(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
Jesus had no problems with the Pharisees’ practice of tithing on garden produce. He did have a problem, however, with how the Pharisees substituted tithing of herbs for greater social justice concerns.
It costs almost nothing to pay taxes on gardens; it costs more to provide for orphans, widows, and strangers. This passage reminds me of the current debate on social justice issues. It costs us nothing to champion against abortion, but it touches our money if we accept migrants at our borders, if we support qual right for minority groups, or if we increase the minimum wage.
Would Jesus say to us what he said to the Pharisees, “Woe to you for not championing the causes of the poor, the stranger, the oppressed of society. You did well to champion the cause of the unborn, but you neglected the rest of God’s agenda in social justice.”
Earlier in this chapter (11) Jesus had said that giving alms cleans a person’s insides. It is in championing causes that cost us money that we seem better able to follow the Lord’s bidding here. It is important to pay taxes on the little stuff, but more important to spend more on the weightier issues. In our day and age, abortion is an issue, and an important one, but one that does not cost us financially, but the other social justice issues demand the expenditure of money, which may be why we do not address them on the personal or national level.
The Lord says that we must practice both, social justice on the financially cheap issues, and also on the financially expensive ones. If we do not, we may well end up as the unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk. How do we choose?