Myths are things that we unthinkingly accept as being true, but are actually fictitious. We all like to think that we’re immune to them, but are we? After Jesus told parables that were clearly about the hypocrisy of the religious elites, they sent spies to trap him by asking whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. If Jesus says yes, he loses the crowd. If he says no, he could lose his life. Seeing through their duplicity, Jesus asks them to show him a denarius—a small coin with a Roman image on it—an image which the religious leaders had deemed idolatrous and forbidden. When the spies duly obliged, and thereby publicly demonstrated their hypocrisy, Jesus then famously said: “So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Did this mean that everything marked with a Roman inscription was beyond God’s authority? Or perhaps that taxes are sinful, or money is unclean? Or that only ‘religious’ things have value? No. On the contrary. With this statement, Jesus affirmed that ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it …’ (Psalm 24:1). He was saying that God owns it all. All created things. All wealth. All authority. Or as the former Dutch Prime Minister, Abraham Kuyper put it: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
It is a great tragedy of the modern age that this teaching has often been inverted and used to justify a division or demarcation between what is holy and what is human, between the sacred and the secular. Becoming what we now call the SSD—the Sacred-Secular Divide—the idea that religious and spiritual things should have no bearing on public life. Here, faith is a private hobby, and things like politics, education, work, and business are not the concern of Christianity, because religion is not impartial or objective – whereas atheism somehow is. We call this myth of secular neutrality—the preposterous idea that secularism is somehow morally unbiased. At best this is nonsensical, at worst it is a downright lie. The reality is that secularism (of which there are many types), like all ideas, favours some groups and opinions and disfavours other groups and opinions. How can it not do this? Even a belief in nothing has profound consequences. The truth is that public life has never been and can never be amoral. All organisations and authorities are ethically biased in some way. Everybody brings their beliefs and worldviews to the table, to their workplace. It’s impossible not to. Beliefs cannot be checked at the door like a coat deposited in a cloakroom. So, the question is: what beliefs best promote human flourishing? What helps people and organisations and cities to grow well together and do good?
Historically, Christianity has an unmatched track record of regenerating people and places for the benefit of all. And this missional work continues today. So, in both word and deed, every Bible-believing Christian should be encouraged to challenge the SSD wherever they encounter it. This is what it means to be salt and light—to be in the world, but not part of it. By exposing worldly myths, we can help each other to be distinctively Christian in the workplace, the school, and the neighbourhood. To be living sacrifices. Like a trailer to a movie, to be a sign and a taste of the coming Kingdom of Jesus. That is how we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.