Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: Is 45:1, 4-6
Reading 2: 1 Thes 1:1-5b
Gospel: Mt 22:15-21
Our first reading this week is from chapter 45 of Isaiah which is part of “Second Isaiah” (chapters 40 – 55), composed during the Babylonian Captivity of 587 to 538 B.C. Second Isaiah presents hope to the exiles in a “new exodus,” reminiscent of the days of Moses who led the people from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. These exiles were about to be freed from Babylon and allowed to return to Jerusalem and re-build their city; thus, a “new exodus.” But there is a strange twist here concerning the words “anointed” and “servant.”
In Israelite tradition, the words “anointed of the Lord” were reserved for the kings and priests of Israel who were considered God’s anointed leaders of the people. They were considered God’s special servants. But the term “servant” applied to all Israelites who were understood to be servants of God; but not the anointed servants of God. In other words, those terms, “anointed” and “servant,” applied only to Israelites; no Gentile could be considered God’s anointed or God’s servant.
And here’s the twist. Our reading opens with: “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus.” Cyrus was the king of Persia (modern day Iran) and certainly not a Jew. It was Cyrus that conquered Babylon (modern day Iraq) in 538 B.C., and it was Cyrus who then set the Israelites free and gave them money and supplies to return to Jerusalem and re-build. And now, according to the words of Isaiah, the Gentile Cyrus is declared to be God’s anointed servant! It should then be apparent to the Jews that even Gentiles could be servants of God.
Isaiah tells us that God grasped Cyrus by his right hand and made him a servant of God for apparently two purposes: First of all, to set the Israelites on their “new exodus” to the Promised Land and, secondly, so that all people, “toward the rising and the setting of the sun,” Jew and Gentile alike, may know that there is no other God. In other words, Gentiles, as well as Jews, are now responsible to make God known throughout the world. Then, as our Responsorial Psalm reminds us, God’s glory will be told among the nations, and all people will “give the Lord glory and honor.”
The Israelites returned to the Promised Land and began the work of re-establishing themselves in their homeland. However, that did not make them an independent nation; they were under the dominion of the non-Israelite Persian King Cyrus. But Cyrus was God’s chosen instrument to set the people free and to make God known from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of gratitude to God’s chosen instrument, it was their duty to submit to Cyrus’ legitimate authority out of service to the common good. By the time of Jesus (as we will see in our gospel), the Persians had been replaced by the Greeks who were, in turn, replaced by the Romans as the civil authority in Israel. The situation was the same in Jesus’ time as in Isaiah’s time; Israel was under the dominion of a powerful Gentile nation which would require submission to that civil authority and partaking in the political life of the community, including the paying of taxes.
Our second reading is the beginning of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. This letter is understood to be the oldest New Testament document we have, written about 51 A.D, before any of the gospels or any of the other New Testament letters.
Here, we also have a sense of community and submission to authority but, in this case, the authority is the gospel preached to them by Paul, and he commends them for their “work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Paul reminds them the gospel he preached came to them, not in word alone, but by the power of the Holy Spirit and with much conviction. This is not submission to a civil authority that was persecuting Paul and his Christian communities, but submission to a much higher authority.
In our gospel passage from Matthew 22, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, who are accompanied by the Herodians, in an attempt to entrap Jesus. The Herodians were Jews, but they were supporters of Herod Antipas who was given the title, Tetrarch of Galilee, by the Roman emperor. As supporters of Roman authority, the Herodians supported the payment of taxes to Rome, whereas the Pharisees did not. The point of their question is to force Jesus to, either take a position on taxes contrary to the will of most of the people who opposed the tax, or to take a position on taxes contrary to Roman law. They ask if it is lawful to pay the Roman tax, and the law they are referring to is God’s law, not Roman law. They expect that Jesus will be caught “between a rock and a hard spot.” If Jesus took the position of the Herodians in support of the tax, his position would be contrary to the will of the people represented by the Pharisees. If he opposed the tax, he would be in opposition to Roman law and could be accused in front of Roman officials of sedition. But Jesus recognized their hypocrisy and called them on it. If the Pharisees were hypocritical enough to use Caesar’s coinage even though they oppose the tax, then they were acknowledging its value and were, therefore, supporters of Caesar, even though they claimed to oppose him. Therefore, if you value and support Caesar, then repay him in kind: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”
So, in Jesus’ time, we have a foreign civil authority in Israel with the power to enforce that authority in the face of insurrection which, by the way, did occur in 70 A.D. when Rome destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple because of Jewish rebellion.
Love for one’s country includes the duty to serve that country out of love and gratitude and to be of service to our fellow citizens in pursuit of the common good. The golden thread this week seems to be the connection between civil authority and the duty of all citizens to contribute to the good of society in the spirit of justice and freedom. If the Israelites rebelled against Roman taxation (as they did in 70 A.D.), there would be no justice or freedom. Without an army strong enough to defeat the Romans or a peaceful way to gain their independence, submission to that authority for the common good would at least give hope of a peaceful life.
We would hope that civil authority comes through a process participated in by all the people as in our democratic society. However, in ancient times, that was usually not the case as one powerful nation overran another and BECAME the authority. From the time of the Assyrian (722 B.C) and Babylonian (587 B.C.) conquests of Israel, the nation was under the dominion of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and finally Rome. Never again was Israel an independent nation until its borders were established by the United Nations in 1948 after World War II and declared an independent nation. But, for the past 70 years, Israel has had to defend itself against its Arab neighbors to maintain that independence.
Pray for peace in the world!!!!!
