HOMILY : 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
By: Fr. Jude Nnadi
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21
“The Pharisees sent their disciples to Jesus, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “whose image is this and whose inscription? They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Mt 22).
My brothers and sisters, paying “tax to Caesar” story in our gospel reading today is the only explicit statement by Jesus on the political debate. It is important, to understand the concrete situation within which the debate takes place to discover the profound message of Jesus. The occupied Jewish provinces had to pay taxes to the central Roman empire, often scandalously expensive. As a result, the anti-Roman partisan movement of the Zealots found a fertile breeding ground for its revolt against Rome. Further, the depiction of the emperor on the coin constituted a more provocation for the Jews in the fight against the sin of idolatry, for the first commandment prohibited any reproduction of living beings, men, or animals.
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The difficult question of the Pharisees, a “progressive” Jewish movement in coalition with the reactionary party of the “Herodians”, attempts to imprison Jesus with no escape route. To respond to their question, he is likely to make criticism of the authority of Caesar Augustus with obvious politico-judicial consequences or make criticism of God’s law with equally impending religious-social consequences. Jesus’ extraordinary solution is, however, a radical reversal of the knot in which his adversaries were tying him. He carries out a prophetic symbolic action. A lecture through a symbol and a concluding statement.
The symbol is that of a coin, minted with the image and inscription of the emperor. This, Jesus makes his interlocutors understand, belongs to the sovereignty of Caesar Augustus. With this, Jesus recognizes and does not contest the legitimacy and autonomy of political power and authority. However, that word image immediately evokes in Jesus’ listeners a famous biblical phrase found on the first page of the Bible: “God created man in his image; in the image of God, he created him” (Gen 1:27). Man, therefore, in his most intimate and profound reality is marked by belonging to God. The power of the state is real but does not completely absorb man. And this is the meaning of the final declaration that seals the symbolic action of the coin: repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Jesus’ warning is very concrete and not just a statement of principle. On the one hand he proclaims the human, civic and moral duty to pay taxes, that is, to collaborate in political life and the common good of the earthly society. On the other, he reminds us of whose image we are, the fact that we belong to God, and should model our life in holiness. After having rendered to God what is God’s in the temple of the liturgy, in our homes and personal conscience, Christians must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s in the city, in work, in politics for the common good of the society in which he lives.
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