The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. Matthew 22:15-22

My friend was her parish priest. She was an elderly woman with no family members. A little bit eccentric and not quite in tune with reality, nevertheless she needed help. He was the only one kind enough to be there for her. She lost her driver’s license which made her feel even more old and lonely than necessary. She needed to retake her driver’s test and a car. He decided to be her instructor. The test was in the town where I lived. They got there early and decided to have one last practice in a vacant parking lot of a well-known store. He told her to slowly turn the ignition and press on the brakes. She was a little nervous. Unfortunately her foot was on the wrong pedal. It just took seconds for the car to crash through the entrance of the store. My friend reached out and turned off the engine. Everything came to a halting stop in the middle of the store. Thankfully no one was hurt. Only things were destroyed. The police were called and my friend’s car was completely wrecked. We picked them up and drove them to their respective homes. Needless to say, it was quite a tense ride back to his home. When I got back, the local news was on it; hardly anything happens in this small town. People commented on the incident. They made disparaging remarks about my friend. People who never met him felt that they had the right to pass judgement. They felt justified making hateful comments about him even though they have no knowledge of him nor the circumstances. This is how the politics of this world functions. It is a politics of hate and disdain. The Pharisees wanted to entrap Jesus into participating in this vicious cycle. They needed Him to hate so that He would become like one of them.

“We are children of our age,
it’s a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs–yours, ours, theirs–
are political affairs.”- Wislawa Szymborska

This is not just true for our modern times. It has always been like this for humanity. Perhaps, the word, “politics” is a more modern way of expressing an old practice. It used to be called just plain gossip. Historian Yuval Harari, in his book, Sapiens, stated that humanity developed gossip as a way of unifying themselves. It gave communities an opportunity to have something common to talk about, something against the others. The foundation of gossip is hatred and slander. For some reason, humanity likes to base their common relationship on this sinister foundation. Today’s political language is not very different. When the Pharisees approached Jesus in the above gospel reading, they were hoping that Jesus would engage in gossip too. They wanted Jesus to say something against the Roman Empire. However, Jesus showed a better way. He was, by no means, apolitical in his response. In fact, being apolitical is also a political action. Jesus was completely engaged in this world. You can’t do this without being political. However, Jesus refused to let society to define His political inclinations. He wasn’t going to choose the game of hatred and slander. He belongs to a different Kingdom.

His politics did not create an enemy, or rather, He did not slander nor hate those who disagreed with him. To the contrary, He loved them. He didn’t repay evil with evil. Neither did He defend Himself against them. He did not ally Himself with the powers of His time, be it the religious or political establishment. Yet, at the same time, He was in the temple. He honored the religious festivals. He never disrespected the priesthood. He never said anything disparaging about the Roman Empire. In this passage above, He insinuated that we should pay taxes and in another part of the gospel, He did pay them. Jesus knows that in order to live in this world, we have to engage in the politics of the world. However, Jesus only engaged with it minimally even though He was extremely political but from a different perspective.

Politicians of this world, kings and queens pontificate about the problems of our world from a comfortable perspectives. They do it from a distance detached from the reality of most people. They call this being objective. It seems to me that this is a euphemism for judgmental and inhumane. The people who made judgement on my friend were trying to objectively hate him. They detached themselves from the human element of our existence. There was an elderly woman who had no one in the world to help her. The priest tried to do his part. The so-called objectiveness of modern humanity is nothing but being empty and cold. Besides, no one can be objective but God. On the other hand, Jesus was not objective. He took sides.

As Christians, we believe that Jesus is God Incarnate. Then we must realize that Jesus chose to be born at a time when the lineage of David held no authority nor influence over the nation. He deliberately chose this particular time and space. Then His entire ministry was spent looking at things from the perspective of the sick, poor and the marginalized. He never chose to see things from the perspective of the politicians, the rich, the religious leaders or the powerful. He chose to pay attention to gift of widow and ignored the extravagant giving of the rich. The opposite is true in the politics of this world. I know some left leaning people might think that Jesus is closer to their politics. The truth is that their politics also belong to the world, a detached politics simplifying the complexity of the human experience. We cannot marry the politics of this world with that of the Kingdom. Jesus’ politics is not left leaning. It is people leaning. He worked among the people and He knew their names. In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, He gave the beggar a name while the rich man remained anonymous; the very opposite of the attitude of this world. The politics of this world makes judgment on people and things without having any understanding. Jesus presents a political activism that connects us with real people.

Felipe shared some news with us last week. He preceded the news with a concern. He wasn’t sure how we feel about it. The news, well, his wife is pregnant again. She has been with a child for four months now. They even know the sex of the child. Felipe thought that perhaps we might disapprove. He thought that perhaps we might think like the people who are engaged in the politics of this world. In another time and space, this might be true. Strangely, when we heard the news, we were happy for Felipe. It is because we know him. We are involved in his life.

His first son changed his life completely. We know that he always wanted a daughter. Now, this was going to be a reality. The politics of this world will inform us that Felipe and his wife are irresponsible. I can imagine the nature of the comments if this news were to be published on an internet news outlet. However, people who make such judgment from a distance will never understand what a child means to these homeless youth. Isabel was homeless in the streets for many years. Her life seemed directionless. Then one day she discovered that she was pregnant. She was filled with joy at the news. She decided to change everything. She sought out a relative that would eventually help her to find a place and she turned her life around. Cassia was a ruthless drug dealer. She was feared by many. She had several children and gave them all up for adoption. Then she got pregnant again for the last time and suddenly she did not want to miss out on being a mother. She gave herself up to the authorities and was sentenced to jail for two years. While she served her sentence, her husband took care of their child. When she came out, she searched out for her other children. They were still living in orphanages. She asked for their forgiveness and worked hard to regain their trust and her maternal vocation.

The politics of the world will look at these young people from a distance and judge them as unworthy to be parents. They will refuse to see them as anything else but homeless criminals and a burden to society. However, we don’t belong to this world. We live in it. Therefore, we have to discern how to live the politics of God’s Kingdom in this world without contaminating ourselves with the politics of this world. As Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” (Matthew 5:13)

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ Matthew 21:33-37

When I was young we lived in a public housing project in our country. It was an apartment complex. There was no security system or gates. Therefore, anyone could walk in and out freely. Sometimes complete strangers would knock on our door to ask for assistance, be it financial or food. Other times, it was young Protestant evangelists. My parents had a strange policy. They entertained anyone who knocked on their door even when it was inconvenient. My father usually did not like to be disturbed when he was at home. However, he always ensured that no one who came asking for something went away empty handed. There were times he would give something to a stranger and then jokingly turn around and comment to the rest of the family that the stranger was most likely a scam artist with tons of money. Other times my mother would invite the evangelists and make us sit and listen to them while she made tea for everyone. We were practicing Catholics but she wanted these young people to feel welcomed. This extended even to animals. Once a white stray cat entered our apartment and made itself at home. My father refused to chase it out. He was not really a fan of having pets back then. He loved animals but did not want an extra mouth to feed. He strategically left the door wide open everyday so that the cat would leave on his own accord. He never once tried to frighten it away. He even fed it. He said that we needed to be hospitable even to our uninvited guest. Then one day my father explained his reason for his peculiar practice. He believed that God sends His servants to visit with us. They come in all shapes and forms and we must always be ready to receive them. It made sense when he explained it to me. I was just a young lad then. At that age everything my father said made sense. However, later on in life, I begin to wonder why God needed to drop in on us unexpectedly. No doubt He can see all things pretty well from His perspective. However, Jesus seemed to have answered this question in the above parable. God is not checking up on us. We just need to be reminded that we are mere tenants in this world. We are not the Landowner. It is very easy to forget.

Perhaps this is the most violent parable. At the same time, it is also the most realistic. It reveals to us our human nature. In a sense it is actually the story of the Fall retold in a different fashion. It begins with the landowner ensuring that the land was perfectly suitable for the tenants. He was a just proprietor. He did not make unreasonable demands. Even when he sent his servants, there were no signs of violence or threats. He simply wanted to remind the people that they were tenants and they had an obligation to Him. Unfortunately, the whole parable is exposition of our human nature. Its violent nature was necessary because it reveals how we, as humans, assert our will against God. We want something that does not belong to us and we use violence to attain it. However, it will never change the fact that we are not the landowners. As long as we don’t accept this Truth, we will continue to resort to violence. God will continue to send His servants.

The servants are not there to suffocate our freedom. They are here to remind us who we are so that we can be free from the tyranny of self delusion. Instead, humanity choose to use the language of violence to remain in this unfortunate state. Then, the landowner sent his son. Everyone listening to the parable knew the outcome. Despite this, the son was sent and he was killed. When Jesus asked what should be done to these tenants, the response was the same as that of the tenants. The listeners demand a violent response. God refused to act this way. The Son was killed but God did not react with violence. Instead, He responded with grace. The former is only used when someone wants to assert something that does not belong to them. God has no use for violence because He always knows who He is. He continues to send His servants today. They come in many shapes and forms.

Jesus always seems to stress that if we don’t recognize the servants and then we will definitely not recognize the Son. If we mistreat the servants, then we definitely will do the same to the Son. We see an example of this in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Therefore, my father was right after all. It is safer to assume that anyone that comes to us and asks for something, be it shelter, food or just our time, might be the servant God has sent to us.

We have many crack addicts in the streets here. We live not too far away from the notorious “crackland” in this city. Some people despise them. Most people ignore them. They are broken people and their addiction is a mere symptom. We see them all the time. I used to ignore them just because there was just too many and it was overwhelming. It was more a question of learning to live in such environment than any personal disdain for them. We used to work in this area a long time ago. Then there is also the moral dilemma. If I help them, maybe I am enabling them in their downward spiral to self destruction. However, whenever one comes up to me and talks to me, I am gently reminded of my father’s words. This person could be God’s servant. After all, I am mere tenant of the things I own. God is the one who provided everything I have and now He is sending His forsaken child to collect what is due to Him. I am sure that he will use drugs but he still needs to know that he is loved. Receiving God’s servants is not easy. There is no one answer that works for all situations. No matter what we do, our response should be a payment for being God’s tenants. However, this is not about earning our salvation. It is more about understanding our salvation. The biblical notion of salvation is to be healed. Therefore, those who appreciate their own healing show it by being an instrument of healing in the lives of others. This is how we pay our rent. Violence is the opposite of healing. Ignoring or pretending someone doesn’t exist is the worst form of violence.

As usual, I talked to the children about these verses. I asked them what they thought when someone ignores or refuses to help them. They don’t have much to say about these people. Actually they simply forget about them. However, they remember when someone goes out of their way to help them. One of them told us an interesting story about a couple. The husband wanted to give some money to the boys begging outside a bakery but the wife was very much against it. She had her arguments and the boys saw a spousal dispute unfold before their eyes. Then the couple walked away and a few minutes later the husband appeared again. He made a quick escape from his wife so that he could give the boys some money. It wasn’t much but enough for them to see God’s love manifest itself in this man. They said that they will never forget the kindness of this man. It made them happy to know that there are people like him in this world. This happened a few years ago. The man’s money did not change their lives but it gave them hope. These kind gestures of people who have genuine love in their hearts reveal to these abandoned servants of God that there are still tenants who are willing to pay their dues of love to the Heavenly Father.