Today’s Gospel 10-16-11 - Taxes

Τότε πορευθέντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι συμβούλιον ἔλαβον ὅπως αὐτὸν παγιδεύσωσιν ἐν λόγῳ. 16 καὶ ἀποστέλλουσιν αὐτῷ τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτῶν μετὰ τῶν ῾Ηρῳδιανῶν λέγοντες· διδάσκαλε, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀληθὴς εἶ καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ διδάσκεις, καὶ οὐ μέλει σοι περὶ οὐδενός· οὐ γὰρ βλέπεις εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπων· 17 εἰπὲ οὖν ἡμῖν, τί σοι δοκεῖ; ἔξεστι δοῦναι κῆνσον Καίσαρι ἢ οὔ; 18 γνοὺς δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς τὴν πονηρίαν αὐτῶν εἶπε· τί με πειράζετε, ὑποκριταί; 19 ἐπιδείξατέ μοι τὸ νόμισμα τοῦ κήνσου. οἱ δὲ προσήνεγκαν αὐτῷ δηνάριον. 20 καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· τίνος ἡ εἰκὼν αὕτη καὶ ἡ ἐπιγραφή; 21 λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· Καίσαρος· τότε λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ. 22 καὶ ἀκούσαντες ἐθαύμασαν, καὶ ἀφέντες αὐτὸν ἀπῆλθον.  Matthew 22:15-22

No one has ever enjoyed paying taxes.  In an age when there is a relentless clamor on the right to shrink the size of government in order that those who are fully capable of paying their share, will pay less, this lesson seems appropriate.  Imagine a working class person, say a carpenter, advocating for paying less taxes to the government.  It’s hard to imagine in this day and age.  But it is easy to imagine a real estate tycoon advocating that we need to shrink the size of government and as a result have a smaller tax burden to pay - Easy because, a certain person comes immediately to our mind. So much for today’s Herodians.

What of today’s Pharisees?  We hear a great clamor on the right also for piety and religious fervor dominates some of their conversations.  There are definite legalisms at play here in issues such as abortion, homosexuality and marriage between man and woman only.  The din of the religious fervor and almost constant pejoratives in this regard, is so often so intense that it is like unto the noise level of a large city at rush hour.  Some among these Pharisees of today even advocate for a kind of near theocratic form of governance whereby the law of God is the law of the land.  Today we find an odd situation wherein these forces of corporate moneyed interests and religious interests have allied themselves together to advocate for a turn to the right in our government procedure.  Often the Pharisees amongst us also advocate for smaller government and tax cuts, while also simultaneously advocating for government overseeing our behavior in our bedrooms.

Now imagine, if you will, a carpenter today, who goes around, unlike today’s more materialistic sophists, and teaches about things of the spirit.  Imagine that he advocates love for your neighbor and empathy and sympathy for those of your fellows who are in trouble.  Further suppose he advocates that we treat our world as if it had a soul and was virtually, if not in fact the Kingdom of God.  Suppose this carpenter is quite popular among the working classes and draws huge crowds when he speaks.  Suppose he claims that not everything is done from  a profit motive.  Suppose he teaches about forgiveness and advocates for those among us who are not full blown citizens, or perhaps racially or ethnically different somehow.  Suppose he takes his meals with those who are the least in our society, and converses with the hated amongst us, the prostitutes and the government bureaucrats, even the INS and the IRS.  Would not the Herodians and Pharisees of today conspire together to trap him in his words - to somehow repudiate him with his own words?  If we examine ourselves honestly, would we not try to trap him in his own words, say for example ask, about his views on Gay Marriage or the size of government?  But this carpenter is a clever and intelligent thinker, a paradigm of what it is to be human, and he can tell us quite truthfully, so that we are shamed by our attempts to entrap him, "ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ."  Would not we also be amazed and walk away from him?  

Thus concludes the lesson for today.

Today’s Gospel - 9-2-11 - The Householder’s Tennants

33 ῎Αλλην παραβολὴν ἀκούσατε. ἄνθρωπός τις ἦν οἰκοδεσπότης, ὅστις ἐφύτευσεν ἀμπελῶνα καὶ φραγμὸν αὐτῷ περιέθηκε καὶ ὤρυξεν ἐν αὐτῷ ληνὸν καὶ ᾠκοδόμησε πύργον, καὶ ἐξέδοτο αὐτὸν γεωργοῖς καὶ ἀπεδήμησεν. 34 ὅτε δὲ ἤγγισεν ὁ καιρὸς τῶν καρπῶν, ἀπέστειλε τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ πρὸς τοὺς γεωργοὺς λαβεῖν τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτοῦ.

35 καὶ λαβόντες οἱ γεωργοὶ τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ ὃν μὲν ἔδειραν, ὃν δὲ ἀπέκτειναν, ὃν δὲ ἐλιθοβόλησαν. 36 πάλιν ἀπέστειλεν ἄλλους δούλους πλείονας τῶν πρώτων, καὶ ἐποίησαν αὐτοῖς ὡσαύτως. 37 ὕστερον δὲ ἀπέστειλε πρὸς αὐτοὺς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ λέγων· ἐντραπήσονται τὸν υἱόν μου. 38 οἱ δὲ γεωργοὶ ἰδόντες τὸν υἱὸν εἶπον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς· οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κληρονόμος· δεῦτε ἀποκτείνωμεν αὐτὸν καὶ κατάσχωμεν τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτοῦ. 39 καὶ λαβόντες αὐτὸν ἐξέβαλον ἔξω τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος, καὶ ἀπέκτειναν.

40 ῞Οταν οὖν ἔλθῃ ὁ κύριος τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος, τί ποιήσει τοῖς γεωργοῖς ἐκείνοις; 41 λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· κακοὺς κακῶς ἀπολέσει αὐτούς, καὶ τὸν ἀμπελῶνα ἐκδώσεται ἄλλοις γεωργοῖς, οἵτινες ἀποδώσουσιν αὐτῷ τοὺς καρποὺς ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς αὐτῶν. 42 λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· οὐδέποτε ἀνέγνωτε ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς, λίθον ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες, οὗτος ἐγενήθη εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας· παρὰ Κυρίου ἐγένετο αὕτη, καὶ ἔστι θαυμαστὴ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν; 43 διὰ τοῦτο λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀρθήσεται ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ δοθήσεται ἔθνει ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς· 44 καὶ ὁ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὸν λίθον τοῦτον συνθλασθήσεται· ἐφ᾿ ὃν δ᾿ ἂν πέσῃ, λικμήσει αὐτόν. 45 καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι τὰς παραβολὰς αὐτοῦ ἔγνωσαν ὅτι περὶ αὐτῶν λέγει· 46 καὶ ζητοῦντες αὐτὸν κρατῆσαι ἐφοβήθησαν τοὺς ὄχλους, ἐπειδὴ ὡς προφήτην αὐτὸν εἶχον. - Matthew 21:33-46

One wonders just exactly what this parable is about?  Is it a foretelling of Jesus death and the motivations behind it? Or is it a parable foretelling what will happen to the church after Jesus death?  There is obviously a parallel between this parable and the first verses of the fifth chapter of Isaiah.  We get a hint in the last two verses where we are told the chief priests (οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς) and the Pharisees (καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι) were aware that He was speaking of them.  They conspired to seize him but they were afraid of the crowd (Jesus followers) because to them (the followers) He was a prophet.  So in one sense we have a foretelling of Jesus death and the reasons for his death, He made enemies of the chief priests and the Pharisees, by telling parables which clearly referred to them and their ways. 

We might look at it as a parable about the church and what happens after Jesus death.  Here the cornerstone image is important.  Here Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God is the stone which the builders rejected and will become the cornerstone of the new Kingdom.  In fact we are told that the Kingdom of God will be given to the people (nation - ἔθνει) which makes use of the fruit of that message (ὅτι ἀρθήσεται ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ δοθήσεται ἔθνει ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς·)  I imagine; if you are a Greek or a Philhellene like myself, you see this as particularly interesting, because after Jesus death the church goes out among the Greek speaking world and establishes itself there.  The church is seen hereby as the Kingdom of God (ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ) and that is given to the peoples (ἔθνει) who will make use of the message (the fruits of Jesus message ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς·)

One wonders if this latter interpretation of the parable is written by Matthew, or whether it is written in by the later church to indicate its ascendancy over the Jerusalem Church.  Is it there to indicate that Church is not a sect of Judaism or is it there to indicate that those who would have the Church remain under Judaism (the Judaizers) are in the wrong perhaps like Pharisees and Chief priests. 

But what should we take from this parable?  Are we to see ourselves as the nation to which has been given the Kingdom to make use of its fruit, or are we to remain stuck in our legalisms and dogmas we have been taught from generations.  Are we Pharisees (legalists) or are we Dogmatists.   We are to some degree I’m sure (Perhaps that is our History), but ought we not be the people to whom the Kingdom has been given to make use of its fruit.