29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Matthew 22:15-21
First Reading
Isaiah 45:1,4-6
The Lord chooses Cyrus to subdue the nations for the sake of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 96:1,3-10
Sing praise to the Lord.
Second Reading
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Paul greets the Thessalonians, recalling the Gospel they received.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 22:15-21
The Pharisees send their disciples to test Jesus with a question about taxes.
The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you. Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius, and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’
In today’s Gospel Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem continue their tense exchange of questions and challenges. At this point the disciples of the Pharisees, together with the Herodians, try to entrap Jesus by their question about the payment of taxes.
Matthew sets up an unusual partnership between the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Herodians were supporters of Herod Antipas, a Jewish political leader who collaborated with the Romans. Such collaboration would have required a compromised observance of the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees, on the other hand, taught scrupulous observance of the Mosaic Law and opposed Roman occupation. Herodians favored the payment of taxes; the Pharisees opposed it. The Herodians and the Pharisees approach Jesus, asking that he take sides in their dispute. If Jesus answers with the Pharisees, he shows himself to be an enemy of Rome. If he answers with the Herodians, he offends popular Jewish religious sensibilities.
Jesus’ response to this attempt to trap him exposes the guile of his questioners. From his first words to them, Jesus shows that he is very much aware of what they are trying to do. He asks to see a Roman coin, which is readily provided to him. It may have come from the hand of a Herodian, but the Pharisees show themselves to be quite willing to accept this compromise. Jesus has already exposed the Pharisees as hypocrites.
Jesus takes his response one step further. He asks that his questioners examine the coin. Agreeing that it is Caesar’s image on the coin, Jesus tells them that it must belong to Caesar. Avoiding the question of lawfulness altogether, Jesus answers their question with simple logic. Then, going further still, Jesus tells them that their obligation is to pay to God that which belongs to God
Jesus’ response to the Herodians and Pharisees suggests the ethic that Christians ought to adopt. It reminds us of the importance of keeping things in their proper perspective. Do we attach ourselves to worldly things at the expense of the love and honor that we owe to God?
GOSPEL REFLECTION
The passage’s final sentence is one of the most famous, but also the most enigmatic. It is not easy to establish the meaning, so it is not always mentioned apropos. It is sometimes used by those in power to ask the Church hierarchy not to meddle in political affairs. Other times these are the ones reminding the rulers to assert its right to defend and proclaim the values that flow from the Gospel. It was used, however, by those who supported the papal hierocracy and advocated the caesaropapism against those who defended the secular state. They also dreamt of subjecting the state to the religious power by sacralizing the institutions and justifying the temporal power of the Church. Someone, more simply, uses it as an invitation to give everyone what they deserve.
To understand the phrase, there is a need to place it in the context of the dialogue from where it came from.
The Emperor of Rome demanded of each of his subjects an annual monetary payment to the treasury. Those who had attained the age of fourteen (man), twelve (woman) and up to sixty-five years were obliged to pay. It was the tributum capitis or testatico for which the heinous censuses were done often provoking popular uprisings (Lk 2:1-5; Acts 5:37). Counting the people who belonged to God was equivalent, for the pious Israelite, to shielding one from the authority of the Lord and to enslaving one to a human power. For this reason, after the census, David felt his heart beat and said, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; I have acted foolishly” (2 S 24:10).
One day the Pharisees, accompanied by supporters of Herod, present themselves to Jesus. In a veryrespectful way, having recognized his love for the truth and his rejection of compromise, ask him a tricky question: “Master, we know that you are an honest man and truly teach God’s way. You are not influenced by others nor are you afraid of anyone. So tell us what you think: is it against the Law to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (vv. 16-17).
This alliance between the Pharisees and Herodians is strange. They first thought it impious to support the Roman occupation; the latter were instead supporters of Herod Antipas, the puppet with no personality, dominated by Emperor Tiberius, and they were collaborators. We find them allied against Jesus because he annoyed both. He was loyal and refused all forms of hypocrisy.
Their question is worded in such a way as to make it impossible for any loophole: If one is against the payment of taxes, he could be denounced to the Roman authorities as a subversive. (In fact, according to Lk 23:2, before Pilate they accused him of inciting the people not to pay taxes to Caesar). If he is in favor, he attracts the antipathy of the people who hate the Roman colonizers.
All taxes are reluctantly paid anywhere but, to make the tribute odious, a religious cause was added in Palestine. The money required had on one side a representation of the Emperor of Rome and the inscription: “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus” and on the back the title “Supreme Pontiff” with the image of a seated woman, a symbol of peace, perhaps Livia, the mother of Tiberius. In 1960 about thirty pieces of these coins were found on Mount Carmel.
It is known that the Israelites disliked human images, prohibited by their law. Using the money of Tiberius meant to give one’s consent to a form of idolatry. Jesus is aware of the pitfalls that they have laid for him. He does not avoid the question. As he usually does, he skillfully leads the interlocutors at the root of the problem.
He wants them first to show him the money. They naively reach out under the tunic where they usually hide the money (clothes at that time had no pockets) and they present it to him. They do not realize that Jesus is playing with them: first, he asks for the money. It means that he does not possess it (for he does not even have a stone to lay his head; Mt 8:20), and if they pull it out, it means that they use it without any problem. They receive it for their services, and with it, they buy the products at the market. What’s more, the dispute takes place in the precincts of the temple (Mt 21:23), and in the holy place, and they do not bother to profane it by showing that image. They have scruples only when they have to pay taxes.
After looking at the money Jesus asks, “Whose image is this?” “Caesar’s,” they say. “So—he concludes—give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s” (v. 21).
The first message that Jesus wants to give is clear. It is a moral duty as well as civil to contribute to the common good with the payment of tribute. There is no reason that justifies tax evasion or theft of state assets. Whatever the policy and economic choice of the government, the disciple of Christ is called to be an honest and exemplary citizen. He is actively engaged in building a just society and shuns the subterfuge. He makes political choices that favor the weakest, not those that safeguard their own interests.
Writing to the Romans, Paul restates in more explicit terms the directive of the Master. We are at the beginning of Nero’s reign—the Emperor is in his twenties and for three years he initially governs in a lenientand moderate way. Here’s what the apostle recommends to the Christians in the capital: “Let everyone be subject to no authority that does not come from God, and the offices have been established by God. Whoever, therefore, resists authority goes against a decree of God and those who resist deserve to be condemned. It is necessary to obey not through fear but as a matter of conscience. In the same way, you must pay taxes and the collectors are God’s officials. Pay to all what is due them, to whomever you owe contributions, make a contribution; to whom taxes are due, pay taxes; to whom respect is due, give respect” (Rom 13:1-7).
Jesus’ answer, however, is not limited to state the duty to contribute to the common good with the payment of taxes. He adds: “Give to God what is God’s.”
The verb he uses more precisely means “to return.” Looking to the present, therefore, he says, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and return to God what is God’s.” They are not only holding back the money that should be handed over to the emperor, but they also seized illegally and unjustly, a property of God. They must give it back right away because he claims it; it is his.
Tertullian already in 200 A.D. realized that he was the person that was handed back to God. Creating him, in fact, he had said: “Let us make man in our image, to our likeness. So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him” (Gen 1:26-27).
If the coin had to be “returned” to Caesar because on it was stamped the face of his master, the person must be “returned” to God. The human being is the only creature on whom the face of God is imprinted. He is sacred and no one can take him as his own. Those who make them their own (enslave, oppress, exploit, dominate, and use them, as an object) should immediately return him to his Lord.
READ: The hostility between Jesus and the religious authorities built up day-by-day. Because of this, the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians on how to trap Jesus. They tried to trip him with a question that will either implicate Jesus on religious grounds or if not, on political grounds. Jesus sidestepped the trap with a clever reply.
ACT: To be just, we have to do just acts. Let us start by working for justice not just advocating it.
REFLECT: If one were to settle the question as to whom our lives belong, one must look at the engraved image in our souls – whose would it be? Caesar’s or God’s who has shaped, known, and called us even before we were born? Let us give to God what belongs to God – our very lives.
PRAY: Let us ask that justice will reign in our land starting with ourselves and our community. Let us pray for a true sense of belongingness to God and his Kingdom.
Fernando Armellini
Italian missionary and biblical scholar
https://sundaycommentaries.wordpress.com
Mission is to proclaim a God who is always ‘totally different’
Romeo Ballan mccj
Jesus’ answer (Gospel) disables the trap set for him by the Pharisees and the Herodians on the sticky topic of taxes to be paid to the Roman emperor (v. 7). Jesus makes a distinction – rather overturns – between human-political authority and the supreme authority of God. The “tribute coin” in question (v. 19), made of gold or other metal, was coined by the Emperor, who was the owner, while the debtor was only a temporary owner, with the obligation of yielding-returning it to the emperor. A duty recognised even by Jesus (v. 21). But that coin bore the inscription “to the divine Caesar” or “to the god Caesar”, which Jesus refuses and overturns prophetically: “Give back to God what belongs to God” (v. 21). Caesar may have some right over things, but not on people. “Caesar has no right of life and death over people, has no right to violate their conscience, and cannot get hold of their freedom. Heart, mind and soul do not belong to Caesar, but to God alone. To every human power it is said: do not take possession of man. Man belongs to Another, he belongs to God… For Jesus God is not the power over all powers: He is love. He is not the master of the living; He is the servant of the living. He is not a Caesar greater than all the Caesars, but a suffering servant on account of love. A totally different way of being God” (E. Ronchi).
The Word of God this Sunday sheds new light on the relationship between man and man, between man and God, between man and other creatures, between religion and state, between the Gospel and politics, mission and religious freedom, faith and freedom of conscience, the Church and governments, secular state, and ethical imperatives… They are delicate and complex relationships that closely touch the individual conscience of people, but also the work of those who proclaim the Gospel. In particular, religious freedom, a value enshrined by Vatican Council II, does not exempt, indeed requires the missionary proposal of the Gospel of Christ, in view of a free personal choice and of the consequences in the family and social area.
Jesus’ pronouncement affirms the autonomy of the two spheres of action, human and divine, while asserting, here and in other Gospel passages, the priority of God, from whom all and everything receives life, purpose and meaning. A healthy autonomy requires mutual respect and cooperation in a spirit of complementarity, avoiding the confusion of a theocratic system as well as the evasions of an inward looking spiritualism. All, though, are called to support any initiative aimed at safeguarding the integral promotion of the person and the communal development of humanity. In this light, even the political activity of Cyrus, the Persian king (1st Reading), called “the elect of God” (v. 1), is interpreted from the point of view of the salvation of the Hebrews, who had been enslaved in Babylon. In the same way, the spiritual growth of the Christian community in Thessalonica (2nd Reading), with its values of committed faith, concrete charity and constant hope (v. 3), can only have healthy consequences for the sharing of family, political and social life.
The priority of God, the salvation in Jesus Christ, known and loved by all, so that all may find in Him life, dignity, full salvation… are the basic objectives underlying the mission of the Church that during this month celebrates World Mission Sunday. Proclaiming the Gospel is the best service that the Church can offer the world, because the Gospel has always a beneficial influence on the life of the human family. Today’s Opening Prayer highlights this, by addressing the Father, to whom “obeys every creature in the mysterious interweaving of the free will of men”; at the same time let us pray, in Christ and in the Spirit, so that “the whole of humanity recognises you only as the only God”, the supreme good for a human life more worthy, free and happy.
