In today’s Gospel the Pharisees, who see themselves as the persecuted ones of the previous three parables, set out to try to catch Jesus in his own words.  They chose to question him regarding the lawfulness of paying taxes.  The Pharisees themselves would have opposed paying taxes because in doing so they would be paying allegiance to the Roman emperor when in fact their only allegiance should be to God.  The Romans believed that Caesar was a god.

In their attempt to trap him they ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”  Jesus calls them hypocrites and answers the question by first asking two questions about the Roman coin:  “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”  The Pharisees reply that it is Caesar’s image and inscription.  Jesus replies, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  See, if Jesus said “no” then they could tell Caesar that Jesus is telling people not to pay their taxes, and if he said “yes” then they could say he worshipped Caesar.  Very devious, them.

Jesus makes the very important distinction between Caesar and God.  Caesar is not God, there is only one God, and the government he rules and the taxes he collects have nothing to do with God; the taxes are part of a worldly government, not the heavenly one.

So tax money belongs to Caesar.  Paying taxes to Caesar does not imply that you believe him to be a god, much less THE God, or that your “honor” him and not God. 

We should give to God what belongs to him.  God alone should be honored as the ONE TRUE GOD, that is the first and most important thing we give to God.  What else belongs to God, and not to any human?

In the first reading we see how God chose Cyrus as the King of Persia.  Cyrus was a gentile.  God called him by name and gave him a title even before Cyrus knew about God.  That’s a very wondrous and powerful God!  “I am the only God.  Even though you do not know me, I give you strength.  I do this so that people everywhere will know that there is no other God but me.” 

The Psalm for this week is Psalm 96: Give the Lord Glory and Honor.  Matt wrote a setting for the Psalm a couple years ago but it had a different refrain, or response.  This week’s response is “Give the Lord glory and honor”.  Following this link will take you to Matt’s site and he explains (at the top of the page-there are two hyperlinks: music sample and lead sheet) that the music demo contains the original response, but the lead sheet has the response for this week. 

Have a blessed week!