Give to God that which is God's

SERMON BY FATHER JONATHAN E MOORE - LINK HERE

29th Sunday Per Annum 2026     Give to God that which is God’s

During his scant three years of public ministry, Our Blessed Lord had many enemies. Not only that, He had very powerful enemies. Read the description of the Passion and Death of Jesus in any of the Gospels, and you will see that, at the moment of the crucifixion, it appeared that He had been abandoned by nearly all His friends, and that His enemies were utterly triumphant. 

Just who were these enemies? They came from different elements of the population of Palestine at the time. One thing they all have in common is that they were men of power and status, who for different reasons felt threatened by the Good News. The other thing they had in common is they loathed one another! They only joined together to do one thing, to oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they formed their alliance on the basis of “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”. 

Let’s just remind ourselves of who these people were:

The Pharisees, whose name meant “Separate Ones”. Were a group of what we would today call “Religious Fundamentalists”. They sought to expand the Law of Moses far beyond Ten Commandments until they had more than 600 religious laws, and they sought to observe those laws in their completeness. In the face of foreign domination of their land, they defined themselves by standing apart from the world around them. They had strong beliefs in the coming Messiah as one who would exalt Divine Law and restore glory and independence to Israel. They also believed in the Resurrection of the Dead and the existence of Angels. 

The Scribes were the educated and highly respected Scholars of the Jewish Law. They were honoured with the title of “Rabbi” (Teacher) and greatly respected for the breadth and depth of their learning. Although they didn't really belong to any one religious or political party, some of them sympathised with the Pharisees. Some of them also sided with Jesus. Acts of the Apostles presents us with the entirely sympathetic Gamaliel, who was Saint Paul’s beloved teacher, and who wanted the Jewish authorities to tolerate the early Christians (Acts 5). 

The Sadducees were the professional priests, their families and supporters. The name derives from the High Priest Zadok, who had crowned Solomon as King in succession to David. Their world revolved around the Jerusalem Temple with its daily ritual of animal sacrifice and prayer. Because of this they all lived quite close to the city of Jerusalem. They were by nature rather conservative in their beliefs, and did not accept much of the “modern” thinking among Jewish people, especially regarding the Messiah, Resurrection and Angels. They tended to go along with any occupying power as long as they were left in peace. They and the Pharisees were quite opposed in their outlook. In the New Testament we meet some very likeable Sadducees, men such as old Simeon whose eyes “beheld salvation” in the infant Jesus (Luke 2:29), or Zecheriah and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist. The Sadducees were a focus of hatred for the Jewish rebels in AD69 - they were massacred by the rebel forces (ironically, they were in revolt against Roman Taxation), which at least meant they did not have to witness the destruction of their beautiful Temple by Vespasian’s Roman army a year later. 

Lastly, we have the Herodians. Herod Antipas was son of Herod the Great, who was King when Jesus was born. He had spent quite a lot of his youth in Rome and had become very Roman in his outlook. He was known as the “Tetrarch” because he held authority over four areas of the Roman province. He was, of course, no more than a puppet King, and hated by Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees alike. He was, however, well-supported among the more relaxed, ambitious and secular members of society, who were known as Herodians.

Such were the four groups. Jesus clashed with their members in a variety of ways. The Pharisees felt that He was a traitor to the Jewish Law, especially because of the way He associated with sinners. Our Lord condemned them as “whited sepulchres” (Matt 23:27) who looked good on the outside but were inwardly corrupt. They had a very clear idea of what their Messiah would be like, and Jesus of Nazareth did not fit the bill! They saw Him as a blasphemer, an enemy of God.

The Scribes mostly viewed Jesus as a radical and an anarchist, who dared to question their learning. He accused them of being in the business of loading people down with rules, but making no effort to help them bear the burden (Matt 23:4). 

For the Sadducees, Jesus was a very suspicious character. Their greatest bugbear were the Samaritans who had tried to sabotage the re-building of their Temple. Jesus was nice to Samaritans, and told stories in which the Samaritan was shown to be a better person than Priest and Levite (Luke 10:25). He also foretold the destruction of the Temple, and said He could “re-build it in three days” (John 2:19). Clearly, they thought, the man was delusional, disrespectful and dangerous. 

The Herodians feared an uprising among the common people. If they lost control of the country and it descended into anarchy, the Romans would intervene to restore order, and they would lose their jobs! People spoke of Jesus as Messiah and King. Herod had already cut off the head of John the Baptist, and many cherished the thought Jesus would come to a sticky end too. 

Finally, we arrive at today’s Gospel. The Pharisees and Herodians have declared a temporary truce and united against their common enemy. They have concocted a question to which, they believe, Jesus can give no answer without condemning Himself. “Is it lawful to pay our taxes?” It’s a clever question: they think that “yes” will offend the Jews, and “no” will upset the Romans. Jesus will show Himself either a traitor to His religion, or a dangerous revolutionary, more than adequate grounds for a death penalty in either case. 

They are, of course, wrong. In response, Jesus makes a careful differentiation between the things of this world and those which are of God. It is legitimate to allow respect for human authority to coexist with respect for God, but human respect must never be given first place.

In our world, Pharisee, Scribe, Sadducee and Herodians are no more than names in a history book, so does this Gospel have anything to say to us in our time? Assuredly so! 

The opponents of the Gospel may have changed, but they have not gone away. The Church will always have many enemies, and we Christians must strive each day to relate the Gospel message to the way we actually live our lives. We can never do this without offending some people, and that is a fact of life. Saint Peter advised the early Christians to “Fear God, and honour the Emperor” (1 Peter 2:17). Our Faith calls us to be people who show themselves good and law-abiding members of society, paying our taxes and doing our civic duty. We should do this in all circumstances, except where our obedience would amount to a denial of God and Divine Law. This is where many good men and women down the centuries have had to make a conscientious stand, whatever the consequences. In this, we have a wonderful example in Saint Thomas More, who went to his death rather than deny the authority of the Pope. He had lived as an outstanding champion of his King and the rule of English Law, but in the end he stood firmly for the Catholic Church. He said: “I die the King’s good servant, BUT GOD’S FIRST.”