Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - St. Justin, martyr
[2 Peter 3:12-15a and Mark 12:13-17]Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Few statements of Jesus have been as over-used or ill-used more than the one quoted above! As we would say in the South, "It has been rode hard and put up wet!" In our own country of the U.S.A., these words have been used to support our particular vision of the "separation of church and state," as if Jesus were some kind of "proto-American!" (Our own Supreme Court continues to struggle to find a definition of it, anyhow, after more than two hundred years of effort!) Others have used it to support a selective attitude about paying their taxes! I suspect neither Jesus nor the I.R.S. (or its equivalent in other countries) are amused by those efforts. The passage is rich enough without our imposing our own political agendas. The Pharisees, especially the ones in Jerusalem, had reached their own "accommodation" with Rome. The Herodians represented a puppet-king who considered himself a Jewish nationalist of sorts and who sought to buy the affection of the people by restoring the temple. The point of their question is to get at Jesus, not to resolve a political question. The very fact that they came together was suspicious and Jesus saw through their flattery and scheme right away. His response produces a moment of embarrassment because, to the Pharisees, even the possession of a Roman coin made a person unclean, and even if none of the Pharisees in the two groups had one of the coins, they would not have wanted to be associating with unclean persons who did! The irony does not escape the crowd! Jesus is not a symbol of nationalism, nor of anti-tax sentiment! Nations and taxes are human creations that have been instruments of oppression and division for centuries. The story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 seems to imply that the enormous diversity of languages and cultures is a punishment for human pride! Jesus' message transcends these human boundaries, as we learn at Pentecost! Political agendas and/or taxation schemes become matters for gospel reflection when they become destructive to human dignity - which happens often enough! Roman taxation was unquestionably a burden, but so too was the temple tax. In our own country and church, the efforts of the American bishops to avoid siding with any political agenda while remaining "good citizens" have produced some interesting results over the years. Ultimately, it is not Caesar to whom we are accountable! AMEN
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