Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.
The Pharisees' and the Herodians' mission didn't have anything to do with truth. Hence they felt free to assert things which neither they nor those who sent them believed. In calling Jesus truthful and saying that he taught the way of God in accordance with the truth they were saying things that they themselves did not believe. They acted as though it was meritorious that Jesus was not concerned with anyone's opinion or a person's status though they hated this about him. They themselves were utterly bound by such considerations. The crowds seemed to love the way which Jesus "taught with authority" (see Matthew 7:29), leading to the envy of his opponents.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?”
In order to knock Jesus down a peg they attempted to force him to answer a question which they imagined he could not answer without yielding to the opinions of the crowd or the status of the rulers. Then he would be demonstrated to be, after all, just like everyone else. His Gospel would then be seen to be too impractical to deal with the so-called real world of politics and positioning. The Pharisees and Herodians could not see an alternative answer in the trap they set. Either Jesus would displease the crowd by saying that the occupation force should receive the census tax or he would run afoul of Caesar by saying it should not be paid. It seemed those were the only options. This was because a mind chained to opinion and half-truth did not have the freedom to consider all possibilities. But Jesus was different.
“Whose image and inscription is this?”
They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
Jesus did not simply carve out a secular arena ruled by Caesar as apart from a religious sphere ruled by God. That would not have really been satisfactory. The problematic reality of a hostile occupying force would, in such a solution, simply by ignored. But Jesus answered in a way that they could not have conceived, limited as they were by their prejudice and presuppositions. In his answer Jesus seemed to imply that Caesar himself was made in the image and likeness of God and that therefore, although one might pay the tax to Caesar, Caesar himself had the obligation to offer all that he was to God. There was not a distinction of secular and sacred in this scheme. For how could there be anything that did not belong to God? Perhaps only Jesus could see this answer because only he was so willing to readily recognize that Caesar himself was made in God's image. Maybe the anti-Roman sentiment that was common in its occupied territory made it difficult for anyone else to think that way, creating an opposition and a dividing wall that could not be resolved until someone helped all involved to see their shared humanity and creatureliness. Jesus himself was the one suited to do this because he was precisely the image in which all humans, Romans, Jews, and otherwise, were created.
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
They were utterly amazed at him.
Jesus spoke of justice, of rendering to each their due. And there was a legitimate justice one owned to the government charged with the care of the common God. But this was still a lesser part of a bigger sphere of the duty owed to God, since God was charged with the providential care of all creation. But people in general tended to fail at justice generally speaking. They tended to try to carve out the maximum benefit they could attain and leave others to fend for themselves. This was part of the reason that truth became distasteful to them and the mirage of opinion and status came to predominate. But again, Jesus was different. He was the first man to truly offer to God all that was his due. And it is now in him that we too can offer this same offering to God. In him, we too can shed our fear of opinion, our regard of status, and learn to love the truth. By sharing this offering with Jesus, especially when we attend mass, we really do what Peter enjoins in today's first reading.
Wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise
we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
We may not be perfect yet, not without spot or blemish before him. But we can hold on to this goal because we have the offering of Jesus to speak on our behalf. We can cling to our trust in his patience and mercy since we are certain that it is he himself that desires us to grow in grace and knowledge of him. We don't have to fall back to a position of protecting our self-image because we have come to believe in the love God has for us (see First John 4:16). We are all made in his image. And this means that we are all made for his glory.
But grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment