The 29th Sunday of the Year
Isaiah 45:1 & 4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5; Mt 22:15-21 (Year A)
”Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand. It is for the sake of Israel, my chosen one, that I have called you by name.”
These words, spoken in praise of Cyrus, Israel’s deliverer from the Babylonian exile and their restoration to the holy city of Jerusalem, marked a crucial development in Israel’s understanding of her place among the nations.
At the risk of oversimplification, it might be said that, prior to the disastrous fall of Jerusalem, Israel had considered herself as the only recipient of God’s grace and favour. All other nations were dismissed as infidel. This had led to the dangerous presumption that God would always favour and protect his people, even in the face of their repeated infidelity.
The turmoil of the exile brought Israel to a new and broader understanding of God’s presence among the nations. God had indeed chosen Israel, but, in the words of Isaiah, she was to become a light to the nations. As God had chosen Israel, so he had chosen Cyrus, an outsider, to become the instrument of his saving purpose. Never again would the pride of any single nation be able to claim that they, and they alone, were God’s favoured people.
In the prophet Isaiah we see the dawning of a broadened faith that understood God at the heart of creation and looked to see his presence in all peoples and all nations.
Sinful attitudes and prejudice constantly seek to limit an understanding of the transcendent God to their own narrow perception. Jesus frequently reached beyond such boundaries. He welcomed sinners, centurions, Samaritans and a Syro-Phoenician woman.
On the question of the tax that was payable to Caesar, Jesus refused to be limited by the blindness of the Pharisees who were seeking to entrap him. “Tell us your opinion. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
Precisely because the Pharisees refused to acknowledge the presence of God in Jesus, they attempted to convict him of being a traitor either to Rome or to Israel.
The skilful ambiguity of Jesus’s response refused to deny God’s presence to either Israel or Caesar: “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”
Let us pray that a divided world might learn that God transcends our prejudices, and that his presence is to be found in all peoples.
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