“…When they heard this, they were amazed;
and they left him and went away.” (Matt 22:22)
(Year A: The Nineteenth Sunday after
Trinity, 18th October, 2020)
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READINGS (COI & paired as between the
Gospel and the Old Testament readings)
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Typically, passages from the scriptures
and, especially the Gospels, that deal with subjects such as poverty, riches,
taxes or politics are ‘spiritualised’ or ‘individualised’ by commentators and
preachers in such a manner as to avoid political controversy or
misunderstanding for a modern audience.
Let me be clear about this: by
‘spiritualising’, I mean taking a raw story (or parable) and turning it into a
moral tale rather like a fable with a good moral lesson or ‘so what’ for the
young ones hearing it. By
‘individualising’ I mean hearing the story as an individual and applying it to
my life in my immediate inter-personal environment. According to the latter, we see ourselves as
fellow pilgrims working out our own salvation and faith with others but,
ultimately, on our own since we are, each of us, answerable for our lives now
and at its end on this earth.
Preachers and ministers are at pains to
point out that Jesus did not get involved in ‘politics’ and ‘this-worldly’
affairs and by implication we might emulate this beyond our everyday, familial
and job-related circles in which we live and move. And there are two things, it
is said, you should never discuss in polite company: religion and politics.
I protest. Let me explain.
Zealots up to no good
The context of this Sunday’ reading is yet
another conversation between Jesus and some disciples of the Pharisees along
with the Herodians (the latter were loyalists to Rome and followers of ‘Herod
the Great’ and were as zealous about paying taxes as the Jewish ‘Zealots’ party
were about not).
The Herodians and Pharisees were trying to
trap Jesus. The latter group tended to sit on the fence on the question of
taxes, but, sided in practical terms with the political authorities as
religious authorities tend to do for the sake of peace. They knew where power lay in that backwater
of a province on the Eastern fringes of the great Roman Empire. They also knew the intense resentment and
fierce independence of the people with whom Jesus shared his life. Remember
that to be a tax collector at that time in that part of the world was to be a
local agent of Rome and someone put on the same level as a prostitute. Those
hostile to Jesus – the religious authorities of his time – thought they could
use a combination of reverse psychology and clever questioning to catch him out
on one or both sides of their specially erected question-fence.
Jesus got the better of them not by taking
one side of their malevolent question. Rather, he posed a new question. ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’, he
asked his questioners. He recalibrated the discussion to begin from
where we are at. His audience was living under a brutal colonial
regime. An uneasy peace prevailed in between violent outbreaks and
insurrections (the decisive one following in around 70 A.D.). Jesus had not come to lead a Jewish revolt
against their overlords. Neither, had he come to start a new religion. He proclaimed the kingdom of God among the
chosen people (the Jews) and beyond to embrace the whole world (including the
gentiles). Religion would be recast as a new way to the Father and all had
access to this way through Jesus.
Misrepresentations of Jesus as a
political messiah
Jesus and those who came after him were not
scholarly commentators. Neither were they preaching a party or ethnic political
manifesto. Claims, in more recent times,
that Jesus was a true ‘socialist’ are plain silly. Likewise attempts to enlist
Jesus in a holy war against communism or free masonry under the banner of
fascism or colonialism is diabolic. Then again, many have enlisted Jesus in
violent purges of heretics from within the Christian fold
Jesus did not offer a theory or programme
of political liberation. However, he did witness to a radically different way
of living and behaving – individually and collectively. This was and is
revolutionary in the sense that it challenges the premises of everyday
business, politics and even – dare we admit it – church life as we frequently
encounter it. And we Christians in 21st century need to be political
for reasons that, hopefully, I can elaborate on further, below.
At the centre of this Sunday’s story is the
question of taxes. Taxes, as we know
only too well, involve a transfer of money from citizens to political
authorities. At the time in which the Gospels were seeded, taxes and tax
collectors were not at all popular. Tax collectors were seen as corrupt, unjust
and rapacious.
Consider some of the taxes people had to
pay in 1st century Palestine (the source for this is an
online Carmelite liturgical site):
Levies on property (tributum soli).
Levies on persons (tributum
capitis). (the levy on the workforce is estimated
by some scholars to have been approximately 20% of average income – a figure not
dissimilar to low-tax countries such as Ireland or the USA, today).
Golden crown
for the Emperor
Salt levy for the Emperor
Levy on buying and selling: (to buy a slave incurred a levy of 2%).
Levy on professional practice: (even prostitutes had to pay this)
Levy on the use of public utilities (e.g. public baths in Rome)
Tolls paid on roads and on the movement of merchandise and usually collected
by Publicans.
Forced labour: Everyone could be forced to render some service to the State
for five years, without remuneration.
Special subsidy for the armed forces: People were obliged to offer
hospitality to soldiers.
Does any of the above sound familiar?
Change the detail and terminology a little and we find matters have not changed
that much in 2,000 years!
And, of course, the religious authorities
needed their cut of income for the times that Jesus lived in:
Levy for the Temple and for Cult:
Shekalim:
Tithes (for the upkeep of the priests)
First fruits of all land products: (for the upkeep of the cult)
Tithes had a particularly troubled
existence until comparatively modern times in Irish history (see Cogadh na ndeachúna)
We get the picture!
That is one side of the matter.
The other side is possibly disturbing for
us today. What we say about Jesus and
how we live according to his example and teachings has profound implications
for our families, our extended families, our communities, our workplaces, our
associations, our local politics, our national politics and our global
politics. Should there be any doubt about this we ought to check out, again,
the number of times the God of the poor and the God of righteousness on the
side of the poor and the marginalised breaks into the Hebrew and Christian
Testaments. God is not aloof and carefree on His Throne observing form a
distance children going hungry, people being killed and his creation plundered
by human beings. For reasons no theologian can satisfactorily explain, God is
‘in the thick of it’ wherever human beings suffer, are oppressed or
excluded. He is ‘in the thick of it’ as
a powerfully
powerless servant leader uniting himself with us in our hour of need
and urging us on to be his eyes, his ears and his hands of compassion. I
realise that this sort of talk is discomforting to the more classical notions
of a God who does not feel, or suffer or get involved in particular ways in
this always messy and often crazy world.
But, that, I suggest is God for us.
We live in a world which is propped up on
(1) obscene levels of social and economic inequality, (2) disrespect for human
life and rights at all stages in the lifecycle from conception to natural death,
(3) an utterly cavalier attitude to the natural environment as a means for
exploitation, and (4) oppressive regimes that centralise market and state power
in ways that exclude women, children, older people, particular ethnic groups,
precarious workers, migrants, homosexuals and anyone who is a threat to the
power structures of oppression.
We cannot turn our back to those who suffer
in such a world. The gospel does not
afford us the luxury of ‘working out our salvation’ by distancing ourselves
from the plight of others who cry out and who struggle for liberation. Neither
does it afford us the luxury of serving God and our brothers without hearing
the cry of the earth which is groaning and aching lest we have not noticed the
dramatic changes occurring around us from year to year and season to season.
To set people free and the earth too
The truth is that God has come to set his
people free and the earth in which
his people live. We don’t have the
option of remaining aloof. Yes, we must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s in
the sense that the obligations of citizens must not be confused with the call
to religious practice and integrity.
But, there are times when we will need to stand up to Caesar even at a
high price such as paid by many down the ages. Religion is not to be
privitised.
One practical way in which to live up to
our call as citizens of the earthly world and, at the same time, as disciples
of Jesus Christ is in the very mundane matter of taxation. When was the last
time we heard a homily about tax?! And
how often do churches get a name for its teachings on the sixth commandment
(concerning adultery and matters generally to do with sexuality and
reproduction)? And, how often do
churches raise fundamental questions about tax evasion (that is, the deliberate
and illegal non-payment of taxes whether by individuals or corporations)? How often do we stop to reflect on the link
between the taxes we pay and the essential services provided to others
including ourselves? Yes, many forms of taxation need to be reformed and made
fairer. Yes, many systems of public administration and service delivery need to
be reformed and made more efficient (delivering more and better for the same
amount of taxes raised). However, we fail in our duty as citizens and as
Christians if we practice deceit by not paying lawful taxes. Has none of us
ever known cases where someone does work ‘for cash’ to avoid paying Value Added
Tax or income tax, as the case may be, because ‘everyone else is doing it’ or
‘who will know’ or ‘it will make no difference’. Let’s be clear, tax defrauding
is the same as fare-evasion on public transport is the same as stealing money
from someone’s wallet.
Paying tax is a political and moral matter
just as is voting or, in the case of those called to do so, to serve in public
office or to engage in legitimate, democratic, peaceful and human
rights-respecting political activity.
In our times we need to reflect, again, on
what is means to be a disciple of the good news. In fact, it is a very
political news because it fundamentally challenges the way we do politics as
citizens, voters, workers, businesses, families and communities. It does not
mean that we have to adopt a narrow set of policies or see our political
vocation as necessarily belonging to some political party or movement. But, it
does mean making a stand, speaking up and acting out even when it is
inconvenient and possibly dangerous to do so whether on issues of life, the
environment, social equality and public health. And that has implications in
Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Iraq and everywhere else.
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