Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

This is another test, and trap by the pharisees, but this time they bring with them the Herodians. These two groups hated each other, but they were united in their distain for Jesus, who threatened all of their power. These unlikely allies are trying to trap Jesus, and either destroy is popularity or get Him killed by the romans.

They do this by asking a simple question: “Is it lawful to pay the taxes to Ceasar?” This was a hot-button issue among the Jews (both faithful and not). The taxes were going directly to ceasar, directly taking the wealth and posterity out of the Jewish families & the temple, but the more important and divisive issue is that payment of the tax meant that you acknowledge the ceasar as king by doing so. And calling ceasar king, meant that you were placing a man at a higher level than god.

So if Jesus were to say yes, that they should pay the temple tax, this would have enraged the pharisees. The ceasars believed themselves to be divine sons of god, not just men. A yes from Jesus would have had the effect of saying that Jesus believes that Caesar is king, and that His disciples should pay tribute to this earthly ruler. This would have had a huge effect on his followers, and challenge his own divinity. He would likely have lost most of his followers at this answer.

On the other hand Saying that the tax should not be paid would have the effect of saying that Ceasar is not king, and not the son of god. This would have enraged the Herodians, and would likely have resulted in starting an uprising among jewish faithful, and His followers. There had already been multiple revolts against the Roman occupation, in the last few decades and the Romans always put them down swiftly and savagely. The romans had grown very weary of these revolts, and everyone knew that if there was another, that the romans would probably be even more severe then before.

So what does Jesus do? They have put Him in a good pickle, and it seems like there is nothing He can say that will not cause Him a lot of trouble. Well in His usual way He deals with the question by first directly answering the question in an unexpected way, and then second by shining light on the hypocrisy of His accusers.

He asks his accusers for a denarius. This was the coin that was used for paying the temple tax. But it was also the coin by which most commerce was done in Jerusalem, and in the temple…, ie. purchasing animals for sacrifice, and for making donations to the temple taxes. The denarius was a peice of gold or silver, that had the image of Caesar stamped on the top of it. Now keeping in mind that the Caesars thought of themselves as sons of god, these coins were in fact idols of a false god. The temple rule stated that you cannot bring an idol of any other false god with you into the temple. But many of these pharisees had these coins on them, in direct contradiction to temple law. In this simple question and action He turns the tables on them, making the pharisees the offenders of the law, and total hypocrites.

But the greatest rebuke to these pharisees, comes in His final answer. When Jesus says “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” By holding the coin and making this statement, He is saying, in the first case, that if something has your image on it, it belongs to you, and it should be returned to you. But in the second case, He is making a reference to the image of god that is imprinted on the soul of every human being, including Ceasar. And thus, since every soul has Gods image on it, that every person of this world should be given back to God. So give ceasar back his coin, You don’t need it! And instead bring only to the temple what belongs to god, yourself.

This must have deeply angered the pharisees, because they were made to look like fools among their followers. And the Herodians were obviously frustrated because no discernible attack was made on Caesar. I bet Jesus attracted many new disciples that day, while the pharisees, walked away wondering how they are going to get rid of this guy. It is no wonder why they wanted to kill Him, and eventually did.

Oh lord, help me today to spread your word, to render what is due to you, and to ignore and discard everything else. Amen.