The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man.” “Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
The Gospel story reveals the problem of supremacy and its minions. Pharisees, supremacists in their local sphere, join forces with Herodians, men seeking the same with Caesar on a grander scale. They relate via obedience. They know Jesus doesn’t. They want to force him to pledge an allegiance to a minion; which one? Who is the ultimate law-giver? To whom do owe ultimate obedience. Jesus’ reply opts out of the dilemma of dehumanization supremacy demands. Supremacy demands we become less human and more inhumane. It does so by demanding we diminish conscience. In conscience, we stand with integrity, alone if need be, in the dignity of our humanity. Our ultimate obedience is to conscience, which is well-formed in communities of people who love us, and act for our healthiness. Who are the people who don’t witness a well-formed conscience, who show a lack of love, even for themselves, and struggle to act for anyone’s healthiness – supremacists. Supremacists are people who struggle with the risk, the vulnerability, and the fragility of their common humanity. They seek positional rule and deny their own humanity in their claimed god-like status. Their god-like status may only be as the man of the house, but it confirms their supremacy. It also confirms their fears about communion, their insecurities about love, and their frustrations about having a healing impact in the world. Fearful, insecure, frustrated men need to assuage their feelings and so they seek status. They get their status quite easily because we live in a world founded in supremacy. It’s the supremacy of the man of the house, the coach, the cop, the boss, the congressman, the president. We are not headed into tyranny, as Timothy Snyder in his book, On Tyranny suggests. We are immersed in it. We’re living through one of its extreme manifestations; unapologetic classism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. In her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt wrote that its origins are in loneliness, “Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities.” What does Arendt think government has been doing to people who are women, poor, minorities for hundreds and hundreds of years if not tyrannizing them! U.S. supremacists have been destroying our public realm of life and isolating most of us from any public capacities from its inception. Arendt’s thesis assumes the point of view of the supremacist; the better off, man, who is white. She thinks his feeling isolated pushes him into totalitarianism. It doesn’t. It pushes him into reclaiming totalitarianism, from local to grand scales, ever more violently than before. The supremacist reclaims his right to being obeyed in private and public life to once again solidify tyranny. NO kings – of course. And too, NO presidents, NO CEOs, NO generals, NO rabbis, NO ayatollahs, NO priests, NO patriarchs, NO rulers – NO supremacists. The supremacists want our obedience, like the Pharisees and Herodians wanted Jesus’ obedience. Like Jesus, we respond with conscience.
“Brave people do not stand by and watch injustice happen without a compunction of conscience.” (Ida B. Wells)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, keep us in communion with each other.
Question: What has it felt like when I’ve experienced freedom from domination?
October 18, 2026 Gospel Matthew 22:15-21 Twenty Nineth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Leave a Reply