2 Peter 3:11-15, 17-18; Psalm 90; Mark 12:13-17
The Lord invites us to grow, blossom and flourish in this new life, this new hope, this new and transforming experience.
This is the theme of St Peter’s letter in today’s first reading. He says “You should be living holy and saintly lives while you wait and long for the Day of God to come…” St Peter continues “…go on growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
So our challenge is to keep on living good, holy and saintly lives, to try our best to live lives without spot or stain and to keep growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In today’s Gospel, we have an interesting narrative of how the chief priests and elders sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to set a trap for Jesus. I may not be able to go into a detailed analysis but the response of Jesus is worthy of reflection. He says ‘Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar- and to God what belongs to God.
The image of Caesar was on the coin and so by using the coin, they have accepted Caesar’s authority. Consequently, they must submit to his rule as long as it doesn’t infringe on their service to God.
There are two lessons here for us;
- Holiness doesn’t include despising earthly authorities. Holiness should not make us rebels but law-abiding citizens (Romans 13:1-7).
- The coin belongs to Caesar because his image was on it, we are bearers of the image of God too, which means we belong to God. So the saintly and holy lives recommended by St Peter is to live in recognition of the fact that we belong totally to the Lord and He alone is worthy of our worship, total obedience and greatest affection.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on June 2, 2020.