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The Image: On the Horror of Capitalism and Matthew 22:15-21

The Image: On the Horror of Capitalism and Matthew 22:15-21

Last updated on: October 17, 2026 at 1:41 pm by Jeff Hood

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The Image: On the Horror of Capitalism and Matthew 22:15-21 2026-10-17T13:41:52-06:00 Jeff Hood

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The Image

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

Matthew 22:15-21 (KJV)

The Image on the Coin

The Pharisees approached Jesus with a question about taxes…but it’s a trap. They have brought the Herodians (the people in charge) along as witnesses because they want his answer on the record. If he blesses the tax, he blesses the empire that collects it. If he condemns the tax, he can be handed to that empire as a rebel. They have built a question with no exit, the kind people use when they want to weaponize the truth. Nobody wanted a real conversation.

Jesus asks for a coin. He asks whose face is stamped on it. When they say Caesar’s, he tells them to give Caesar what carries his image and to give God what carries God’s. In a single sentence, a question about money becomes a question about belonging…a question about what is human. The coin bears the face of the man who owns the economy. The people holding the coin bear the face of God

The distinction is everything. Do we belong to the economy or do we belong to God? Think about it: we have built an economy that stamps a price on everything it touches and then tells us the price was always there. The question of whose image we bear is answered…every day…with a number.

Everything Has a Price / The Cost Distorts the Image

Consider how we have learned to measure what is human. The worker is worth what the hour pays. The patient is worth what the insurance will cover. The child is worth what the school district can afford. The old man is worth what he can still do with his hands. The immigrant is worth his labor until the labor is no longer needed. The prisoner is worth nothing…which is why we can do anything we like to him.

This is what capitalism does to a person. It looks at a life and asks what that life yields. It counts, it sorts, and it assigns a value. Then it teaches the rest of us to see the value instead of the person. We have been told to call this freedom. We have been told it is simply how the world works. It is not how the world works. It is how the world has been arranged…by people who benefit from the arrangement.

Somebody profits when rent climbs past what a family can carry. Somebody profits when a hospital turns away the uninsured. Somebody profits when a prison fills its beds. The suffering is not a flaw in the system. The suffering is the system.

We have even grown accustomed to the language. The market requires it. The budget cannot bear it. The shareholders will not accept it. There is always a reason, and a reason is not a real justification. A system that has learned to run on human suffering has not been blessed by God just because it runs smoothly.

The deepest wound capitalism leaves is not what it takes from the poor. It is what it does to the eyes of everyone else. Dehumanization becomes the only acceptable answer. We look at the man beneath the overpass, and we see a cost. We look at the woman working two jobs, and we see a labor statistic. We look at the prisoner, and we see a line in a budget. The image of God is still there. We have been trained not to look for it.

What Belongs to God

The image of God is not a wage. It is not a credit score or a productivity metric. It was never earned. So, it cannot be lost based on production. If dignity depended on output, dignity would be a privilege handed out by whoever controls the money, and the people with the least would always be the first to lose it.

Jesus refuses to let the face on a coin measure anything. Caesar may own the economy. Caesar does not own the people who move through it. What belongs to God cannot be reduced to what serves the market, no matter how many economists explain why it must.

That claim stands when a company announces that layoffs are necessary for growth. It stands when a legislature decides a safety net is too expensive. It stands when the powerful insist there is not enough to go around while they count what they have kept for themselves.

So let Caesar have the coin. Let the market keep its numbers. Stop looking at the coin. Let us turn to each other. Let us look to all people, no matter their social position or location. What matters…the very image of God…will look back.

Catholic

Politics and Religion

About The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic priest (Old Catholic), theologian, and nationally recognized activist based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. A spiritual advisor to death row inmates across the country, Dr. Hood has accompanied more people to their executions than any other advisor in the U.S., including the first-ever nitrogen hypoxia execution in 2024. His work sits at the intersection of justice, radical compassion, and public theology. Dr. Hood holds advanced degrees from Auburn, Emory, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Alabama, Creighton, and Brite Divinity School, among others. He also earned a PhD in metaphysical theology and founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and Professor of Prophetic Theology. Author of over 100 books—including the award-winning The Courage to Be Queer—Dr. Hood’s writings and activism have been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, CNN, and more. A frequent collaborator with men on death row, he sees theology as a shared, liberative act. Dr. Hood has served on the leadership teams of organizations like the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His activism has earned multiple awards, including recognition from PFLAG and the Next Generation Action Network. On July 7, 2016, Dr. Hood led the Dallas protest against police brutality that ended in tragedy. His actions that night saved lives, and his story is now archived in the Dallas Public Library. A father of five, husband to Emily, and friend to the incarcerated, Dr. Hood rejects institutionalism in favor of a theology rooted in people, presence, and prophetic witness. You can read more about the author here.

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