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Lectionary blog for Oct. 18, 2026
21st Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9;
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22
I have this thing where it’s difficult for me to recognize people in contexts where I’m not expecting them. I miss opportunities to say hello to my students even if we are working out next to each other at the gym. I don’t recognize parishioners in the grocery store unless they say hello. I just have a terrible time recognizing faces. As it turns out, I’m not alone. This week’s lectionary passages address situations where a main character doesn’t recognize someone.
Isaiah 45 begins with a stunning address: The Lord calls Cyrus the messiah. Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, played a central role in biblical history. After overthrowing the Median Empire, he conquered Babylon. Not too much earlier, the Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah, exiling thousands of Judeans. Suddenly, Cyrus found himself responsible for thousands of Judeans and many others who had been displaced. This responsibility led God to anoint Cyrus as a messiah for a specific service.
But the scroll of Isaiah points out that there might be a problem with Cyrus serving God. Cyrus does not know, and has never heard of, the God of Israel (4-5). The prophet insists that this needn’t be an issue. God will grant Cyrus hidden treasures and the ability to break through iron bars and bronze doors to resettle God’s people in the Holy Land. The prophet is explicit: it is for the sake of Israel, God’s chosen one, that God will bless this Persian messiah. This section of Isaiah, then, serves as an introduction to God. Though he didn’t recognize God, the prophet insists that God recognizes Cyrus and will use him to accomplish the Lord’s work.
In Matthew’s Gospel we have some very sharp wordplay that centers around recognizing faces. Some Pharisees teamed up with their erstwhile enemies, the Herodians, to trap Jesus. They sought to come up with a situation in which Jesus would be condemned by his own words.
But first, they wanted to offer some disarming praise. They insisted that Jesus didn’t change his teaching based on who was listening and that he was impartial toward people (22:16). The literal translation of the latter phrase in Greek is something like “you do not regard peoples’ faces.” This isn’t a random statement. In instructions for judges and law enforcement officers way back in Deuteronomy 16:19, they were told to avoid treating people differently based on their face. The Pharisees here offer Jesus a feigned compliment by saying that he avoids corruption by not treating friends and foreigners differently, depending on their faces.
We need only look at every other human in the world to see God’s image and work. The face of the neighbor—Indigenous, local, foreigner, poor, rich, incarcerated, free, male, female, trans—is the image of God.
Jesus recognized their treachery, however, and challenged them to live up to their false compliments. The Pharisees and Herodians then tried to trap Jesus by asking if they should pay taxes to the Romans. If Jesus said “yes,” they could condemn him as a collaborator (like the Herodians). If Jesus said “no,” they could condemn him as a rebel (like several of the Pharisees). Instead of offering a simple answer, Jesus challenged them to recognize a face.
Jesus asked those assembled against him to recognize whose face was on Roman coinage that would be used to pay the tax. Of course, the visage was Caesar’s! Jesus said to give to Rome what belonged to Rome, and to give to God’s kingdom what belonged to God’s kingdom. But what does that mean?
We need to recognize where God’s face is stamped. Like Cyrus, far too often we have not recognized God’s works. We need only look at every other human in the world to see God’s image and work. The face of the neighbor—Indigenous, local, foreigner, poor, rich, incarcerated, free, male, female, trans—is the image of God. So by all means, give currency back to the government that minted it. But far more important for the Christian is to give grace, love, honor and care to God and the image-bearers of God who surround us on all sides.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to go through life with our eyes open, recognizing what God is doing in the world and in our communities. It may be that, like Cyrus, we need a prophet to remind us that God is calling us to take care of refugees and the displaced. It may be that, like some Pharisees and some Herodians, we need Jesus to remind us what is of passing importance, and what (who) is stamped with God’s own image. In every case, we are called to recognize the face of God in our neighbors.
