Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time-10/18

Jesus sees through everything. In this Gospel reflection, the Pharisees try to trap Jesus into being charged as a revolutionary. In their “no-win” question to Jesus, they tried to put Him into a situation where He’d have to advise Jews to pay the tax, ultimately putting Jesus in a situation to be condemned by the Jews. 

Why? Because He’d be recognizing the right of the pagan Romans to occupy their land and govern their people. This would imply that God was not the sole ruler of His people. Therefore, His preaching on the kingdom of God would be completely discredited. Secondly, if Jesus told the Jews to not pay the tax, the Pharisees could have told the Romans that he was telling the people to revolt. So either way, the Pharisees thought they could trap Jesus into denouncing His own teachings or denouncing Rome -- getting Him in trouble either way. But of course, Jesus outsmarted them. 

When Jesus calls them, “Hypocrites!” it’s because they’re attempting to make Jesus “guilty” of a trap they’re already in. Here’s how. Jesus asks them to pull out a coin. All the coins have an image of Caesar with the inscription “Son of God” -- by simply being in possession of these coins implies that the Jews themselves have recognized the Roman empower as their ruler. And worst of all, a man who claims to be the son of God. Simply owning these coins was, for a pious Jew, blasphemy. 

Jesus doesn’t fall into their trap regardless and offers the perfect answer. He tells the Pharisees to “Render to Caesar what is due to Caesar and to God what is due to God.” Rather than answering the trick question of taxes, Jesus tells the facts -- you pay what you owe secular authorities and you pay what you owe God. 

This applies to us, even now. As human citizens, we have dual citizenship. Citizenship on earth and heaven. We are called to live with God for eternity in our true home, but we also must occupy our temporary home on earth. We have a duty to recognize our civic obligations, but our ultimate loyalty is to God. 

Today’s gospel reflection teaches us to never try and out-smart God or point a finger at Him in accusation. If we’re ever upset with Him or simply confused, we must look at ourselves and our own flaws before we point our fingers at Him. We must ask for the truth about ourselves, even when it hurts to look and see the errors of our ways. In seeing ourselves, we must not turn on God, but seek guidance for our growth. 

Lillian Fallon, Communications Coordinator