Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
An old saying says that translators are traitors. An old comic routine has the visitor talking with the native through an interpreter. The native gives a five-minute answer to a question, and the interpreter says, “He said, ‘No!’”
The Greek word for son can also mean subject or disciple. The question is whether kings would tax foreigners or their sons, disciples, or subjects, however you translate the Greek word for son.
Would God tax Jesus, the Son of God? If so, Peter and all the other disciples are children of God. This understanding of the Greek word allows us to understand Jesus as Son of God and our sharing in this relationship of Jesus with the Father.
I Jesus’ times, kings would tax foreigners more than they would foreigners. In times past, in Muslim countries, Christians had to pay a special tax, one the Muslims would not have to pay. In our day, we pot taxes, tariffs, on foreign goods so that our goods good can sell better in our markets. We understand that foreigners pay taxes that the subjects or citizens do not have to pay. From this we can understand that, like Jesus, Peter and we have a citizenship with Jesus in heaven.
Which of the meanings of the Greek word did Matthew intend? I cannot read his mind but translating it as son makes a strong statement about Jesus and a better pun, or wordplay, on Jesus’ relationship with the temple. Translating as subject, or disciple, would include all members of Christ in the time of the writing of the gospel, which was after the destruction of Jerusalem. This was also a time when the romans were collecting a tax for the upkeep of one of the Roman temples. This would also give us a pun that Christians are not subjects of Rome, but of God and, hence, do not have to pay taxes for pagan causes.
Jesus and Christians, then, do not have to pay the tax, but Jesus teaches us to pay rather than cause scandal. This can give us something to think about as we manoeuvre (also spelled maneuver) politics and morality in today’s world.