Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - Tuesday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[Tob 2:9-14 and Mark 12:13-17]Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech. They came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?" Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at." They brought one to him and he said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They replied to him, "Caesar's." So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." [Mark]
This passage from the Gospel According to Mark would be familiar even to non-Christians or atheists! It is traditionally quoted as "Render unto Caesar...." and nothing more! In our secular culture the line between religion and politics is not a straight one, no matter what constitutional idealists like to think. In the MIddle East, that line barely exists, if at all. The scene in today's gospel scripture will spawn thousands of homilies on the relationship between "politics" and "religion."
But the purpose of the scene is not about that touchy subject. It is about the efforts of the two poles, religion and politics, to destroy Jesus. Religion is represented by the Pharisees, who hated the Roman occupying presence, and "politics" by the Herodians, who owed their position to the Romans. (The latter probably supplied the denarius since Pharisees would consider that coin to be unclean because of Caesar's image and inscription.) Jesus sees through their scheme and wisely dodges the question, albeit the Pharisees probably didn't like it since Rome would benefit. In fact, the Pharisees and other religious leadership would accuse Jesus before Pilate as opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar! [Luke 23:2]
The danger in both "religion" and "politics" is that either of them can become "self-referential" and care only about power and position. Jesus and his teachings are lost in the process. Hypocrisy finds fertile soil in all of this. Today's gospel passage is a reminder to us of where our focus should be. AMEN