Over the years I have learned,
sometimes the hard way,
that there are certain things
an aging, white, celibate male should not be preaching about.
On more than one occasion, for example,
I have been reminded that I am not the best equipped person
to be giving advice to married couples
about how to resolve spousal disputes,
or to be counseling parents
on how to raise their children,
or to be advising young adults
about how to negotiate the dating scene.
Since the list of off limits topics for my preaching
has only expanded over the years
it is with some trepidation that I approach today’s gospel,
apparently a tale about paying taxes:
something a vowed religious
who has spent almost six decades living
in a tax-exempt religious community
may not be exactly poised to address
with any proficiency or prudence.
A question about taxes is the presenting issue in today’s gospel,
as Pharisees and Herodians in their bi-partisan collusion
ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar.
The question of paying taxes is a perennially contentious issue
both in the Roman empire and in our own history.
Remember the American colonist’s gripe against England
with their “no taxation without representation” motto
and that attempt to break the Guiness world record
for the largest herbal brew party in Boston Harbor?
The Palestinian burden was at least as onerous
for multiple reasons:[i]
-Roman taxes were linked to military support and empire expansion, so paying your taxes supported an occupying army
-Provincial governments as in Jerusalem did not have a large numbers of officials
—so they farmed this responsibility out to tax collectors who had the right to collect funds significantly larger than those assessed by the government
–with few checks and balances
-While Jews had their own coins – shekels – they could not be used for paying the Roman tax you were required to pay the Roman tax
—and eventually even the Temple tax with coins stamped with the image of the emperor, akin to requiring you to pay US taxes, only with currency stamped with an image of the IRS
–like rubbing government salt into your financial wounds
Not surprisingly, this was an explosive issue in ancient Palestine.
Some groups like the Zealots refused to pay,
Sadducees and Herodians who collaborated with Rome
paid in good conscience,
and the Pharisees, who had legalized their piety,
paid with anguish.
The Pharisees and Herodians in today’s gospel
considered Jesus a tax refuser,
a charge brought up at his trial before Pilate,
exposing him as an insurrectionist and liable for execution.[ii]
So today’s tale is another classic trap set by the anti-Jesus squad:
if he had said “yes, pay the taxes”
he would have compromised his integrity
as his inquisitors had already done;
if he had said “no, don’t pay the taxes”
the messiah-eradication team would have jumped into action.
Of course Jesus turns the tables on his calculating stalkers
With his cagey “yes yes” rather than any “yes or no”:
give to Caesar what is Caesar’s
give to God what is God’s.
So bravo Jesus … brilliant job turning the tables
on these religious impostors;
you make your followers very proud.
But ultimately what are we to do with this “gospel cleverness”?
Give the Only-Begotten a round of applause?
Revel in the revelation that we have a smart savior?
Commit ourselves to rhetorically embarrassing our enemies?
Or, as usual, is there a more challenging message
embedded in this apparent tale of Jesus’ debate skills?
American prisoner of war Jeremiah Denton was forced by his North Vietnamese captives to give a televised interview. During the interview, he stated that he was being provided “adequate food, adequate clothes, and medical care when I require it.” However, while saying the words his captors expected of him, he was also communicating something else with his body. While feigning trouble with the blinding television lights he blinked his eyes in Morse Code, spelling out the word Torture. This was the first confirmation to the U.S. Intelligence that American prisoners were being tortured in North Vietnam.
Analogously, Jesus was sending clear signals in his answer,
but one many of his adversaries spectacularly missed.
The lead tactic in this subversive signaling
was Jesus’ request for the infamous coin.
Notice Jesus did not carry one, because the coin,
designed with its image of Caesar,
was like a public affidavit that its bearer
affirmed the divinity of the Emperor:
a reality amplified by the Temple context
where this attempted entrapment occurred.
Graven images were forbidden by Jewish Law
as they were clearly linked to idolatry.
That is why on the hallowed ground of the Temple Mount
there were money changers
who allowed people to exchange their idolatrous coins
for shekels devoid of living images
that could be used for Temple services and sacrifices.
The reason Jesus calls his co-religionists “hypocrites”
is not because they oppose his teachings
or set an underhanded trap,
but because they revealed themselves as idolaters,
more committed to the coins in their pocket,
than the Torah God wanted inscribed on their souls
In the 1985 movie “witness” an outsider with good intentions played by Harrison Ford
has come into an Amish community to protect a child
bringing along his handgun
which the child stares at as it sat on the kitchen table
as the grandfather wisely counsels:
“what you take into your hands, you take into your heart.”
In 9 days we will celebrate what is fast becoming
one of the most popular and most expensive holidays in the US:
Halloween.
According to the National Retail Federation
spending for this spooky festival is expected to exceed
12.2 billion dollars – an 8% increase
over last year’s record breaking 10.6 billion.
In my naïve calculations, I presumed that most money
was spent on decorations, then candy.
Wrong priest! The top of the spending chart at $4.1 billion
is costuming.
Besides the usual Dinosaurs, pirates, witches and superheroes
people who make a living predicting this stuff
suggest that we will see a lot of Barbie & Ken costumes,
Ariel and Adams family lookalikes, and
Of course, lots of pseudo Taylor Swifts.
Kids like to dress up as their heroines and heroes,
adults more often lean towards their alter egos
like the Mom in Hocus Pocus 1 dressing as Madonna.
I myself always wanted to go to a costume party
disguised as the Devil … not sure what that says about me.
I doubt whether anybody I know, or probably you know,
is dressing up as King Cyrus mentioned in the 1st reading:
the Persian monarch whom Isaiah actually reports
to be anointed by God, as were
David and Solomon and the prophet Elisha
and Jesus the anointed, Jesus the Christ.
So Cyrus was a veritable pagan messiah,
an unlikely instrument of God,
not because of his ethnic heritage or religious beliefs
but because of the way he acted;
because he freed the Jews from captivity
because at least once he had a peaceable heart
and imaged the very peaceability of God.
His deeds, his performance, his respect of captives
was the signal to the prophet
that he was at least momentarily the anointed of God.
More pointedly, Jesus’ life performance
-respect of the marginalized and erased
-unerringly reveals that he is the eternally anointed of God
-an image bestowed on each of us, at baptism.
The 1997 movie Contact is both a science-fiction examination
of first direct contact with aliens and
a parable about religious righteousness.
In the movie, an initial stage of contact with extra terrestrials
is the reception of an audiovisual message sent from outer space.
After some confusion, the scientists discern the message which stuns them.
It is a television transmission of Adolph Hitler
speaking at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The scientists are distraught by the transmission,
and wonder about its malevolent intent.
Finally, a more sobering realization dawns on them:
the human race is receiving back exactly what it sent out:
the first large-scale television transmission in history,
the 1936 Olympics.
Unaware of what we had sent,
the scientists were unprepared for what was received.
While most of us have never confessed the sin of idolatry
the Jesus of the Gospels today asks us
what coinage is in our hands, and in our hearts.
Do we trade in currencies of privilege or exclusion
of self-interest or self-preservation?
Do we communicate only the values prized on the street,
or do we publicly embrace our vocation:
created in the image of God,
refined in the font of baptism,
and fortified in the celebration of eucharist,
that calls us to communicate in word and in deed
that friend and foe, family and stranger,
Palestinian and Jew-
are all created in the image of God.
In this eucharistic crucible, we take up the mission again,
not only to receive the anointed one in word and Sacrament
but to be his irrefutable presence in this troubled world–
through Christ our Lord.
[i] Favian E. Udoh, To Caesar what is Caesar’s: Tribute, Taxes and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine (Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2020).
[ii] William Swartley, Mark: The Way for All Nations (Herald Press, 1979), 172-73.