‘Give and it shall be given unto you’ (Matthew 22:15-21)

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Is 45:1,4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22:15-21 

October 22, 2023

‘Give and it shall be given unto you’

In today’s Gospel Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem continue their tense exchange of questions and challenges. At this point the disciples of the Pharisees, together with the Herodians, try to entrap Jesus by their question about the payment of taxes.  The matter of taxes was a real problem in the actual ministry of Jesus and the early Church too.

This question of tax-paying was not of merely historical interest. Matthew was writing between A.D. 80 and 90. The Temple had been destroyed in A.D. 70. So long as it stood, every Jew had been bound to pay the half-shekel Temple tax. After the destruction of the Temple, the Roman government demanded that tax should be paid to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. It is obvious how bitter a regulation that was for a Jew to stomach. 

But Jesus was wise. He asked to see a denarius, which was stamped with the Emperor’s head. In the ancient days coinage was the sign of kingship. Every king struck his own coinage. Jesus asked whose image was on the coin. The answer was that Caesar’s head was on it. Jesus said, “give it back to Caesar, it is his, and give to God what belongs to him.” With his unique wisdom Jesus never laid down rules and regulations. That is why his teaching is timeless and never goes out of date. He always lays down principles. 

Every Christian has a double citizenship. Christian is a citizen of the country in which he lives. He owes the safety against lawless men which only settled government can give. He owes all public services. To take a simple example, few men are wealthy enough to have a lighting system or a cleansing system or a water system of their own. These are public services. In a welfare state the citizen owes still more to the state--education, medical services, provision for unemployment and old age. This places him under a debt of obligation. The Christian has a duty to the government in return for the privileges that the government brings.

But the Christian is also a citizen of heaven. There are matters of religion and of principle in which the responsibility of the Christian is to God. It may well be that the two citizenships will never clash. But when the Christian is convinced that it is God’s will that something should be done, it must be done. Or if he is convinced that something is against the will of God, he must resist it and take no part in it. A real Christian is at one and the same time a good citizen of his country and a good citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Peter says, “Fear God. Honor the emperor ( 1 Peter 2:17). Malachi 3: 10 Saya, “Bring one-tenth of your income into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the LORD of Armies. “See if I won't open the windows of heaven for you and flood you with blessings.