Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 18, 2026

Two pagan rulers stand in this Sunday’s readings. Isaiah calls Cyrus of Persia the Lord’s “anointed,” a title Israel kept for its own kings, and Jesus asks to see a denarius stamped with the head of Tiberius and an inscription calling him the son of the divine Augustus. The Church pairs them on purpose. This guide works through all four readings: Aquinas and Theodoret on how a king who never knew God could still be his instrument, Augustine on a psalm that builds a house by singing, Nathan Eubank on the coins of Thessalonica that called Caesar a god, and Chrysostom, Tertullian, and the Incomplete Work on Matthew dissecting the verb Jesus chose, render, and the image that belongs to God.

The Readings

First Reading: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:

For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I gird you, though you do not know me, that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10

R. Give the Lord glory and honor.

O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Worship the Lord in holy array; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yea, the world is established, it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brethren beloved by God, that he has chosen you; for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21

Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle him in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought him a coin. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Scriptural Analysis

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6: The Pagan King God Calls His Anointed

Cyrus of Persia took Babylon in 539 BC, and within a year he issued a decree that sent the Jews home to rebuild the temple (2 Chr 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4). Isaiah speaks before or at the edge of that moment, and he gives Cyrus a word no exile expected to hear about a Persian: “his anointed,” mashiach (mah-SHEE-akh), the Hebrew word behind the word “Messiah.” The Navarre commentators call the passage “an investiture oracle that maybe never reached the ears of Cyrus yet filled the exiles with hope.” They insist the new empire’s rule “is not in any sense a punishment for the Jews; God has chosen to save his people by means of this ‘outsider’ shepherd,” and they admit the idea “did not at all fit in with the people’s own exclusive, nationalistic mentality.”1

Aquinas, in what is probably his first major theological work, explains this seemingly controversial title without fuss: “my anointed, that is, my king, not because of his anointing, but because of his royal dignity, because among them, kings were anointed.”2 Theodoret of Cyr makes the same point from the other direction: “The divine Scripture designates under the name ‘anointed’ not only those who are brought forward for unction but also those whom the God of the universe has singled out with a view toward [fulfilling] a required function.” Tertullian went further than either. His Bible read, “Thus says the Lord God to my Christ the Lord,” most likely because the Greek name Kyros (KOO-ross) sits one letter away from kyrios (KOO-ree-oss), “Lord,” and he asked, “For whose right hand does God the Father hold but Christ’s, his Son?”3 Tertullian’s text is a slip of the Greek, so leave it out of the homily. His instinct is sound, though, because the whole tradition agrees that Cyrus points beyond himself.

Consider the subject of the verb, as it provides great insight. God grasps the right hand, God goes before him, God levels mountains and breaks doors of bronze. “Ungird the loins of kings,” the Navarre note explains, “means disarming them, for the sword was slung from the belt.”4 Then comes the line the Lectionary pick back up with and the preacher should slow down for it, said twice: “I surname you, though you do not know me” (45:4), and “I gird you, though you do not know me” (45:5). Aquinas calls it a benefit “partly frustrated on the part of Cyrus himself,” who never knew the Lord “to be the only true God, as you remain in idolatry,” and he hears Mordecai’s question to Esther behind it: “who knoweth whether thou art not therefore come to the kingdom?” (Esth 4:14). Theodoret is blunter. Cyrus “also was a slave to the error of idolatry,” yet God “had appointed him as an instrument of chastisement to the Babylonians and of the liberation of Israel.” Isho’dad of Merv puts the Lord’s complaint in the first person: “Even though I have honored you so much through my prophets, you were never interested in knowing me.”5 The Cyrus Cylinder, the king’s own clay proclamation now in the British Museum, credits Marduk of Babylon with choosing him. Isaiah had answered that claim in advance.