Isa 45:1,4-6; Psa 96:1,3-5,7-10; 1 Thess 1:1-5; Matt 22:15-21
Theme: You’ve Got to Choose
Dearest friends, today the gospel reading presents us with one of the most abused, misinterpreted and misused passages in the gospel. It is the so-called “Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar, and to God what belongs to God”. In our world today, so many people have based on these words to justify their dual faces and syncretism. Is Jesus implying that he permits two forms of reverence: one to Ceasar and another to God? Is Jesus permitting syncretism? Is Christ advocating for the separation of the state and the church?
“IS IT PERMISSIBLE TO PAY TAXES TO CAESAR OR NOT?”
This is the question that initiated the discussion between Jesus and the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians. But this question came, not because the people wanted to know the truth (because they did know) but as the scripture says, as a trap for Jesus. We remember that at this time, the Jews were under the Roman empire, which was the world power then. And this seemed to the Jews as a sort of slavery while being in their land. The worse is that they were subjected to paying taxes to the Roman government. From time to time, there arose a revolt against the empire. Every ordinary Jew was not comfortable with it. To support Roman government meant to be against the Jews. So, when they came to Jesus to know what he had to say about their submission to the roman empire through taxes, they were looking forward to catch him in two ways: a) if Jesus answers Yes, he would be seen as giving support to the Roman government and its presence and activities among the Jews, and thereby, making himself an enemy to his fellow Jews. (b) but if he answers ‘No’, he would be seen as an enemy to the Roman government, and as one who is planting seed of political revolution against the Romans.
“GIVE TO CAESAR WHAT BELONGS TO CAESAR.”
Knowing what their intention was, Jesus asked that the tool for the payment of taxes (denarius) be brought to him. When denarius was given to him, he asked them “whose image and inscription are this?” And the people replied “Caesar’s”. At this point we have to ask the question, “who is Caesar?” Ceasar is a title assumed by all the Roman Emperors who came after Augustus Caesar. In its context, it comes to be used to represent a civil authority, a temporal reign. Hence, Caesar is more of an office than a personality. One can be Caesar today and no more tomorrow. It is almost equivalent to the word “President” in our own context. Caesars made laws that helped in keeping their empire under them and in managing all the people under them.
Jesus does not discourage civil obedience. Jesus is not against the state nor against the laws made by the state for the proper governing of the people. Even when it seems the government is not in our favor, or that we do not accept a particular emperor or empire, we are still obligated to work for the good of the state (Rom 13:1-2). Our hatred for the emperor should not stop our obligation to the state. And one of these obligations is our own contribution to the building of the state. Even as we work to liberate ourselves and set the records right, we must not stop being good citizens, doing our best for the society. No matter how bad a ruler is, he is still under God’s control. God can use world’s politics to create a glorious path of freedom for his people, as we see in the first reading. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were always at the mercy of kings, either for their slavery or for their liberation. Just as God used both the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, to punish his people for their sins, thereby taking them to exile, so also, he used the Persian king to set them free and return them to their land. Hence, in whatever political situation we find ourselves, we must continue to work for the building and the peace of the state. When the people of Israel were in Babylonian exile, God sent his words to them through prophet Jeremiah, telling them not to allow the sad political circumstances of their life stop them from living. He therefore encouraged them to keep living (Jer 29:4-6), and instead of working to destroy their land of exile, they should support in building it (Jer 29:7). This does not in anyway suggest that the people should forget that they are in exile, and that the Babylonian king is not their God’s chosen Davidic king. But while waiting and working on themselves for the time of their restoration, they have to keep on living, even in the sad exilic situation.
GIVE TO GOD WHAT BELONGS TO GOD
In order to speak of what belongs to Caesar, Jesus asked the people to give him denarius. But in order to speak of what belongs to God, he asked for nothing and nothing was given to him. Our obligation to God is not just about paying taxes, it is rather about everything we are and we have. Secondly, unlike the inscription of Caesar in a coin, God’s inscription is not on a coin but on the entire creation. Hence, even our paying of taxes and giving our civil obedience to the state, should be part of what belongs to God, such that if those taxes and obedience begin to work against ‘giving all to God’, then we must have to choose God.
In the biblical word, when two obligations are placed together as in our case, the second takes greater emphasis, such that an obedience to the first must not result in not obeying the second. Hence, God approves our civil obedience, even when we do not accept the particular leader, insofar that civil obedience does not bring us to divine disobedience. Civil obedience should be part of our obeying God’s command. But when that civil obedience begins to direct us towards disobeying God and God’s, we must remember that in all things, we have the only option of obeying God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
NO ROOM FOR SYNCRETISM
Our being Christians does not mean isolating ourselves from the activities of the community where we live. However, when those activities work against our duties to God, then they are no longer the kind of respect for Caesar which Christ speaks. For instance, I know a man who was going for every duty that his village demands; he was going for village meetings, contributing money for development, joining in the village feasts and festivals. But whenever such meetings were to hold on Sunday and at the time for his Sunday worship, he excused himself from the meeting. At another time, some plots of lands were to be distributed among the males and the village leadership demanded some kind of oath-taken in the ‘village shrine’, the man refused to be part of it. Dearest in Christ, “Give to Caesar what is Ceasar’s and God what is God’s” does not in any way suggest “being in the shrine on Friday and being in the Church on Sunday”. It does not mean, ‘My taking part in the shrine cults and activities does not affect my being a Christian.” It means, rather, ‘Do not mix things up together’.
May God teach us to live entirely for him and see our duty to the state as our duty to God, in order not to allow our duty to the state affect what we are and must be to God.
Fr. Nnamah Henry
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri