Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome to Feed Your Soul. This Sunday, the Pharisees are trying to trip up Jesus. They're trying to trick Jesus. They're trying to entangle him, as it says in the gospel. Are there people in your life who are trying to trip you up, people who are trying to deceive you, people who are trying to entangle you? This is what we read in the Sunday's Gospel: "Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle Jesus in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians saying, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and care not for man, for you do not regard the position of men.' Tell us, then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax." And they brought him a coin. And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." It's a fantastic reading. We think about it a lot, right, the tension between the things of this world and the things of the next world, the tension of participating in public life rigorously and, at the same time, being clear about what are the things of God and what are the things of this world, what are the things of man. There are so many things here for us to reflect upon.

Firstly, they're setting out to entangle him. They're setting out to trap him. Are there people in your life who try to set you up in a conversation, who try to draw you into maybe gossip or draw you into conflict, who just enjoy stirring things up? I think we all have people like that in our lives, and we often don't think about it intentionally. We don't think about, "Okay, I'm going to spend time with this person today, and, actually, I need to be mindful. I need to be on guard because this person is constantly trying to draw me into conflict or draw me into gossip." The reading goes on, and they say to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true and that you teach the ways of God truthfully," like they're praising Him, right, they're flattering Him. And what they say here is actually in contradiction to what they then say, because they then say, "We know you don't care for man, his opinions, and you have no regard for the position of men." So what they're saying first actually directly contradicts the second thing they're saying because they're trying to praise him, they're trying to flatter him, but then they're saying, "We know that praise and flattery and none of these other things work with you." And so, you see the two-faced nature of their approach. They come to him, they ask him the question, and what do we read? "But Jesus, aware of their malice--" Are you aware of malice in your life? 

We like to think that everyone is nice, and everyone is friendly, and everyone has everyone's best interests at heart, but the reality is that isn't true. Sometimes people act with wisdom. Sometimes people act like fools. And sometimes people act in evil ways. And very often, people are malicious. People do have malicious intent. And we have to be mindful of this. And we read here, but Jesus aware of their malice. He knows what he's up against. And because he knows what he's up against, he realized, "Okay, I have to approach this conversation in a certain way." First, he calls him on it. "Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites?" He's very direct with people. And I think sometimes we need to be more direct with people, but we lack that. And then he essentially says, "Show me the money." They show him the money. Whose head is this? This is Caesar. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. But what I want to focus on is the last phrase, "And to God the things that are God." Are you giving to God the things that are God's? Are you aware of the things that are God's in your life and the things that are not? Are you mindful of, "Okay, this belongs to God and I'm a steward of this," whether it be your time or your effort, your energy, your talents, your money, your things, certainly. But are we aware that we are just stewarding these things as we pass through this world as pilgrims? Very often, when we hear this reading, when we hear people talk about this reading, they focus on the first part. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And we skip over the second part, "And to God the things that are God's." God is constantly, for our own good, making demands on our lives. God is constantly, for our own good, calling us in ways that challenge us to surrender, calling us in ways that challenge us to be obedient. And we've talked about obedience before, the root word meaning to listen deeply. And so, this week, let's listen deeply to the things that are God's in our lives. And are we honoring God with those things, or are we holding them back for ourselves in selfish ways? Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God's.