Seen From Behind

"Moses said, 'Please show me your glory.' And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you... you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.'" - Exodus 33:18, 19, 23

"Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob." - Psalm 99:4

Reflection

Moses makes the boldest request in scripture: "show me your glory,"  and God answers with a strange kind of promise: "I will pass by, and you will see my back." Not the face. Not the explanation. The wake. Moses would know God the way you know a river's current after it has moved through a valley. By what it has carried, and what it has changed on the way through.

That is how most of us actually see God, if we're honest. Rarely up front, face to face, with everything laid out. Mostly in the rearview: the door that closed that led somewhere better, the stranger who showed up at exactly the wrong right time, the community that held you together when you could not hold yourself. Psalm 99 names what we find when we look back at the trail: a God who is not just holy but a "lover of justice," who has "established equity." God's glory, it turns out, looks like justice done; bread shared, debts forgiven, walls of empire coming down.

Which brings us to that coin. The Pharisees think they've built a trap with their tax question, and Jesus flips it into the most quietly dangerous sentence he ever speaks: give to God the things that are God's. The denarius bore Caesar's image so it could go back to Caesar. But you...you bear the image of the One in whose likeness you were made. Your labor, your loyalty, your Tuesday afternoons: those were never Caesar's to begin with, and no empire has ever been entitled to them.

The Thessalonians had figured this out. Paul thanks God for their "work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope." Three ordinary verbs for what it looks like to belong to God instead of to the empire's ledger. They turned from idols, Paul says, to serve a living and true God. Idols are always cheaper than they look; the living God asks for everything and somehow leaves you more alive than you started.

So today, look back over your own trail. Where did God's back pass by? And then look in the mirror at the image stamped on you, deeper than any currency, any employer badge, any citizenship. Give to Caesar what bears Caesar's face. But remember what bears God's.

Prayer

God who goes with us, you promised your presence would be enough, and you have kept that promise in ways we only recognize looking back.

Mighty King, lover of justice, establish your equity among us. Teach us to give to empire only what is already its own and to give you everything else.

Blessing

May you recognize God's passing presence in your past, and God's image in your face. You were minted in heaven. Live like it.