Matt. 22: 15-21
Sunday Reflection by Sister Maureen Lomax, SNDdeN
Whose image?
Soon after a baby is born, admirers begin to see physical characteristics in the face and body of the new-born that make them compare the child to its ancestors. Who is she/he like? Is it the father or the mother? It doesn’t take long before relatives begin to compare the early behaviour of the child with their own and that of other close relatives. Soon it is established that the child is truly one of the family, showing likenesses that belong only to this group of people and makes the child truly ‘one of their own’! The family name given at the registration of birth usually establishes the ‘kith and kin’/tribe/clan of the innocent child. However, although the name is important, it is the recognisable likeness, image and characteristics which also mark the child out as a member of that particular family.
For many religious groups, their identity is not simply bound by their physical earthly existence. Soon after birth, such families establish that their new infant ‘belongs to God’. For Jews and Christians, the belief that each person is ‘made in God’s image’ (Gen1:27;) is fundamental. Forbidden by the First Mosaic Commandment to make ‘graven images of God’ (idolatry), the Jewish people believed that each human being is an image of God (not idolatry!). For Christians, the cleansing water and anointing oil of Baptism (Christ-en-ing) become the seal/sacrament, marking the recipient as ‘God’s own’, a member of God’s family.
Matthew, a practising Jew and early convert to Christianity, is at pains to show that Jesus is the true and complete image of God.
From the Messianic genealogy at the beginning of this Gospel to the final chapter, he promotes the link between Jesus and the Messianic prophecies well-known to faithful believing Jews. The narrative about ‘paying taxes’ (Mt 22:15-22) highlights the growing tensions between the Pharisaic interpretation of the Jewish scriptures (i.e. rejecting the blatant fulfilment in Jesus) and the growing Christian belief in Jesus the Messiah. The latter did not reject the Judaic Law and still practised Jewish prayer and rituals, as Jesus did. However, since they were followers of Jesus whom they believed to be the Messiah, they were targeted, with Jesus, by the hypocritical questioning of the Pharisees, aided and abetted by the political Herodians. The Pharisees, supposedly ‘faithful keepers and interpreters of God’s law’, used the Herodians to try to force Jesus to declare his allegiance either to God or to Rome!
The question ‘Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ (Mt22:17), intended as a clever trap for Jesus, becomes pivotal in revealing the hypocrisy and evil intent of the Pharisees. The ‘graven image’ of the Emperor and the inscription declaring Caesar to be ‘god’ and the ‘son of divine Augustus’ is the focal point of this account. For Jewish religious leaders to hold or use this coin was condemned as blasphemy, a denial of the one true God. Yet one of them produced the denarius, the coin used to pay taxes to the Romans, showing in reality that they were compromising their consciences by using it. Allegiance to God, whether Judaic or Christian, on the one hand, and allegiance to Caesar of Rome, on the other, lies in the balance.
The Pharisees ‘hedged their bets’, hoping that Jesus would be shown as a traitor either to Rome or to God (Judaism), through his response to them. Only a week before many Jews had proclaimed ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ (Mt 21:9) recognising Jesus as the Messiah (Mt 21:4). The Jewish leaders were not comfortable. Knowingly or unknowingly the questioners, sent by the Pharisees, spoke the truth when they said Jesus was ‘a man of integrity’ and that he ‘taught the way of God in accordance with the truth’ (Mt 22:16). But this language is flattery and betrays the political aims of the Herodians who wanted to ‘keep in’ with the Roman authority. If they had been concerned with ‘the truth’ they would have seen that Jesus, as portrayed by Matthew, clearly fulfils the Messianic prophecies. As for the Pharisees who sent them, their machinations reveal that they too are not ‘truth seekers’. They fear their loss of power and are blind to the Messianic image of Jesus.
Throughout this account, the scheming plotters are trapped by their apparent ‘control’ of events. Jesus allows them to respond by their actions and answers: they readily provide the denarius; they show the image to Jesus; they admit that the image is of Caesar…without coercion or embarrassment. The listeners wait for Jesus to betray his allegiance. But the tables are turned as Jesus speaks with authority: ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s’. This clever intelligent statement leaves everyone ‘amazed’ (Mt22:22). Jesus cannot be arrested for treachery to Rome or blasphemy against God. The Pharisees failed to trap Jesus.
It is ironic that Jesus, who is God and the Son of God, is able to use the coin depicting the Emperor and the inscription declaring Caesar to be ‘god’ and ‘son of a god’. The denarius itself comes to symbolise the conflict between earthly and heavenly powers. For Romans who accepted Caesar as divine, there is no real issue. Everything belongs to the Roman Emperor, even its people. But for Jewish and Christian believers, there are irreconcilable matters of conscience. Jesus’s final statement, while satisfying the immediate issue, simply raises other questions: What belongs to God? What belongs to Caesar? Doesn’t Caesar’s authority come from God?
Apart from being ‘amazed’ and ‘leaving’ Jesus alone, we are not given any idea what the questioners and listeners thought or did after this event. We do not know if any of them recognised Jesus as the Messiah. It is clear that this answer leaves them to try to reconcile the demands of their religion (God) with their secular and political obligations to Rome. For newly Christianised Jews, like Matthew, Jesus is the Messiah who on this occasion has ‘won the argument’.
In this episode, various people show their true colours, their image, their allegiance. Using the text and your reflections, write your own summary of how you see these people:
Matthew the Jewish Gospel Writer: …………………………………………………………………………………………
Pharisees:
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Herodians:…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Disciples of the Pharisees:
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Jesus:
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Prayer: ‘Lord, help me to live and be your image for others. Amen.’
N.B. Caesar of Rome: declared as ‘TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS’ (short for ‘TIBERIUS CAESAR DIVI AUGUSTI FILIUS AUGUSTUS’ which means ‘Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus, Augustus’) on the Denarius coin. In other words, Caesar is divine himself and is the son of a god.
Matthew 22: 15-21
The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion,
for you do not regard a person’s status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
“Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”
They replied, “Caesar’s.”
At that he said to them,
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
The Gospel of the Lord