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Subj: DYNAMIS, Conprehensible or Incomprehensible
December 30, 2002, Monday
Date: 12/29/2002 6:00:19 AM Central Standard Time
From: A3dynamis@aol.com
To: orthodoxdynamis@yahoogroups.com
______________________________
Monday, December 30, 2002
Epistle: 2 Timothy 2:20-26
Gospel: St. Mark 12:13-17

Comprehensible or Incomprehensible: St. Mark 12:13-17, especially vss. 14, 15: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or not?"

The Gospel readings for today and tomorrow record controversies advanced by enemies of the Lord who desired to destroy Him (Mk. 11:18; 12:12-13). They posed "trick" questions to catch Him in treasonous or blasphemous statements.

In today's reading, certain religious purists and political officials, the Pharisees and the Herodians, came with a challenge (Mk. 12:13). They asked a question concerning the sovereignty of God, observing that the Lord Jesus does "not regard the person of men, but [teaches] the way of God in truth" (vs. 14). Notice that they demand a "yes" or "no" reply to their question: "Should God's People pay taxes to an idolatrous government?"

Their question appears to be about Caesar and taxes, but truthfully it pits loyalty to God against loyalty to the Imperial Roman government. Christ shows the error of even thinking of God as an alternative to Caesar. Comparing the infinite God to a mere human ruler is to apply over-simplified, human categories and to force the knowledge of God into comprehensible, manageable human concepts. Impossible! As Vladimir Lossky and St. Gregory of Nyssa both point out: "...every concept relative to God is a simulacrum, a false likeness, an idol."

The Pharisees and Herodians were engaging in "reductionism," the practice of simplifying a complex idea or issue to the point of minimizing, obscuring, or distorting it. Even though we are rational creatures, we finite human beings are incapable of speaking definitively about the essence of God except in negative or superlative statements - uncontainable, incomprehensible, all-wise, almighty. As St. Gregory Nazianzen says, "...to define Him in words is impossible." God is not some "thing" that can be compared to some other thing, such as a human government.

In truth, one may learn what to render to God only as God reveals Himself and His will. Otherwise God and His will remain incomprehensible. On the other hand, it is quite possible to comprehend what a "Caesar" expects. The Emperor mints coins with his own image. He issues decrees "...that all the world should be registered" for taxation (Lk. 2:1). He has tax-collectors.

Reductionism arises from a vain attempt to manage God. To reduce God to ideas or principles comprehensible to human beings presumes upon the essential unknowability of God. Simplistic thinking unconsciously assumes it has "god" well in hand. It can explain, fashion, and adapt "god" however it will. The Apostles and Prophets who know the Lord God are unalterably opposed to such theology. Isaiah, for instance, declares, "...as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Is.55:9).

One must choose between reductionism or celebrating the
incomprehensibility of God. Hence, the Prophets reject self-serving faith as did the Prophet Jeremiah who said of his contemporaries: "They have belied the Lord, and said, ‘It is not He; neither shall evil come upon us'"(Jer. 5:12). Genuine faith always agrees with the Prophet Job: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (Job 13:15). In speaking of hope, Solomon said: "The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish" (Pr. 10:28). The wicked do not expect God to interfere, yet He frustrates their ways. Malachi said frankly: "You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you say, ‘In what way have we wearied Him?' In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them'" (Mal. 2:17). But our ways are not hid from God, for "His understanding is unsearchable" (Is. 40:27-28).

Glory to Thee, O our God, Who art ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine Only-begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit!

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