Mt 22:15-21
There is much truth behind the old saying, "politics make strange bedfellows," a saying that succinctly describes bringing together people who have little in common and who may actually detest each other. We see that dynamic reenacted every four years during the dreadful time leading up to presidential elections. It is amazing how people will compromise themselves, if not in actuality prostitute themselves, in the pursuit of power.
Today's gospel shows that the dynamic existed even in the Ancient Near East. The Pharisees and the Herodians were not drinking buddies. The Herodians held no truck with the Pharisees and the Pharisees wanted nothing to do with the Herodians who were supporters of Herod Antipas, a non-Jew, who was the same Herod who had John the Baptist put to death. The Herodians were mostly servants of the Roman Empire in contrast to the Pharisees who awaited a Messiah to shake off the chains of that same empire. Strange bedfellows indeed, but in this case they teamed up against Jesus in order to entrap him with a difficult question.
In this particular scenario, the reason for the question was more important than the answer. It was the reason for the question that formed the kind of unholy alliance such as the kind we see in the American political scene. It is a classic question that illustrates the concepts of a rock and a hard place, no- win, and lose-lose. The question was skillfully asked. Like most politicians going in for an attempted kill, Jesus' interlocutors opened with a fawning tribute to Him: "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion, for you do not regard a person's status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion." They then asked the famous question: "Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
Because of the opposite positions of the Pharisees and the Herodians Jesus was in what appeared to be a double-bind. Had Jesus agreed that it was lawful to pay the census tax he could have been discredited by the Pharisees for placing secular law above the Law of God. Had he said it was unlawful to pay the tax he could have been accused of treason by the Herodians.
Jesus recognized their malice. Rather than blurting out a yes or no answer or beginning a long rambling rationalization arguing both sides of the question, Jesus asked for a coin. After asking whose image was on the coin he said, "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar
and unto God that which belongs to God."
Jesus' response has been analyzed under different lenses over the centuries. There are those who admire the rhetorical skill of his answer. Some use it to make philosophical statements about the separation of church and state.
But Jesus was not intending a witty response to a hostile question, nor was he commenting on the various church-state issues that continue to rankle the U.S. today. Jesus’s reply was not meant to show off his rhetorical skills, nor was he making a philosophical statement about the separation of Church and state. He was not suggesting that the church should be confined within certain parameters and not get involved with politics. Jesus broadened the question and raised a challenge to his questioners. If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears Caesar’s image then what belongs to God is that which bears God’s image. Because God creates us in His image and likeness every human being--including Caesar--bears God's image and ultimately belongs to Him. In the first reading from Isaiah, we heard an echo of the Shema Yisrael, the central prayer in Judaism.
"I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me. . . . I am the LORD, there is no other."
Unlike the coins of the world that bear the images of rulers, living and dead, all humanity bears the image of God. This includes the child in the womb and the old man dying of Alzheimer's. We bear that image from conception until natural death.
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The photos are of the pulpit in the Franciscan Church in Ljubljana. I had unusual access to the church when I made a retreat at the adjacent friary. The church is closed for two hours every afternoon for cleaning. I had a key.
+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
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