In reading today’s Gospel, one can think that serving God and neighbours are two different things, unrelated to each other.  “Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.”  Give it back to Caesar what is due to Caesar (in this case, taxes), give back to God what belongs to God (Jesus does not actually say what belongs to God but only asks the question and leaves it open).  It can be read as ‘do both well then you are good’.  Jesus’ response to the question posed by his opponents is not to be read as an explanation to the contemporary separation of church and state.  Such dualistic interpretation of the passage would be contrary to Jesus’ worldview and a misinterpretation of what he is saying.

We have to remember that the Pharisees and Herodians are trying to trap Jesus in what he says so they could get rid of him.  If he said pay the highly unpopular poll tax, not only would he recognise the Emperor, not God, as his Lord, but he would also upset the Jews.  If he said don’t pay, he was a traitor to Rome and he would be in trouble with the Roman authorities.  But aware of their malice, Jesus turns the question back on them.  First, he makes them admit that they recognise Rome as overlord by carrying a Roman coin.  Next, he puts them a question: what do you consider is due to Caesar?  Finally, he goes beyond their question to interrogate their ultimate loyalty: what is due to God?

At a superficial level, this story seems like a little verbal debate, in which Jesus outwits his opponents.  But at a deeper level, Jesus is pointing out an important truth about the relationship between our responsibility to civic power and our obedience to God.  Jesus does not disregard human authority but asserts that it must be seen within the broader and higher framework of divine obedience.  Human authority is ultimately subject to divine authority and must be exercised in a way that brings about justice, equity, and peace – the things that are due to God.

In the Collect of this Sunday, we pray: “Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart.”  To conform our will to God’s is to give back to God what belongs to God.  To conform ourselves in the way of justice, love and peace.  Serving God is in fact serving the world in which we live in, but not in the way of the world, but in the way of God’s.  In other words, serving our society in the way of the Gospel is effectively serving God.  Paul in the second reading thanks God for the Thessalonians because “how [they] have shown [their] faith in action, worked for love and persevered through hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul praises the Thessalonians because they put their faith into action.  He points out that the Good News “came to [them] not only as words, but as power and as the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction.”

The first reading from the prophet Isaiah reminds us that the power of the Spirit of God is at work in the secular and political arenas too.  Cyrus the Persian is a pagan ruler and is the only non-Israelite to be named in the scripture as God’s anointed.  He is unaware that he has been called by God, acting as God’s servant to bring the Israelites out of the Babylonian exiles. Isaiah’s audience is primarily the sixth century B.C.E exiles, and he wants to give them hope by pointing out to them that God can use unexpected people to bring about their salvation.  God uses “outsiders” so that we may know that from the rising of the sun to its setting, from nation to nation, across all boundaries of the earth, the Spirit of God can work through in all and through all.

Jesus’ call to give back to God what belongs to God is being ignored at the moment as our world is savaged with wars and many different forms of injustice and violence.  It highlights once again the incredible freedom we are given when God created us.  This freedom is precious, but it can also be costly when it is not used to respond to the call to love.  The possible rejection to God’s call to live in justice and peace is the cost of love when God created the world.  Amid the darkness of wars and violence caused by the misuse of human freedom, we must also recognise the Spirit of God working in those who hear and respond to his call to work for peace and healing.  There are countless individuals and organisations working tirelessly to provide humanitarian aids to people affected by wars.  There are heart-warming stories of people sacrificing their lives to help those in time of desperate needs.  And it may do us well to recite again the prayer for peace we heard during the week:

Oh God,

grant peace to your Holy Land and to the whole world.
Root it deeply in the hearts of all humanity.

For your divine peace is the peace the world cannot give.
Your peace sets free all those caught in the nets of physical or psychological violence
whether perpetrator or victim.

We feel powerless as we witness the many forms of violence and injustice in war,
in politics, in society and even in individual lives.

Oh God, fill the mighty with your Spirit of love and justice.

Help us also to contribute to the establishment of
your kingdom of peace by acknowledging and living according to your divine law,
given to us for the peace and wellbeing of all humanity and the whole of creation.

For that we pray, Oh God of love and faithfulness.
We praise you and thank you for ever and ever.
Amen.

Source:  The Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion, Ecce Homo, Jerusalem

By Deacon Tien Tran

Published: 22 October 2023