Oct 18th, 2020 Motjari meeting Fr. Foeckler’s lecture note-Part 1

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Oct 18th, 2020 Motjari meeting

29th Sunday Oct 18th

“They Marvelled at His Answer”

Today’s gospel is about the Pharisees’ deceit and about Jesus’ answer.

Gospel St. Matthew’s 22:15-22

Gospel from St. Matthew’s is about the last days of our Lord’s preaching His disciples to set a temple.

Last week’s parable of a feast

Gospel

MT 22:1-14 OR 22:1-10

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people 
in parables, saying, 
“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son. 
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business. 
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them. 
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 
Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come. 
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests. 
But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. 
The king said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

 

Sunday before last weeks’s parable about a vineyard

Gospel

MT 21:33-43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
“Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. 
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. 
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned. 
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way. 
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
‘They will respect my son.’
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
They answered him,
“He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

Here’s today’s gospel.

Gospel

MT 22:15-21

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
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion,
for you do not regard a person’s status.
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.”

Parisee’s and Herodians were amazed by Lord’s answer. Why?

They tried to trap Lord, so they asked him a question with dilemma, both “yes” and “no” would have been bad, but Jesus knew this and did not respond with yes or no, and simply told them;

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.”

 Taxpayers are traitors to Jewish people, but without paying they will be in trouble under Roman law.

It is common practice to stamp a picture of leaders on coins. Jesus asked what picture is on the coin. It has Caesar Tiberius’ face on it.

Caesar Augustus who is father of Caesar Tiberius was dubbed divine by Romans, the coin stamped, “Caesar Tiberius, son of Augustus the Divine.” 

1st reason Herodians were marveled  was because Jesus got out of trap in a very brilliant way.

2nd reason was Jesus taught them Caesar and us also, we all belong to God. Image of the coin belong to Caesar, image of us belongs to God. 

Genesis 1:26 is about creation. What Jesus had said was matched to Genesis 1:26 

Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.

God made man and woman in His image.

Word used in the image of the coin had been used in Genesis.

What Jesus had said is all man kind is also stamp of the image of God.

To God, we belong to God.

If the God looks like yourselves, the image of us belongs to God.

3rd reason. What Jesus said is there is only one true God.

Book of Isaiah

45:1

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, 

whose right hand I grasp, 

Subduing nations before him, 

stripping kings of their strength, 

Opening doors before him, 

leaving the gates unbarred:

2

I will go before you

and level the mountains; 

Bronze doors* I will shatter,

iron bars I will snap.

3

I will give you treasures of darkness,

riches hidden away,

That you may know I am the LORD,

the God of Israel, who calls you by name.

4

For the sake of Jacob, my servant,

of Israel my chosen one,

I have called you by name,

giving you a title, though you do not know me.

I am the LORD, there is no other,

there is no God besides me.

It is I who arm you, though you do not know me,

6

so that all may know, from the rising of the sun

to its setting, that there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, there is no other.

7

I form the light, and create the darkness,

I make weal and create woe;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

8

Let justice descend, you heavens, like dew from above,

like gentle rain let the clouds drop it down.

Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;

let righteousness spring up with them!

I, the LORD, have created this.

Cyrus the Elder is a Persian king who conquered Babylonia, freed Jewish people after 70 years later they came into Babylon, and he sent Israelite back to the holy land with money, to build the holy temple in Jerusalem.

Quote from Wikipedia:

Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, relates the traditional view of the Jews regarding the prediction of Cyrus in Isaiah in his Antiquities of the Jews, book 11, chapter 1:^[118]

In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the city, that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these things God did afford them; for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia: “Thus saith Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.” This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies; for this prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision: “My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple.” This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the Divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfill what was so written; so he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said to them, that he gave them leave to go back to their own country, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem, and the temple of God, for that he would be their assistant, and that he would write to the rulers and governors that were in the neighborhood of their country of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver for the building of the temple, and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices.

Monotheism: There is only one true God. The belief in one singular God or deity is monotheism.

Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, those are pagans believed their kings are gods. Judaism taught only God. 

Cyrus frees the Israelites and gives them money and so does Darius after him. God used him to punish those people who conquered Israelites.

Jesus, Son of God, taught Caesar’s to Caesar, God’s to God. 

Everybody has a place for their role. It is right for us to pay taxes. 

1st Zoom ended

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