The passage read at the Matins of Holy and Great Tuesday (Matt. 22:15–46 and 23:1–39) brings us into the atmosphere of the final days before the Passion: Christ receives questions that do not seek truth but an occasion for condemnation. By placing this reading within Holy Week, the Church offers it not as a mere historical dispute, but as a mirror of our heart: how we stand before God when His word exposes and judges our certainties.
In the question, “What do you think? Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?” the Lord does not allow Himself to be trapped in a false dilemma between political compliance and revolutionary posture. With the reply, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” He reveals a spiritual ordering: worldly authority has its own sphere, yet the human person bears the “image” of God and belongs first of all to Him. The coin bears Caesar’s image; the human being bears the seal of the Creator. Thus the question is shifted: what do I “render” to God? My time, worship, repentance, love, obedience to His will—or do I offer Him something superficial while keeping my heart elsewhere?
Next come the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, attempting to ridicule faith with a supposed legal example (drawn from the Law of Moses). Christ’s answer is decisive: “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” The Orthodox reading here stresses that the Resurrection is not an idea for moral consolation, but a revelation of God’s “power” that transfigures creation. In the resurrection, people “neither marry nor are given in marriage,” not because God belittles marriage, but because the life to come is not a simple extension of the present; it is communion with God that surpasses biological needs and limitations. For this reason Christ reveals God as “the God of Abraham… Isaac… and Jacob,” “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living”: the patriarchs live before Him, and their relationship with Him is not abolished by death.
Then, in response to the question, “Which commandment is the great one in the Law?” the Lord sums up the whole Law and the Prophets: love for God “with all the heart,” and love for one’s neighbor “as yourself.” Here the Church sees the center of Holy Week’s spiritual struggle: true preparation for Pascha is not emotional excitement, but a return to love that becomes action—forgiveness, almsgiving, humility, truth.
The reading reaches its peak with Christ’s own question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” and His citation of David: “The Lord said to my Lord…” Here it is revealed that the Messiah is not merely David’s biological descendant, but David’s Lord—that is, the Son is truly God. In Holy Week the Church confesses that the One who goes willingly to the Passion is not simply a righteous martyr, but the Incarnate Word who freely delivers Himself for the life of the world.
Finally, chapter 23 contains the severe “woes” against the scribes and Pharisees. Orthodox tradition does not read these as an invitation to condemn persons, but as a warning against hypocrisy: it is one thing to speak about God and another to allow Him to transform you. “They say and do not do”: the gap between word and deed gives birth to harshness, love of power, spiritual blindness. Christ tells His disciples not to seek titles and places of honor, because authority in the Church is service: “The greatest among you shall be your servant.” The climax is His lament over Jerusalem: “How often I wanted… and you were not willing.” God does not coerce; He calls. And Holy Tuesday places before us the responsibility of our freedom: will we remain in religious self-sufficiency, or will we allow Christ to gather us “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”?
+ Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong and South East Asia
