Living with Caesar
A remark by Jesus has been much on my mind. He said: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Those around him “marveled at him.” As well they might. God is, of course, a higher power; Caesar is a lower power, however omnipotent Caesar may appear. As an arbiter of life and death, Caesar may be very omnipotent. In any case, Caesar is defined by the power he wields. (Typically Caesar has been a man, which has hardly been an accident.) He is the power; his person is special. To assassinate Caesar, as happened in Rome to Julius Caesar, is to kill the person but not the power.
In modern times, the sense of a higher power has diminished. You can point many fingers at many forces—technology, the belief in progress and betterment, the fact that it’s been awhile since God spoke directly to people however much His various ministers have invoked his presence, the factual world science has created, the self-involvement consumerism promotes, the distractions represented by entertainment and sport—but not many people actively feel the presence of the higher power. If they do, it may be one morning a week and it may have to do with the ethos of the religious abode and their feelings of belonging to a group that is similarly inclined. One doesn’t hear of too many people who are impious nor, on the other hand, does piety figure in very many so-called “lifestyles.” The secular world, a goodly part of which is taken up by politics as represented by Caesar, is very close to being everything.
In Christ’s equation, Caesar is balanced by God. A presence is tugging at each end of the human rope. An unqualified belief in Caesar is impossible if God is part of the equation. Conscientious objection in wartime would be an example of this. For most people, war, something that Caesars have been fond of, has been stronger than any spiritual notion about murdering other people. The circumstances of war are dire and people respond accordingly. Also, Caesar has been quick to say that God is on his side. Indeed, as a nation, the United States has more or less appropriated God for its own purposes. Again, since God hasn’t shown up to offer any objections, His name may be used without any qualms. One could come up with a long list of unfortunate events that God somehow has sanctioned.
A world devoted totally to Caesar is a very frightening world, though a world totally devoted to God may be similarly frightening. Total worlds are out of balance because nothing is tugging back. This lack of balance encourages fanaticism—communism, fascism, ideological crusades, belief in the inviolate nature of the Caesar of the moment, and, as befits “total,” all manner of totalitarian impulses. People become literally unbalanced. Any roaring political rally is an instance of this. Some such events are more frightening than others, but in all cases people are giving themselves up to some figure who speaks for the prerogatives of power, a power that the crowd is happy to indulge since it will be on their side. Wariness is left at the door, so are scruples. Power is thrilling. Our small stature becomes large—or so it seems. We gladly lend our voices to the roar of the crowd. Or power tells us to applaud because if we don’t power can kill us.
It’s easy to want capitalize Power and put it on the same level as God. In democracies power may seem somewhat softer and diluted. Cults of personality as represented by Trump, who stands for the naked desire for power, are uncommon, although since many people are frustrated one way or another by their circumstances and nurse various delusions and grievances, such a person may speak to them and for them. Democracies tend to believe that we can have good Caesars, particularly if the legislative and judicial forces in place to balance them actually do their jobs and stand up to the president or prime minister. The chance to elect a candidate in a national election seems to undo the onus of Caesarism. Caesar is waving and smiling, asking for your vote. What could be so bad? Unfortunately, the power in modern states is much greater than the person wielding the power. However full of good intentions the leader may be, an Obama for instance, the power remains the main principle of the endeavor. It’s not just that the forces supporting Caesar are reprehensible, as is the case with the blind certitude and virtuous conceit that typically upholds power, but that the absence of any recognition of the higher power skews life terribly. Power and whatever actions power takes are all there is.
A counterpoint to this outlook can be found in Native peoples who over millennia have tended to look to the Earth as the higher power. Such peoples have been designated as “uncivilized” by the ruling powers, which unfortunately says much about how sullied the notion of civilization can become. Since the Earth does not offer salvation or life after death, such power may seem like nothing, even though the raw power of the Earth as manifested by volcanoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes, to name three events, is formidable and even though the Earth sustains us each day. The simple truth is that the ways of the Earth are something like infinite and dwarf any mere life. Those ways represent a power of the first degree, a power before which, traditionally, Native peoples have humbled themselves. They have been in active conversation with the Earth as opposed to obeying the once-upon-a-time dictates of God who kicked His human creations out of the Garden of Eden for being human and who had many rules and regulations to lay on humankind. The Earth of course is an unparalleled teacher as far as ways of being are concerned, but the Earth has very much been second fiddle to God and to any Caesar who can act in a godlike manner. I think of Stalin’s canal building and various Chinese leaders’ passion for dams. I think of Standing Rock. For Caesar and his minions sacred is just a word.
Inevitably, Caesar is at war with the Earth because the Earth cannot be totally subdued. Caesar is busy with one expediency or another and has no time to listen to the voice of the Earth. Because he is deaf to the Earth, Caesar may actively belittle the very idea of such a voice. And, truly, many a devotee of Christ also has belittled the Earth. What is the creation beside the Creator? It couldn’t be much if He left it to the human race to ruin in whatever ways they saw fit to ruin it. The sadness of such a story cannot be overstated. We all inherit that sadness. We may place whatever faith we have in a good Caesar but unless we feel the piety that goes with revering and loving the Earth and are willing to act accordingly, which means to conserve and live more carefully than we currently live, no amount of such power is going to help us. When Christ evoked God, he was evoking the depth and mystery of Being that asked for a distinct acknowledgment and that offered a very different perspective about our doings here on the planet. Given the history of “civilized” humankind thus far, no reason exists to be optimistic. The Earth, however, as it speaks to the force of life is perennially optimistic, whether we are here or not.
I find the closing sentence especially moving.
This is one of your most powerful essays that I’ve read. Stands up there with your Hawthorn and the Scarlet Letter. You nailed it - where we’re at as peoples on this earth. Stunning and Shivering. May we all be humbled sooner than later. Or not.