"REPAY TO GOD WHAT IS GOD'S."

Homily for Oct. 22nd, 2017: 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. 

Matthew 22:15-21.

AIM: To help the hearers live as stewards of God’s gifts.

 

          Imagine, for a moment, that our country had been defeated in war. Foreigners would rule us, their troops stationed in every American state, city, and town. Chinese, perhaps? Who knows? Imagine how we would feel.  That was the situation in Palestine in Jesus’ day. His people deeply resented the Romans who ruled their country. Especially hated was the annual head tax imposed by the military government. It wasn’t the amount of money involved, only a small sum, but the principle of having to pay it at all, to foreigners. 

           A small group of collaborators, called “Herodians” in today’s gospel, took the position that you can’t fight City Hall. Best to pay the tax, they said, and keep on the right side of the law, and of the authorities who imposed it. They were opposed by people called Zealots, who enjoyed wide popular support. The Zealots said that the tax was an infringement on God’s authority over his people and hence should not be paid at all. In the middle of this controversy were the Pharisees.  They agreed with the Zealots in principle, but rejected direct political action, whether through a tax revolt or other means.

          Matthew makes it clear that the Pharisees and Herodians who ask Jesus his view about the tax were really interested in one thing only: “how they might entrap Jesus in speech.” Matthew’s Greek text says they were plotting to entrap him “in word.” Either of two possible words would spring the trap: Yes or No. If Jesus said Yes, it was lawful to pay the Roman tax, he would forfeit his popularity with the masses, who resented the payment. If he said No, the tax was unlawful and should not be paid, he could be denounced to the authorities for inciting people to break the law. 

          Jesus does not give either of the answers his questioners were looking for.  He seldom did. Instead he demands that they show him the coin used to pay the tax. It is a Roman coin. By producing it from their own pockets Jesus’ questioners show that, whatever their theoretical position, in fact they recognize the existing situation. The country is ruled by foreigners. It is their money which is legal tender, and no other.

          Jesus’ words, “Repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s” reject the radical position of the Zealots, who claimed that the Roman government was unlawful and should not be obeyed at all. All the emphasis, however, is on the second part of Jesus answer: “Repay to God what is God’s.”  Do that, Jesus is saying, and everything else will fall into place.

          Jesus’ questioners had asked him whether it was lawful to pay the hated head tax. When Jesus answers the question, he speaks not or paying but of repaying: “repay to God what is God’s.” What does that mean? What is God’s anyway? The answer is inescapable: everything! From God we receive all that we are and have, sin excepted. God has given us the gift of life, using our parents as his instruments. It is God who has preserved our lives until now in the midst of heaven knows how many dangers to life. God has given us our talents: everything from the five senses which we share with the animals, through the uniquely human gifts (thought, speech, love, and laughter), to the individual talents that make each person unique: how dull life would be if we were all the same.

          God even gives us our possessions and our money. Perhaps you’re thinking: Wait a minute, I’ve worked for what I have. Undoubtedly you have. But how long would you retain your possessions and earning power if you lost your health or

even one significant human faculty? At bottom even the things we own are gifts from the creator and giver of all: God.                     

          If repaying to God what is God’s means anything, it must mean putting God first in our lives. Here are some questions for self-examination. Am I putting God first in my life? Or does he get the leftovers? My spare time (if any)? The gifts and talents which are left over when I have finished doing the things I want to do? The loose change that remains after I have satisfied all my needs and as many luxuries as I think I can afford?

          Jesus would have been shocked at the idea of giving God leftovers. The  religion he learned from Mary and Joseph, and at the synagogue school in Nazareth, taught Jesus that we must give God the firstfruits. In the pastoral society of that day the farmer and shepherd offered God the first fruits of field and flock.  They did this not just to fulfill a legal obligation. They gave God first claim on all they had out of gratitude. This grateful giving of firstfruits was based on the truth that, at bottom, everything comes from God, and hence everything belongs to God. 

          If we truly want to “repay to God what is God’s,” as Jesus tells us to do in today’s gospel, then we must put God first in our lives – in all areas of our lives. There must be no fenced off areas where He is second, or third; where God is not allowed to enter at all. Does that sound threatening? In reality, it is the key to happiness. 

          Even nature teaches us this lesson. There are two well known bodies of water in the world which jealously hoard every drop of moisture they receive from rain, snow, and their tributary streams. Their names tell us what they have become: the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the Dead Sea in Israel. Show me a lake whose waters are sweet and fresh, teeming with fish, pleasant to drink and swim in, and I will show you a body of water that gives up all the moisture it receives. You can’t keep it, unless you give it away! The trees teach us the same lesson: already they’re starting to shed their leaves, so that they may put forth new ones next spring. The evergreens are no exception. Walk through a forest of pine, hemlock, or spruce, and you will find the ground covered with a carpet of old needles.

          In a small mountain village in Switzerland I saw, years ago, a fountain, fed by a bubbling spring which flowed day and night. Carved on it was a little rhyme in German: “Wie schön ist das Leben / Bloß geben, nur geben” – in English: “How great to be living, just giving, only giving.” Winston Churchill, the 20^th century’s greatest English-language orator and not a particularly religious man, said the same: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

          People who are always giving, who put God first in their lives, make a beautiful discovery. They find that God will never permit himself to be outdone in generosity. They find that what is left over for themselves is always enough, and more than enough. They discover that Jesus’ words are really true: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Act 20:35).

          There are people here, right now, who have made that discovery. They are the truly happy, the truly rich. Are you one of them? If you’re not, Jesus is inviting you to join their happy company – today.

 

 

 

 

 

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