Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 - Tuesday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Pet 3:12-15a, 17-18 and Mark 12:13-17]"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]
JUNE 4, 2024 ST. PETER OF VERONA, O.P., martyr
[2 Peter 3:12-15a, 17-18 and Mark 12:13-17. These scriptures may vary at Dominican locations.]
Two different groups band together in an effort to trap Jesus in his speech. One represents the strictest Jewish observance - the Pharisees. The other represents a political group subject to a Roman appointment - one of the Herods. The subject of the question is a Roman head tax that was extremely unpopular in Palestine. The outcome of the incident is widely quoted in our own day in more traditional words: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." Jesus' reply hinges on the image on the coin. The image indicates to whom the coin belongs, and the coin was a Roman coin used to pay the tax. The image on the coin is Caesar's. But there is more than one image involved, namely the human person made in the "image and likeness of God." In short, the tax is a political matter, not a religious one, even if the Romans did regard Caesar as a divine person. For Jews, the only master is God, not Caesar. A physical tax does not change this reality.
Religion and politics make for an uneasy mixture. Human power tries to take on divine power and invoke God's patronage for their political ambition. Jesus' reply in this incident would later be used against him before Pilate, but Jesus would again say that his "kingdom" had nothing to do with the political kingdom of the Roman Empire.
When political decisions impinge on religious and moral teachings, Christians must protest in the name of faith. The sad fact is that even Christian politicians can sometimes elevate the political above the religious in order to "stay in power." The true ultimate "master" will not be the voters, however, but the Lord to whom we must all give an account. AMEN