Over the past four Sunday’s we’ve been hearing from Matthew’s gospel about the growing animosity between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. In his encounters with the Pharisees, Jesus uses the parable of the two sons to illustrate true obedience to God (Matthew 21:28-32). Jesus uses the parable of the vineyard to illustrate disobedience to God, while also foreshadowing how Jesus himself would be rejected (Matthew 21:33-43). Last Sunday we hear Jesus use the parable of the wedding banquet to emphasize the invitation God extends to us and the consequences of rejecting that invitation (Matthew 22:1-14). All of these parables were meant to bring to light the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, and to appeal to their hardness of heart.
In the gospel of today’s Mass, we hear the Pharisees attempting to strike back by posing a question that they believed would back Jesus into a corner. The question posed to Jesus is whether the Jewish people, subject to Roman law and burdened by heavy taxation, were required to pay Caesar’s census tax. With a positive response, Jesus risked alienating his followers. With a negative response, Jesus risked being accused of subverting the Roman law.
In all wisdom, Jesus had the best answer.
Rather than allowing the question to devolve into an argument over the competing interests of “church and state”, Jesus turned the question into one of fidelity to God. Pointing out the prominence of Caesar’s image and inscription on the Roman coinage, Jesus insists that the people must “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” (Matthew 22:21). But it is the second part of Jesus’ response that is more important and most instructive – that we must “repay to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21).
Jesus is reminding us that, just as a coin has image and inscription, so do we. It is the image of God that is imprinted on our souls, and it is God’s law that is inscribed in our hearts. Jesus is reminding us that to “repay to God what belongs to God” means that we must return our “Godly” selves to God – that we must offer ourselves freely and fully to God. Jesus is reminding us that we must give ourselves back to God by placing God at the center of our lives. Jesus is reminding us that we must give of ourselves to each other, to reach out and serve all others who also bear God’s image and inscription – and that means everyone.
So we continue forward on our journey, in the image of our loving and most gracious God, thankful for the invitation God extends to us and the opportunity to serve Him and all others as we work to bring about His Kingdom – repaying to God what belongs to God.