Something to Caesar but Everything to God

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, October 18, 2020

In the last three Sundays, our Lord has been on the attack. Using parables, he has been launching series of attacks against the chief priests and the elders of the people. In the parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32), he presents them as the hypocritical  and untrustworthy son who said yes to his father when asked to go and work in the vineyard, but never followed through. In the parable of the wicked tenants (Matt. 21:33-46), he portrays them as the ungrateful and wicked tenants who killed the servants and the son of the landowner sent by the landowner to harvest the vine. And in the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus depicts them as the invited guests who turned down the invitation to partake in the sumptuous wedding banquet organized by the king for his son. Today’s Gospel (Matt. 22:15-21) shows they got the point; they knew that Jesus is speaking about them (Matt. 21:45). So, infuriated by his warning, they conspired to set him on trap. They would like to see Jesus arrested but due to his popularity with the crowds, they held back, and designed another way to entrap him in speech. But rather than confront him themselves, they dispatched their disciples and some Herodians to do so on their behalf. Now, the coming together of the Pharisees and the Herodians is quite interesting. On one hand, the Pharisees hated the Romans and hated being under Rome’s power; on the other hand, the Herodians supported King Herod Antipas who happened to be a Roman agent in Galilee. So, you have two rival groups coming together to entrap Jesus. Most certainly they see him as a common enemy that unites them. 

As they approach Jesus, they pose a carefully formulated question meant to discredit him and bring him down: “Is it lawful to pay census tax to Caesar or not?” If Jesus answers yes, he has the Pharisees to contend with and they will waste no time to let fellow Jews especially the Jewish nationalists like the zealots, who resist Roman rule know about it. If he answers no, he will offend the Herodians and risk being labelled a rebel. Jews hated paying taxes but not for the same reasons that some people of our time hate paying taxes. Their nation practiced theocracy, which means that God was the only King. To pay tax to an earthly king was to admit the validity of his kingship and it was an insult to God. Sensing their malicious intent, Jesus refused to give a yes or no answer, and instead requested for the Roman coin used to pay taxes. Upon seeing it, he directed their attention on the coin with the question, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” When they answered, “Caesar’s,” they fell into his own trap. Then he shocked them all, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” 

Sister and brothers, Jesus’ final words does two things: first, it calls for faithful citizenship, and two, it reminds us of our dual citizenship. We are citizens of the earth by birth and citizens of the Kingdom of God by the rebirth of baptism. We belong to two cities— the city of the earth, and the city of God. So, we are called to be responsible citizens. Failure in good citizenship is also failure in Christian duty. We give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar by keeping the laws of the land that Caesar (i.e. our leaders) swore to protect and uphold. And we give to God what belongs to God by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy, and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1) and by making God the center of our life. Now, the two citizenship should not clash. The demands of the State and the demands of God ought not to clash. God never ask us to commit acts that will harm the human family, after all, he is the Origin of the human family. And the state should not demand from us acts that will violate the commands of God. But if the state does so, we should resist it. As citizens of the earth, we must strive to uphold the laws of the land as long as they don’t require us to transgress God’s command to love. And whatever we do, whether in speech or in action, we should do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and died for us. Amen.