MT 22:15-33 

Matthew in the Margins… 20th Sunday after Pentecost…Revised 2017. 

Never play Two Up with Jesus! Heads He wins, tails we lose! What do we constantly learn about His enemies in the Gospel? That they never learn! Have we learned from Jesus as we write our own new pages, chapter by chapter, extensions of Gospel today? One essential is never to try outsmarting God!

Which reminds me of one of those old rather unkind stories told against the Irish: Mick & Paddy are stumbling home drunk after closing time late one night. Taking a short cut through the cemetery, they fall down into a newly dug grave. Try as they might they can’t climb out. After calling & calling for help, & with no response at all, they decide to pray! Mick prays, “O God, if you get Paddy & me up out of this hole we’re in, I’ll give you my fine fat pig!” But Paddy says to Mick in a stage whisper, “Mick, you can’t pray that to God; you haven’t got a pig, let alone a fine fat one!” “Will you be quiet, Paddy! Can’t you see I’m only fooling him!” Trying to fool God is like being stuck down in some hole we can’t get out from! Digging our own grave?

Of those who try to trap Jesus with their One Coin Trick, The Complete Gospels¹ has it ‘They were dumfounded'. Of the crowd who see & hear how Jesus bests those who try to trap Him over ancient Levirate law, it translates, ‘They were stunned.' Whether we're a religious heavy, or simply one of God's ‘little ones’, are we as dumbfounded, stunned, by God as we ought to be? Learning to be dumbfounded, stunned, by God may be a helpful jumping off place for the next stage of our spiritual journey.

Whoever it is Jesus tricks (yes, he does trick them!) into producing that Roman coin makes a fool of himself as he would make a fool of Jesus. Such a pious one oughtn't to have such a pagan coin in his possession, except to actually pay the hated tax. Maybe that's what he's about to do when Jesus asks to borrow his coin. Caesar’s coin! Just having the coin is the man's own answer, ‘Yes’, to the question they pose to entrap Jesus. Whether Jesus answers ‘Yes’, or, ‘No’, they’ve got Him, or so they think! We know better! How do we ourselves set about discerning our responses to the big ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions of life?

Pharisees allying themselves with Herodians is an ‘unholy’ alliance. The Sadducees then also join in the game of  ‘Let’s Gang Up On Jesus’ with their question relating to levirate marriage laws [DEUT 25: 5+]. He answers, “You have missed the point again, all because you underestimate both the scriptures & the power of God.”²  Today some are still missing the point of, & under-estimating the Scriptures & the power of God, trying to make their own point rather than God’s! Pray, guided by Holy Spirit, to discern issues as Jesus, God, might see things, rather than pontificating on them to make our own specious claims.

God’s Name isn’t  'I AM' for nothing. So, let’s live for God, & with God, & in God. That’s the way we become who We Are, too!

¹ Polebridge, 1992, ad loc.  ²  Complete Gospels ad loc.