It should be very clear by now that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were out to get him. They could have accused him of anything: he did not respect the Sabbath, he invited himself to eat with sinners at their homes, he did not pay taxes, he made friends with Samaritans (sworn enemies of the Jews), he loved everyone, even sinners. Still, they wanted a statement from him which would have made their accusation fool-proof. This time they try to test him with a question about the Law. Their beloved Law, given to them by God Himself. The question seems simple and innocent enough: which commandment of the Law is the greatest? We know that, in reality there were disputes amongst various Rabbis about which commandment is the greatest. We know that God had given them the ten commandments. But these were, probably, deemed to be too general. So, in time these were developed into 613 commandments, each of them being a specific should or shouldn’t do.

Most of those present (being pharisees) would have expected Jesus to say that the greatest commandment is the observation of the Sabbath, their holy day. The next question would have obviously been, then, “So why don’t you observe it?” But again, Jesus does not fall into their trap, and he cites something which they knew very well. He quotes the “Listen Israel”, which the Jews knew like we know the Our Father or the Hail Mary. They recited it more than once a day, and it says, “You must love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your heart”. Without being asked, then, Jesus adds that the second one is similar: love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus puts these two commandments on a par. It’s interesting to note that here Jesus goes beyond their Law. The only times love is mentioned in the 613 precepts are to love God (4), to love other Jews (13), to love converts (14) and to love the missionary (37). Jesus introduces the love of neighbour. And we remember that when once someone asked him who is my neighbour he gave them the parable of the good Samaritan. This must have been quite a shock to his listeners. No one would have imagined that an enemy (and a very hated one at that!) should be considered a neighbour worthy of one’s love.

Throughout his ministry Jesus never taught anyone to obey the law. His concern was, rather, that we become more like God. He wanted to help us live up to the fact that we are created in God’s own image. Of course, the law is there to help us in this. As he said, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to perfect it”.

God is Love, Saint John tells us. The two words, God and Love, are interchangeable. Jesus is the human expression of this divine Love. My life as a follower of Jesus has to be modelled on his love. Some of his final words were a reminder that we should “do this” in his memory when he was about to give up his life, and to do as he did, when he washed his disciples’ feet (including those of Judas the traitor!).

No wonder he puts the two commandments together. Loving God with my whole being must necessarily lead me to love my neighbour unconditionally, irrespective of who he or she is or of what they have done.

​“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets,” Jesus concludes. Indeed, on these commandments depend everything for us. 

He had become a common enemy. We have two opposing factions from Jewish life in Jesus’ time. The pharisees, who had the power to decide what is spiritually right or wrong, were against the Roman occupation of their land. The Romans were pagans who profaned the Holy Land with their idols and their immoral life. It was, therefore, morally wrong according to them to support in any way the Roman occupiers. Then there were the Herodians who, as the name suggests, were friends of Herod Antipas, whom Jesus had called fox. He was a puppet in the emperor’s hands, and these people were very much pro-Roman.

Through his teachings, Jesus was becoming a threat for both of them. So, they manage to come together to get him. And what better way is there than to ask him about taxes - something that everybody has to pay but everybody detests! As if to answer this question, St Paul would tell the Romans, years later, “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor”. Everybody knows that a just tax-system is necessary for every society to function well. The Christian has to give a good example even in this. But Jesus chooses not to address the issue. He does not fall into their trap. Instead, he asks about the image and inscription which are on the tribute coin, the denarius. On one face of the coin we can find the image of the Emperor Tiberius, with the words “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus”. Caesar considered himself divine, a god. And that’s how he wanted others to see him. We remember that many martyrs of the early Church died precisely because they refused to venerate the emperor as god. They knew there is only one God, and their choices were made accordingly. When Jesus tells the people to give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God, he is not talking about taxes or tax-evasion. He goes much deeper than that, and is asking the people (and, therefore, us) to do the right choices in life. Essentially, he is asking us: who is your God? Whom, or what, do you worship in life?

The fact that Caesar’s image is imprinted on the coin implies that the coin belongs to Caesar. It does not belong to us. The image we have imprinted in us, on the other hand, is the image of God. Speaking of this kind of facial recognition, the Jews would have immediately recalled the quote from the opening verses of the bible when God created us in His own image. That is the image we have imprinted in us. And therefore, it is to God that we belong.

Giving to God what belongs to God is what we did in our baptism. There we died for the world and offered our lives to God. With our baptismal promises we made a commitment to live the rest of our lives according to God’s wishes.

Jesus’ invitation is still very relevant to us today. Like the people in Jesus’ time we, too, have to choose which God to serve in our lives. The idols that might want to allure us in life can be many: money, work, self-image, ambitions. As Christians, we belong to God because His image is imprinted in us. Let us give God what truly belongs to him. If we want to see what the image of God looks like, Jesus’ words come to our help when he told us “whoever sees me sees the Father”. So living up to God’s image simply means living the same kind of life that Jesus lived - a life of total, self-giving love.

​Let us live up to the image that is imprinted in us: God’s own image.

Sometimes people talk about faith as if it were a burden, a series of do’s and don'ts to be strictly adhered to, otherwise harsh punishments are to be expected. This is very often accompanied by an image of God whose mission in life is to be ready to judge and condemn us as soon as we do something wrong.

This is very, very different to the God Jesus Christ came to proclaim, and to the kind of life he came to announce. Speaking about his mission on earth, he once said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”. He also said that whatever he told us was “so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete”. These, and other quotes from the gospels clearly show us that Jesus’ message is all about love, joy and life. Also, we’ve seen these last couple of weeks how God never gives up on us. Even though we sometimes refuse to receive his message, he keeps sending us messengers, prophets, and people to help us to accept his invitation for a new and better life.

In today’s gospel Jesus resorts to the image of a banquet. This was a very powerful image for people who often found themselves in difficult situations, having to go hungry or struggling to make a living. In a banquet there is food for everyone - in abundance - it’s free, and there is joy. No wonder that, in our first reading for today, the prophet Isaiah uses the same image for the new world promised by God. The prophet speaks of the salvation people have been longing for for many years. He imagines this new world as being a city on a mountain, where God will host a banquet “for all peoples”. It’s interesting to note that no one is excluded. The beautiful song-like description Isaiah gives of this banquet is enough to make one’s mouth water!

In the parable of Jesus it is a king who gives a banquet. For some reason, however, those who are invited decline the invitation. Not understanding the beauty of such an invitation, they prefer to tend their own interests, whether it’s farming or business. Seeing this the king sends out his invitation to everybody who would come, “good and bad”. People are not invited because they are good or worthy, but simply because the king wanted them there!

This is, indeed, good news for everybody. The chief priests and pharisees, to whom Jesus was speaking, would have immediately understood what Jesus was saying. They were the ones to whom the good news was initially proclaimed. For different reasons, they refused to accept it. So now, Jesus is saying, the good news is being offered to everybody. It does not matter what my life has been in the past. What matters now is that I accept Jesus’ invitation to listen to his words and live the kind of life he proposes. This is the new dress that we are expected to put on upon entering this banquet. St Paul would call it “putting on Christ”. As Jesus has been trying to tell us these last Sundays, being a Christian means following him and walking on his footsteps. “Love one another as I have loved you” is the basis of this lifestyle. Jesus’ life of unconditional live, forgiveness and self-giving is now the life of the disciple. This is what’s on the menu of his banquet, and what guarantees peace and complete joy.

​Comprehending the beauty and greatness of all this makes our thanksgiving much more meaningful!