The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives. – Exodus 30:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 9, 2018): Exodus 30

On October 2, 1187, Jerusalem fell to Saladin and his Muslim forces. The incident would become the reason that Pope Gregory VIII would use to sign a papal bull that would make possible the Third Crusade; the Crusade most widely known in my culture because it formed the background for the Legend of Robin Hood. According to the legend, Robin Hood fought the forces of evil in England while the good king, Richard the Lionhearted, was away fighting in the Crusade.

Saladin had originally wanted to take the city without a fight. But the dream proved impossible. Instead, there was a battle, and a short siege until, finally, the city surrendered. Saladin offered to allow all of the inhabitants of the city to leave as long as they could pay a ransom for their lives. That ransom was the equivalent of about fifty dollars for each life, a low amount compared to what he could have been demanded. Saladin did not demand more from the rich than from the poor; everyone would pay the same amount. In the end, people gathered money for the really poor who could not pay the price. But Saladin, against the voices of his advisors, also decided that he would let everyone leave the city, no matter whether or not they could pay the ransom.

God asks for a ransom from his people. This is not a tithe of which more is asked of the rich than the poor. It is a ransom or an atonement price. God had delivered his people. And each of them would pay the same price. We have no idea if the half-shekel tax was every fully enforced or what the officials would do with the very poor who could not even pay that price, but there is a principle in this command that we sometimes miss. Every life is valuable to God. And every life possesses the same value in the eyes of God. He does not value one life more than another. Your life is valued the same as mine. (I know that must be disappointing because you were sure that yours was the more valuable.) Every life matters.

It is not just that every life has value in the eyes of God. It is that every life possesses the same value. Black lives are worth the identical amount as white lives. Men and women are worth the same price. The CEO of a large corporation is worth the same amount as a laborer on the bottom rung of the company. The president of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the President of Montenegro are all worth the same amount in the eyes of God.

And by instructing Moses and the leader of Israel to collect the tax, the message is clear; we are to see the value in each other as God views us. We are equal, and none are more valuable than anyone else.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 31