afraid on their account. Jehovah the great and the fear-inspiring One keep in your mind; and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.'" When it comes to a point, for example, when Caesar tries to take away our children to force a blood transfusion, then Jehovah's organization will defend, even fight, for them. (2) The faithful and discreet slave class also have been given the authority to 'legally establish' the good news. Thus, they will act to pre-empt action taken by Caesar to oppose to true worship. They will establish before tribunals and nations the fact that we pose no threat to Caesar, and they will do so by registering corporations, etc. according to the law of the land. (3) The slave class do not forget the purpose of their God-given authority of defense and legal establishment: "the good news" of God's Kingdom. We are not agitators or legal reformers. Any action taken is done for the sake of the good news. We cannot lose sight of the fact that any steps taken are done for a Scriptual purpose. So even when such action is taken, it comes back to today's text, recognizing that what belongs to Caesar, we pay back to Caesar, but predominantly, we pay back God's things to God.

Andre Mendes da Costa
NZ Bethel
New Zealand