Ready for Battle

 From the Holy Gospel according to Mark (Today's Gospel, Mark 12:13–17)

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to entrap him in his talk. (Mk. 12:13)

This world is not neutral ground; you must belong to a group. You must prepare to battle in that camp, give your all, and continue until you pay the last price with your life. There is no better way to say it. Either you are struggling as a son or daughter of the Kingdom and therefore getting up every day to evaluate and realign yourself, or you are working against it ("He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" [Mt. 12:30]).

In this verse (Mk. 12:13), these chief priests, scribes, and elders, who felt that Jesus had touched their interests, now decided to send a delegation from two groups who had always opposed one another regarding how they viewed the Roman occupation—the Pharisees and the Herodians. For the Pharisees, God is the King of Israel, and only to Him must every Israelite pay homage. The occupation of the land by the Romans was something blasphemous. Touching a coin bearing the image of Caesar (with the Latin inscription Caesar Divi Filius, "Caesar, son of a god") was also paying homage to and accepting that Caesar was a god. For the Herodians, the occupation was good, and taxes were to be paid. Each of these two groups had different interests and disagreed. Just like those dragging an Anambra man into the Biafran controversy.

Whichever way Jesus tilted in His response to their question, He was in trouble. He had to fall into their trap. Who else could escape this type of trap? See how intelligently they crafted the question: "Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" (See Mk. 12:14–15).

To this question, our Lord answered with great wisdom. He had already told us not to prepare our defence beforehand, because the Holy Spirit will give us the words (Mt. 10:19–20). However, it is important to emphasize here that answering correctly does not mean that people will accept the truth. Stephen, Peter, Paul, St. Justin (name any witness or martyr) answered in the Spirit and testified, just as Jesus did. Our preoccupation should be with testifying to the truth and not with whether people will accept it. Sometimes they do; at other times, they become more aggressive. That is why one must be ready to pay the last price in this combat.

Jesus escaped this time, but He would still pay the price for loving and standing for the good. So the question to you and me remains: How conscious are we of the reality of this combat with the prince of this world, and how ready are we to allow God to be our strength and to support and encourage one another, as the early Christians did?

Ifeanyichukwu, Tuesday, 2 June 2026.

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