The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, October 19th: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21)

WHEN POLITICAL POWER THREATENED, OPPONENT MUST BE DESTROYED

There are only a few more weeks left until Election Day. Just try to hang on. The insanity we’ve been forced to endure for countless months finally will be over. (Well, not exactly. If McCain wins on November 4th, then the “Hillary 2012” campaign beings on November 5th. And if Obama wins on the 4th, the next day will see the start of “Romney 2012.” It’s an endless cycle these days. I envy the Amish, who recently heard the news by word-of-mouth that Franklin Roosevelt just won his third term.)

Anyway, while we are up to our eyeballs in politics at the moment, it’s fitting that this week’s gospel reading is Jesus’ famous teaching about politics. During His three-year ministry Jesus spoke very little about political and government topics. As He told Pontius Pilate during His Passion, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus focused primarily on spiritual matters, not earthly matters.

But this week Jesus offers His famous church vs. state teaching, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Jesus’ message is fairly simple: We have a duty as citizens to obey the laws of the land—including the tax laws, yuck!—and we have a duty as citizens of the kingdom of God to obey the Lord’s laws.

An interesting aspect of this week’s gospel reading is the group of people who confronted Jesus. This whole “give to Caesar” episode was prompted by the Pharisees, those religious leaders in Jerusalem who absolutely hated Jesus. The reason they hated Him was simple: He threatened their political power.

The current presidential campaign demonstrates the exact same thing. Anyone who threatens the political power of others is immediately hated and targeted for destruction. (When I say “destruction,” I mean political destruction, such as ruining their careers and ruining their chances of winning the election. Although, come to think of it, political discourse in our country has become so passionately nasty, there might be a few kooks out there contemplating the assassination option. Scary.)

The Pharisees demonstrated two tactics which are very common nowadays. First, they pretended to care a great deal about the truth. When they approached Jesus they said, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

Politicians today are always talking solemnly about the importance of truth. Oh baloney. They don’t care about the truth. They only care about smearing their opponents and winning the election.

We know the Pharisees were a bunch of dishonest creeps because the reading says so. Well, it doesn’t use the words “dishonest creeps,” but the reading begins, “The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in his speech.”

Do you see the similarities with modern day political campaigns? There were behind-the-scenes plotting, and an attempt to trap the opponent by his own speech. At this very moment, literally hundreds of campaign workers, on both sides, are laboring around the clock, researching every word ever uttered by each candidate. Are these campaign workers simply trying to uncover the truth? Of course not. They’re trying to find something that can be twisted out of context and effectively used to trap the opponent.

When we observe the nastiness and dishonesty and self-serving motivations of today’s political campaigns, and then see that the motivations of the Pharisees 2,000 years ago were the same, it becomes clear that the more things change the more they stay the same.

What is constant in both situations, what is plainly on display for all the world to see, is this: the sinfulness of mankind. Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and, “The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

People are sinful, and therefore in need of a Savior. It’s that simple. Our fallen sinful nature makes it easy for us to embrace selfishness. The three things people so often crave are prestige, power, and pleasure. This is the inevitable result of the worst of all sins, Pride.

The Pharisees had plenty of prestige, power, and pleasure—things they enjoyed immensely and felt were being threatened by Jesus. So in their minds, regardless of who Jesus was, there was only one course of action: destroy Him. Eliminate the threat. They never gave it a second thought.

Politicians today (and to be fair, throughout history, too) also enjoy plenty of prestige, power, and pleasure. They too feel threatened by their opponents. After all, if the opponent wins the election, then the opponent will get to enjoy all that prestige, power, and pleasure. So in their minds, regardless of whether the opponent might actually be a decent person, there is only one course of action: destroy him or her. The campaigns never give it a second thought.

It’s easy to criticize politicians (Lord knows I do it all the time!). Government leaders operate on a world-wide stage, constantly under the media’s microscope. And the selfishness and pride of the Pharisees, of course, have been infamously preserved forever in the Sacred Scriptures.

But we should keep in mind, even if we are anonymous middle-class schleps—with or without a web-based “Unauthorized Homily” forum—we too are tempted by pride, and the urge for prestige and power and pleasure that comes with it.

Sin is sin, whether it’s on display for the whole world to see during a presidential campaign, or whether it’s known only to God. If the Pharisees of old and politicians of today need to get humble and repent, surely so do we.

©2008