2026-10-18 Twenty-ninth Sunday in ordinary time

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6

Isaiah prophesied through the reigns of Hezekiah through Manasseh, so about 740 to 700 BC, whereas Cyrus became King of Persia around 559 BC and conquered Babylon around 539 BC and and issued the decree allowing the Jews to return home in 538 BC. Therefore there is a gap of 160 years or more before the prophesy and the event.
Modern scholars now believe Isaiah chapters 40-55, including 45:1, were written during the Babylonian exile, around 540 BC, when Cyrus was already on the rise. If one goes with this view, then the author lived only a few years before Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon.

Psalm 96

Psalm 96 is one of five psalms in Book Four (90-106) of the Psalter classified as pure exultation/enthronement psalms to Yahweh as the divine King. 

    By singing a new song that looks to the future
    By confessing his greatness
    By glorifying him (doxology).
    By worshiping him


Psalter background
The five book of Psalms relates the story of the life of ancient Israel

    Books 1 and 2: Psalms 1-72 = from the time of the kingship of David
    Book 3:  Psalms 73-89: through the reign of Solomon, the divided kingdom, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon
    Book 4: Psalms 90-106 : the exile in Babylon and finally
    Book 5: Psalms 107-150:  the return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem

1 Thessalonians 1:1-5

Paul visits Thessalonica, according to Acts 17, on his second missionary journey. This was an important city, the capital of the Macedonian province, located on an inlet and an important trade route, the Via Egnatia. The converts to his message would have previously participated in the many and sundry cults of this bustling city, prominent among them worship of Roma, the embodiment of the ideals of the Roman Empire. When these people heard Paul’s message and accepted its exclusive call to worship the God of Israel alone, they would have faced not only questions, but also rejection and possibly persecution from their families and neighbors. The historical situation in which they converted set them up for a robust and compelling witness of intense and costly faith.

Matthew 22:15-21

On the Tuesday before his passion and death, just as crowds were flowing into Jerusalem, a group of Pharisees were setting a trap for Jesus not to seek for truth but to ensnare him they sent Herodians, Jews who benefited from supporting Herod and Romans. 

The Herodians start with flattery hoping it will lower Jesus's guard - their words however are insincere masking on their true intent to trap Jesus. 

Matthew uses a word for tax levied annually just for being alive - pay Caesar just to be alive. Paying the tax would insult Jews who refuse to accept Romans and treat them as the enemy  and invaders; saying "no" would mean Jesus is encouraging a revolt against the Romans. 

But Jesus calls them hypocrites - this is a Greek term for stage actors who put on a face mask that was not their own true identity and spoke words written by the playwright to sound like the character they were playing - Jesus is accusing them of  theatre not sincerity. 

Jesus asks for a silver denarius which the going day-wage for manual labor - they produced  a Roman denarius with the profile of Caesar and an inscription saying Caesar was a divine God and the highest priest of the land - this entire discussion and therefore also the currency was this in the Holy Temple. Pagan symbols that would be blasphemous to the Laws of Moses 

Worse still the official half-shekel used as temple tax was made of silver but had a pagan Greek God embossed on it - think about this the money collected by the Holy Temple priests had a pagan God on it even though the second commandment strictly forbids it - though shalt have no other God. 

Jesus looks at the coin they gave him and asked "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" Both things - the image and inscription - are superficial artefacts that do nothing to add to the value of the silver coin but merely embellish it. They answer, "Caesar" so Jesus replies with a different verb not just 'give' but 'to return or restore to its rightful owner" - like a debt paid so that the burden is removed. Jesus says the coin is Caesar’s not a spiritual artefact but man made. And then says, "Give to God what belongs to God" ... without specifying anything. Catholic theology believes all human beings are made in the image of God therefore all humans are claimed by God as his, whereas worldly goods do not concern God.
St Paul uses this same verb to 'return or restore to its rightful owner' that Jesus used in Romans 13:7-8 says, "Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."
Sadly the Pharisees were so adamant to have Jesus killed that just 3 days later at his trial before Pilate they twisted his answer in Luke 23;2 they brought Jesus in front of Pilot and charged him saying "hey brought charges against him, saying, “We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a king."
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEHkyjcp6CU