Several years ago, an unlikely pair of lobbyist groups joined forces to oppose a proposal to lower fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars. Automobile manufacturers and environmentalist groups tend to have divergent viewpoints on the value of vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Regarding federal regulation of exhaust emissions, however, the two groups shared a viewpoint, albeit for very different reasons. Not surprisingly, their brief cooperation was noted by a broad range of news media.
Cooperation between opposed interest groups is rare, and when it occurs, it gains the attention of all who witness it. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus knew immediately that something unusual was occurring when he was approached by a coalition of Pharisees and Herodians.
All Roman subjects were required to pay the tribute tax, but the obligatory nature of the tax did not preclude a wide range of opinions about the tax. The Pharisees objected to the tax for two principal reasons. First, like all people subjugated by the Roman Empire, they found Roman occupation to be oppressive. Second, unlike most other people, they objected strongly to both the inscription on Roman coins that identified the emperor as divine and to the image of the emperor on those coins. Faithful Jews considered the imperial attribution of divinity to be blasphemous and the graven image to be idolatrous.
The Herodians, on the other hand, cared little about religious matters; they gave their full support to Herod, the Roman vassal king. In return for their support, Herod granted them favored status in their social and commercial endeavors. The Herodians were eager to be seen supporting the tribute tax because doing so worked to their economic advantage.
Curiously, both groups viewed Jesus as a threat, and the tribute tax provided an opportunity for them to work together to discredit a common enemy. The Gospel doesn’t specify who was carrying the Roman coin used to pay the tax. Regardless of which group brought the coin to this confrontation, the presence of the coin betrayed both groups’ profound dishonesty. If the coin belonged to a Pharisee, the Pharisee would have been guilty of idolatry and blasphemy. If the coin belonged to a Herodian, the Herodians would have been guilty of conspiring with those who opposed Herod and the emperor.
Jesus’ statement upon seeing the coin was even more damning than the bumbling dishonesty of the Pharisees and Herodians. Jesus distanced himself completely from the accusations of idolatry, blasphemy, and sedition by counseling that one should “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” and he committed himself fully to following God’s will by counseling that one should “give to God what belongs to God.” (Mt 22:21)
The attempt to discredit Jesus devolved into self-incrimination by the Pharisees and Herodians who revealed themselves to be fundamentally dishonest about their publicly proclaimed commitments. The Pharisees showed themselves willing to associate with idolators and blasphemers; the Herodians showed themselves willing to associate with critics of Roman power.
Jesus spoke an undeniable truth about the Pharisees and Herodians when he called them hypocrites. (Mt 22:18) The Pharisees and Herodians happily abandoned their publicly stated religious and political commitments when it was expedient to do so. It should be noted, however, that Jesus did not take issue with the publicly proclaimed commitments of either group. Quite obviously, he was in favor of faithful obedience to the Law of Moses, but he didn’t seem overly bothered by the imposition of a tribute tax by the Roman Empire.
Jesus’ only objection was to the deceptive actions of those who challenged him. Both the Pharisees and the Herodians disguised their crass self-interest under the appearances of something that purported to be good – religious observance, in the case of the Pharisees, and social stability, in the case of the Herodians. In truth, neither group cared about anything except their own selfish desires.
The religious, political, and economic commitments popular today are, for the most part, very different from what Jesus encountered during his lifetime; deceit, however, remains unchanged. The most damning form of deceit is not specific to any historical era or society. The most damning form of deceit is the self-deceit that leads people to disguise their disordered desires under the appearances of virtuous commitments.
The Pharisees and Herodians could have avoided the self-destructive trap of dishonesty. They could have told Jesus that they found him confusing or threatening; those would have been honest statements. Instead of being honest, however, they lied to themselves about both their motivations and their actions. Their dishonesty with themselves led invariably to dishonest actions.
The profound dishonesty of the Pharisees and Herodians revealed an undeniable truth about human behavior, namely, exploiting, scapegoating, or persecuting others is an unmistakable sign of self-deception. To be human is to be limited; to be an honest human, therefore, is to admit one’s limitations and accept them as necessary truth. Obviously, not all human limitations are comfortably admitted in public, but attempting to hide one’s fear or lack of understanding is far more damning than accepting them.
Jesus taught his disciples to forgive on a habitual basis. Forgiveness is authentic only when habitual because it must be granted repeatedly to the limitations of the world and the limitations of other people but, first, habitual forgiveness must be granted to one’s own limitations.
