29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Give unto God all that Belongs to God

Every now and then in the shrine, we get reactions from some people when our homilies touched on social issues. Some react by saying that they went to the shrine to seek spiritual solace and peace, not to be disturbed by the ugly reality of the country or the world. Some say they came to the shrine to worship, not to become socially aware. Sometimes they invoked the legal concept of separation between church and state, misinterpreting it to mean that the church should not get involved with social issues because it is the domain of the state only (1). They say that the church’s only domain is the spiritual and religious like sacraments, prayers, Bible and doctrines. Sometimes they even quote today’s gospel text:

“Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Donald Senior, a prominent Biblical scholar, argues that interpreting this text as a basis for separation between church and state is taking the text too far. In short, it is a misinterpretation of the text. Furthermore, Jesus was regarded as a prophet, and prophets of Israel were always deeply involved in challenging kings, principalities and powers, and the political order, in the name of the higher authority of God. Jesus began his ministry by identifying himself with the prophet Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives…to let the oppressed go free.”

Like Christ, an essential part of our Christian faith is to be a prophet denouncing evil and corrupt ways even if this involves the government and other worldly powers.

But let us go back to the beginning of the gospel text. The pharisees and the Herodians (an unholy alliance) put forward the question to Jesus:

“Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”

By challenging Jesus on taxes, they hoped to alienate him either from the masses of oppressed Jewish people or from the Roman authorities. It was a case of “damn if you do, damn if you don’t.” If he said yes, he would look like an apologist for Rome in the eyes of the Jewish nationalists. If he said no he would make himself subject to arrest for violation of Roman law.

But Jesus saw the trap and he was not to be deceived to fall into their trap. Knowing their malice, Jesus said,

“Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?”

And Jesus gave a brilliant answer that turned the question in his favor. Jesus asked for a coin. To understand the significance of this request by Jesus, we need to retrieve Israel’s cultural context. When Jesus asked for the coin (and one is promptly produced), he exposed the hypocrisy of his questioners. For any Jew who was sensitive to the demands of the Mosaic Law would not be carrying a coin embossed with the image of an emperor, pictured as divine. For Jews, there is no power who has authority over them other than God. Therefore, any earthly power who tries to dominate, let alone tax on them, especially a foreign power, should not be followed.

Second, Jesus’ question about whose “image” the coin carries contains an allusion that most of us miss. If an image on something indicates authority and ownership, and Caesar’s image on the coin implies the dominion of the empire, then what is it that bears God’s image, indicating the ownership and dominion of God? Anyone, especially any Jew, knew that human beings are created in the image of God.

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Jesus’ statement was not just a clever dodge but a confrontation. By these words, Jesus makes it crystal clear that Caesar is not God, and that what’s really important are those things that are God’s, not some coins of foreign oppressors. The world is not divided between Caesar and God. All creation is, first of all, under God’s sovereignty, especially human beings, who as God’s image have a special role in stewarding the goods of creation. All world belongs to God. We are mere stewards or participants in God’s creation.

God, therefore, can use any power for God’s purposes even outside of God’s own people. In the first reading, Isaiah presents the voice of God referring to another head of empire, Cyrus the Great, as his “anointed one.” This pagan emperor of the Persians earns that title because he, albeit unknowingly, has become God’s instrument in the restoration of the exiled Judeans to their homeland. As in the action and words of Jesus in the Gospel, God’s role as Creator of all is very much in the picture.

Indeed, kings, emperors, presidents come and go, dynasties and ideologies rise and fall, but none of them remain till the end. The world belongs to no one, only to God.

Today, Catholic churches all over the world celebrate Mission Sunday. One of the common misunderstanding of Christian life is being one-dimensional. Being Catholic is only in the realm of spiritual and religious. Being Catholic is merely going to church, receiving the sacraments and obeying the ten commandments. If you have fulfilled these, then you have fulfilled your faith as an obligation. Thus, many of us Catholics are “Sunday Catholic,” giving to God maybe an hour per week at Mass and then getting on with life: work, food, television, cars, facebook, vices and money.

In his mission message, Pope Francis declares that mission is at the heart of the Christian faith. We are not just Catholics for one hour inside the church on Sundays but we are Catholics sent on a mission throughout the week to the whole world to share the good news of Jesus Christ. As Catholics sent on mission we are called to saturate the whole world with the gospel values of love, peace, mercy and justice.

In saturating the world with God’s values, there comes a time that what we owe to God can put us in conflict with the civil authority, for example, extra-judicial killing, policy decisions concerning poverty and environment, and conscientious objection to war. Of course we need to obey the laws of the land and respect civilian authority. But in these cases, will it be Caesar or God that we serve?

(1) The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines declares: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. (Article II, Section 6), and, No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights. (Article III, Section 5)