TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)
Readings:
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Psalms 96:1, 3-5, 7-10
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Matthew 22:15-21
The readings from today’s Sunday liturgy contain several points that are important not to be overlooked. In three chapters Judas will betray Jesus, and set into motion the Lord’s Passion. In the interim Jesus will tell some additional parables, but more importantly He will denounce the Scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, contributing to the increase in fury among the leaders of the local church, and leading to their bringing Jesus before the throne of Pilate, the only one who can order Jesus’ crucifixion.
At the beginning of today’s gospel the Pharisees are going to ask a question of Jesus, only to “entrap” Him. Jesus recognizes their duplicity. Even after their empty flattery, Jesus is able to recognize that they are filled with “malice,” and Jesus, with modest impatience, questions the Pharisees: “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?” The tensions with the Pharisees are rising as we head into the last third of Matthew’s gospel, ineluctably leading the listener to the fulfillment of God’s plan on Golgotha.
The feigned interest of the Pharisees in “the census tax to Caesar,” leads Jesus to ask to see a “Roman coin,” something it would be unlikely He would have on His person. Jesus skirts answering the question of the Pharisees, voiced with the intention of provoking Jesus to say something negative about the Emperor, something for which He could be charged with treason. Jesus’ famous answer – “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” – was surely a disappointment to the Pharisees, and to the multitude of Christians in other generations who, for a variety of reasons, did not want to pay their taxes.
The gospel does provoke a question from the reader: “what belongs to God?” We believe that all things, all peoples, belong to God, and for that we turn to our first reading from the prophet Isaiah. Notice that the prophecy of Isaiah is directed to Cyrus, the “Lord’s anointed.” Cyrus, a Persian King (a pagan), no doubt was unaware that his anointing was the work of the God of the Hebrew people, but Isaiah speaks as though Cyrus is the instrument of God. Isaiah as much says that when he has God state: “I have called you by your name giving you a title, though you knew me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me.”
Our Judaeo-Christian heritage believes that the God we worship is the God of all things. All things, all peoples, came into being through the one God we worship, and “there is none besides Him.” In Isaiah, God is capable of using the Persian King for good, and it is Cyrus who will release the Jews from captivity and allow them to return to their homeland. This notion tests the strength of our ecumenical approach towards God. It is precisely because God is the origin and Lord of all that Christians do not have a monopoly on God. As God is free in Isaiah to use a pagan king, so He is free to use any and all peoples to accomplish His good. It is for this reason, as we stated last week in speaking of the messianic banquet towards which we are all headed, don’t be surprised when we hopefully take our place at that banquet the variety of people we will be seated with. The God we worship possesses a generosity that is without limit.
parishionersforjustice.com 