Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
The gospel reading for today tells the story of how Jesus is confronted and tested by those who wanted to see him fail. Some Pharisees and followers of Herod come to him, asking him questions in order to try to trap him. They ask him whether they should pay taxes to Caesar. This is indeed a thorny question. If Jesus says ‘no’ then he can be accused of defying the authority of the Roman rulers of Palestine. If he says ‘yes’ then he might be seen as being too supportive of the Roman regime.
In his response, Jesus refuses to fall into the trap set for him. Even though Jesus’ challengers mean to trap him, Jesus uses this incident as a teaching moment. Jesus begins to answer the challenge by getting someone to show him a coin. Then he asks whose face it is on the coin. It is, of course, Caesar’s face on the coin. In response, Jesus says, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (v. 17). It seems to me that when Jesus says this he is asking us to think about what we owe to God. If we call ourselves Christians, then we are required to do something in response. If we consider ourselves disciples of Jesus, then we must do what Jesus asks of us. We are truly friends of Jesus if we do what he commands of us (John 15: 14). Jesus is teaching us that we belong to God and that we need to give our lives to God. Our lives as Christians are ultimately not our own to live as we see fit and to pursue what we want for ourselves. Elsewhere Jesus says that it is by losing our lives for his sake that we find out what it means to truly live (Matthew 10: 39). If God is the most important thing to us, then our whole life belongs to him and everything we do should be done in order to do his will. In the end, the mistake that Jesus’ accusers make is that they do not go far enough in their service to God.
Jesus’ words in the gospel fit in well with the words of the psalm for today. The psalmist talks about the need to fall back on God as a refuge. God is seen as the only refuge for the people of Israel. This is in keeping with Jesus’ words about the importance of rendering service to God. Today let us pray that we will not put Jesus to the test by trying his patience and misunderstanding what he is all about, as the Pharisees and Herodians do in the gospel reading. Let us pray that we will see God as our refuge and that we will learn to follow Jesus’ command to give to God what God deserves of us – namely our entire lives.
-Joel Schickel