Is it just me, or does Jesus seem to not like the Pharisees and Sadducees? I would say that He is at odds with the majority of them. But why is this the case? The Pharisees and Sadducees were some of the most influential people in that time; they were both the leaders of their communities as well as the teachers. But they did not lead the people, whom they were entrusted to lead, to God but rather they led those people to honor the commandments of men; the laws that they taught did not help bring people closer to God in their hearts, but rather they built up the reputation of themselves. This is why Christ is always at odds with them, and this is also why Christ warns His followers to beware of them as well.

We say that we are Christians, and some of us even do good deeds regularly. But what is the source of these good deeds? In this Gospel portion, we see a common sight, Christ is chewing out the Pharisees because they act according to the rule of law. In this instance, Christ states in allegory that the Pharisees keep the outside of their cups clean while the inside remains dirty. The Pharisees only do what is asked of them out of duty. Some of us may be asking ourselves, “There are so many rules and restrictions as an Orthodox Christian, now you are saying that even if I follow all of these commandments, I may still be lacking?” What could be missing which is so important?

For many of us, when we read through this portion of the Scriptures, we just look at Christ being asked to pay a tax and Him paying it through a miracle. But, what is this Temple Tax, which Christ and Simon end up paying? In the book of Numbers chapter 3, we see a mention of taxing the people with reference to the Tabernacle. More specifically, there was a census throughout all of Israel that was surveying all the firstborn. In this census, 22,000 Levites were called to be dedicated to the Lord, specifically, it states that “The Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord”. Those who were in the 22,000 were exempt from paying this tax, while the rest of the firstborn, which was numbered 263, we're told to pay a tax for their redemption. Not only were these select Israelites exempt from the tax, but also they were allowed to draw near to the Tabernacle without the fear of death.