Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus had an amazing ability to turn a phrase and stun his opponents to silence. Such is the case of the two enemy parties who join forces to for their own reasons to try and bring Jesus down.

The Pharisees were Jesus own people. They were learned rabbis and leaders. These were well educated men who knew the scriptures inside and out and who knew the law of Israel and tried to live it to the very letter. They were devout men, who looked for the salvation of Israel. The Herodians were less pious and devout and more politically motivated. Often associated with the rich upper classes, their wealth depended on keeping in the good graces of whoever had the political power. They were traders, merchants, politicians. They liked their wealth and did whatever they had to in order to keep it. Here these two groups who were mutually opposed to one another’s values and beliefs join forces against a common enemy; Jesus. The Pharisees see him as a subverter of the law of God, a rebel and a blasphemer who is seeking to lead the people of Israel astray. The Herodians see him as a possible threat to the establishment that keeps their balance sheets full. Anyone who upsets the status quo and the delicate balance with the Roman authorities who were the ones making their wealth possible must be dealt with expediently. So, they join forces each for their own selfish reasons.

Now, Jesus is no dummy. He had to have known that something was up when these two disparate groups suddenly start whispering conspiratorially and then as best buddies come forward to speak to him. It reminds me of the saying – ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Anyway, if that wasn’t enough, they approach him with such honey coated words. These were men who time and again made no bones about creating a row with him. Now they come, all buddies with such conciliatory speech. Jesus is no fool and he could ‘read the room’. He was never one to be caught unaware by their traps. The crux of their question is not about the legality of paying taxes to the government, but does a foreign government have the right to impose crushing taxes on a people not their own? The Answer to this question has deep ramifications in that any response in favor of the Romans would make him out to be the enemy of his own people and a friend of Rome. To side with his own people over Rome would mark him out as an enemy of the state and an anarchist. To answer either way in either direction meant conviction and a victory ultimately for both sides. However, characteristically Jesus is able to turn the tables and answer them both with a response that redirects the whole question to show their hypocrisy. The dilemma they set before him is actually no dilemma at all. Doing your duty to the state is not a lessening of one’s responsibility to God and takes nothing away from true worship. Nor does serving God take away an individual’s responsibility as a citizen of the state. They were not prepared for this reversal of their question and Jesus’ ability to see right through them. He bests them at their own game and they depart ‘amazed’.

You may have noticed that when his enemies address him, initially he asks them to show him a coin. The coin of the day was a silver denarius. On the coin was the stamped the image of the Emperor Tiberius and the words, ‘the son of the divine Augustus’, on the other side of the coin he was hailed as ‘high priest’. The coin was one of the most common coins in use in the day, but its commonness only made it more hated by Jews who were forced to use the currency of their oppressors and with such offensive inscriptions to Jewish sensibilities no less. These men, from two very different groups are both focused on very earthly matters; power and the use of power to control wealth and a people for their own ends. However, for Jesus this is not the real question. He is the true son of the Living God, all real power rests with him as given to him by the Father. While men concern themselves with who is in charge and who controls the wealth, the only true power that exists is God’s – not someone who names themselves as a god for their own aggrandizement. Money, wealth, and power are an illusion of sorts. A human construct that in the end has no cachet or value in the true and lasting Kingdom of God. Jesus knows this and as always true to his mission attempts to bring them back to the truth.

Power is an illusion, and so often it’s the search for power and wealth that lead us astray. Power in politics, power in relationships, power in controlling wealth. To God these mean nothing. Like the denarius it is of this earth. All of us are subject in the end to the real power, who is a loving God who wills the best for all his children and who’s one desire is for us to love him in return and ultimately to be with him always.

Peace,

Fr. Steve