The 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 22, 2023

Matthew 22, 15–21

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, 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. 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: 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.”

“The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.”  The Lord Jesus has entered Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowds who expect him to restore Israel.  The Pharisees consider him a deceiver or imposter and not the Messiah despite his miracles because he does not conform to their idea of what the Messiah would be like.  They now try desperately to trick him in his words to show him as a fraud to his followers.  Their desperation is clear from the fact that they ally themselves with the hated Herodians who seek to establish Herod as king over a revived Israel.  

In their first attempt they come and attempt to get him to lower his guard through their flattery: “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”  They say that they know this, but in fact they do not believe a word of it.  And yet it is true, he is a truthful man who teaches “the way of God in accordance with the truth”.  How differently would have been their eternity had they only believed their own words!  Likewise, they said, “And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status.”  They had witnessed this for themselves in his previous encounters with him.  But they make a mistake here, for they themselves possessed no special status.  They were self-appointed teachers of the Law who were accountable to no one and to whom no one owed respect.  On the other hand, the Lord, who has claimed the title of Son of Man and confirmed the validity of the claim by his many miracles, possesses status.

“Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”  The question is cleverly contrived.  If Jesus answers Yes, then the Pharisees can accuse him of favoring the Roman occupation.  Surely the deliverer of Israel would not do that.  But if he says No, the Herodians can report him to the Romans as one encouraging revolt.  They take a certain risk, however, for the Lord could simply ask them whether they pay the tax and go along with their answer.  This, however, would seem to go against their statement, which he accepts by default, that he is  “not concerned with anyone’s opinion”.  Now, this tax meant more than a payment of money.  It had as its primary aim forcing a population to acknowledge Rome as its ruler.  It bitterly reminded the Jews that they were a subjugated people.

“Knowing their malice.”  Matthew refers to the Lord’s omniscience.  As St. John remarked, “Jesus knew what was in man” (John 2, 25).  but even an ordinary man would have been able to see the snarl behind the beard.  “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?”  That is, “You godless men”.  The Lord shows that he knows that they come to him in bad faith.  He does this for the sake of the crowd.  “Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”  This is a sly request, for by producing such a coin the Pharisees reveal that they pay the tax themselves.  One wonders if any of them realized that he had outfoxed them this way.  “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”  Now the Lord is shutting their own trap upon them, for the Jews were forbidden to make images of men and the stricter of them refused to have anything to do with such images, and this included the Roman coins that were used to pay the tax.  The fact that the Pharisees carried these coins with them shows them as walking a very thin line.  “Caesar’s.”  Tiberius reigned as emperor at that time.  

“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  That is, the image certifies that a thing belongs to the one whose image it is, just as a legionary was tattooed with the sign of his particular legion, showing that he belonged to it the way a possession belongs to an owner.  To hold onto coins bearing Caesar’s image might then show a person to belong to Caesar.   At any rate, the coins had to go back to Caesar.  Furthermore, the Lord compares Caesar, who has his image on a coin, to Almighty God, for whom no such image could be made by mortal men, for an image is a sign of limitations: this person or thing can be pictured because it is finite and visible.  But God is infinitely and hence invisible.  So what belongs to God that it should be given him?  We do: “God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them” (Genesis 1, 27).  We are in the image and likeness of God not through physical appearances or properties but through our possessing intellect and free-will.  We should then give ourselves to Almighty God, for we are his.  “It is he who made us, and we are his” (Psalm 100, 3).

We rejoice that we belong to God for he is rich in mercy and loves us deeply.  “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, 

and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people” (Psalm 113, 5-8) — the “princes” — his angels.