29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
My dear parishioners.
God Is Good!!! All the Time!!! And All the Time !!! God Is Good!!!
In an oracle just prior to this reading, the prophet spoke of the wonderful power of God whose creative ways surpass those of any human artisan. Mortal craftsmen make lifeless images of divinities; God creates living and vibrant servants (Is 44). Here the prophet carries forward this theme of God’s marvelous work—God uses a foreign king for the benefit of Israel.
Today’s Gospel narrates an attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians to entrap Jesus over the issue of paying the Roman poll tax. The Herodians were supporters of the dynasty begun by Herod the Great and continued by Herod Antipas. They supported paying the poll tax, which makes it odd that they are in the story. The Pharisees would not support the tax since it meant acknowledging a foreign, pagan sovereignty over Israel. The point of the story is to see how Jesus responds to this attempt to entrap him.
The question. The Pharisees and Herodians begin by heaping up phony respect for Jesus as a teacher who knows and teaches the way of God in accordance with the truth. They also declare Jesus to be honest, fair, and not swayed by anyone’s opinion. The purpose of all this buildup is to confront Jesus with what they consider to be a clever question that he will not be able to answer without some form of self-incrimination. “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” If he says yes, he will be in trouble with the Jews. If he says no, he will be in trouble with the Roman authorities.
The hypocrites. Jesus knows immediately what they are up to. This is a test under the guise of a legitimate question. Jesus calls them hypocrites which means that they are only acting as if they really care about his opinion. Cleverly, he requests a coin from them and they give him a Roman coin. This coin would have been worth a denarius which was the amount required by the poll tax—a full day’s pay.
What belongs to whom? Jesus asks them whose image and inscription was on the Roman coin. The inscription would have read, “Tiberius Caesar son of the divine Augustus, great high priest.” Technically, this means that Caesar is the rightful owner of the coin because it is state money. So Jesus tells them to give the coin back to Caesar because he owns it. Nothing is said about the poll tax, only Caesar’s coin. Then Jesus tells them to give to God what belongs to God. For a Jew, everything belonged to God. God’s claim is much greater than anything Caesar could demand. The entrapment failed and the question about paying taxes went unanswered
Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius