Twenty-ninth Sunday In Ordinary Time
MATTHEW 22:15-21 (Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b)
In the Gospel of Matthew the context of this reading is part of the final week of Jesus’ life. He is in Jerusalem. He has been publicly and royally proclaimed. This created a dangerous situation with the possibility of riots and rebellion against Roman occupation of Jerusalem and Judea. The religious authorities, some of whom want peace at any price, repeatedly confront Jesus about his authority to act and to teach as he does, even in the temple of the Lord which they governed. It is also Passover week, a time of tension be-cause of the presence of Roman troops watching for signs of rebellion. For the Jews the Passover commemorated freedom from Egyptian oppression centuries earlier. For them Passover was not only a religious celebration, but the preeminent patriotic celebration.
Not only was Jesus confronted about his authority at this time, but there were repeated attempts to ensnare him in contradictions or to lead him to make statements that could be used against him. The first such attempt is today’s Gospel reading. Matthew attributes this attempt to Pharisees. It should never be forgotten that this is not a condemnation of all Pharisees. They were good people, mostly laymen, who took it upon themselves to carefully observe the laws of Moses (the Torah) plus the traditions that had evolved through centuries of interpretation by the great scribes, the scholars of the Torah. Jesus had friends among the Pharisees. St. Paul was always a Pharisee and proud of being so.
The Pharisees of this story approach Jesus with a problem debated among themselves. Accompanying the Pharisees was a group of hangers-on of the Herodian family. This family of three generations had ruled all or parts of Palestine since 28 B.C., but always under the authority of the imperial Roman government and appointed by that same government. The question they were about to ask Jesus involved both religious and civic aspects. The Herodians represented the civic aspect. The questioners begin with flattery, which sometimes works in our own lives to disarm an authority figure or to soften opposition. We use the same approach in the first part of the Our Father, but without hypocrisy, and we do it because Jesus taught us to do it.
The question with its introduction: “We know that you are true (genuine), and teach the way of God in truth, nor are you concerned with what people think of you, because you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us then…, is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” For the Herodians this was a test of loyalty to the imperial Roman government which had put the Herodians into positions of authority. For the Pharisees it was a matter of conscience. To consent to pay taxes to Caesar (the Roman government) was to acknowledge Roman imperial sovereignty over the sacred land of Israel. This was a loaded question. Matthew informs his hearers and readers that Jesus saw clearly whatever there was of scheming in this question.
If Jesus said, “Pay the tax,” he would be discredited with the people who had just acclaimed him as their possible deliverer from Roman oppression. If he said, “Don’t pay,” he could be accused by the Herodian and Roman authorities for inciting rebellion.
In fact, according to Luke 23:2, one of the accusations leveled against Jesus at his trial before Pilate was the false accusation that “he forbids us to pay taxes to Caesar.” Jesus solves the challenge from both sides with wisdom even greater than the proverbial wis-dom of King Solomon. He asks his challengers to show him the coin which was used to pay the census tax. They showed him a denarius.
The denarius was a Roman silver coin. On one side was the figure of a woman holding a branch, symbol of peace. Under the seated woman was inscribed the title of the Roman emperor, PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, that is, chief priest of the religion of the State. On the reverse side at the time of Jesus was the image of the current Caesar Tiberius. Under his image was the inscription, TIBERIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE DIVINE AUGUSTUS. Tiberius had been adopted by Caesar Augustus (died A.D. 14) as his heir and successor. Jesus knew how to get back at his challengers. Before him stood suppo-sedly devout Jews who carried a coin which was inscribed not only with graven images, contrary to the commandment of Exodus 20:4 and elsewhere in the Torah, but the coin acknowledges Caesar as a god, the divine Augustus, a proclamation of idolatry.
Jesus’ clever answer had a greater meaning than is generally understood, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Jesus just made a dangerous distinction which Matthew does not indicate that his challengers understood. He distinguished between Caesar and God, a distinction that Christians later would make which would bring on persecution and martyrdom. Why does Matthew include this epi-sode in his catechism (gospel)? When Matthew composed his gospel in the eighties of the first century, Christians in Rome had already suffered a horrendous persecution. Should Christians pay taxes to the persecutors? The Matthean Jesus says “Yes,” both here and in Matthew 17:24-27. St. Paul agrees in Romans 13:1-8.
