TWENTY-NINTH ORDINARY SUNDAY
(Isaiah 45:1.4-6; Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21)
Because it has to do with government and, therefore,
politics, the gospel today has attracted a lot of attention. Also interesting
but little noticed is the situation in which Jesus finds himself. A few days
ago he entered Jerusalem to give his life for the salvation of the world. After
driving the merchants out of the Temple, the Jewish elders came questioning his
authority. Instead of giving them a direct answer, Jesus asked them if John the
Baptist was God’s prophet. It was a trick question. If the elders answered
“yes,” Jesus would ask them why they did not follow him. And if they answered
“no”, they would have lost the trust of the people.
In the gospel today the Pharisees and Herodians approach
Jesus with all the sincerity of the wolf greeting Little Red Riding Hood. They
have a trick question like the one Jesus used with the Jewish elders. If Jesus
answers that one must pay the tax to Caesar, he will lose the favor of the
people. And if he answers “no,” the authorities will come looking for him.
Jesus does not fall into the Pharisees’ trap. Rather, he has
perceived their wicked intentions from the false compliment with which they
greeted him. He does not answer the question but outwits his adversaries by
asking them for the coin to pay the tax. The fact that they have the coin on
hand indicates their participation in Caesar's monetary system. They show that
they should pay the tax because they take advantage of the system. They don't
really want to learn from Jesus. As Jesus says, they are “hypocrites.”
Jesus leaves us a proverb without any explanation. We are to
give “to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.” But what is our
duty to Caesar? And what is our duty to God? “Caesar” means the government, and
it is not difficult to enumerate our duties to government. We are to obey its
laws, vote for its officials, pay its taxes, and defend the country when it
calls us. But our duty to God is more complicated.
Some think that our debt to God is limited to attending
Sunday mass and contributing to charity from time to time. However, because God
created us, saved us from the snares of the devil, and sustains us, we owe him
much more. In fact, we owe God our entire lives. We fulfill this duty by living
each day, indeed each moment of each day like Christ.
Let me use a story as an example of what I mean. Maybe the chaos that accompanied getting on
buses in Honduras hasn't changed much in thirty years. In the nineteen nineties
there was a priest there who used to say that he acted like a Christian all the
time except when he got on the bus. He was joking, of course, but don't all of
us propose such limits on our loyalty to Christ?
There is a document from the second century that describes
the ways of Christians. It claims that Christians do not live like other
people, albeit they live among them. It goes on to say that Christians are to
the world what the soul is to the body. In other words, they act as the
conscience of the world always showing the good, just, and correct way to conduct
our lives. This is what Jesus means when he commands us to “render to God the
things that are God's.”
We resist giving ourselves completely to God. It seems too
much to demand from us. But we should not consider it as a payment on our part.
Rather it is just fulfilling our role as members of God’s family. It is just living as children of God.
