Mark 12:13-17

Paying Taxes to Caesar

13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?"

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

"Caesar's," they replied.

17Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

And they were amazed at him.



BACKGROUND READING:


Genesis 20:4-6


Psalm 105


Luke 20:20-26



Dig Deeper

On of the most infamous and reviled days in the United States of America has come to be April 15th. We all know what that day is, although you won’t find it marked on many calendars. It is, of course, tax day. Most people hate taxes. The Jews were no different, only they had a lot to hate. They had to pay taxes to the Romans, local taxes, the Temple tax, and if they lived in Galilee, taxes to Herod Antipas.


It was, however, the taxes to Rome that were particularly troublesome. The regular tax to the Romans was called the vectigalia, although extra taxes, called the tributum could also be raised. The Jews reveled in and rejoiced over the fact that they were God’s free people, only there was one problem: It wasn’t a reality. Over 500 years before the time of Jesus they had been taken into exile by the Babylonians. Even though they had returned, in large part, to their homeland, they were still in exile for two reasons. One was that the presence of God had not returned to the Temple. The second and more tangible reason was that for nearly all of the last half millennia they had been under the rule of other nations; they were not free. Paying taxes to Rome, then, was a reminder of that fact, and so, Rome was hated.


On top of all that, the coins themselves were like adding insult to injury. They contained the image of Tiberius Caesar, and for the Jews, images of people were a clear violation of the commandment that forbade graven images. On the outside of the coins was the inscription "Tiberius, Son of the Divine Augustus." On the other side it referred to Tiberius as the "High Priest." Put that all together: graven images; son of god; high priest. The Romans couldn’t have been more insulting and offensive if they had tried. We shouldn’t miss the irony here either, as Mark has already let us know that Jesus, the man fielding these questions, is the true king and the real high priest.


Many Jews were so offended by this that wouldn’t even touch these coins, and would make every effort to only use Jewish coins. In asking them to produce a coin, Jesus is giving them a mild goosing. Once again, we see two groups, the Pharisees and the Herodians, that were normally opposed to one another, working together to try to trap Jesus. If he says that they should not pay taxes, he offends Rome, a dangerous thing to do. If he made a statement like that, he could immediately be taken to Pilate and charged with a capital crime. If he says that they should pay, then he alienates the crowds.


Two hundred years before this incident, the Maccabeans had led a revolt against the Syrians with the slogan "pay back the Gentiles what they deserve, and obey the commands of the law." In other words, if the Gentiles act with violence and vengeance, then give it right back to them. This is clearly not what Jesus is saying, but what is he saying?


One thing that he is definitely not doing is laying down a timeless principle for the relationship between church and state. The first thing that he is saying here is, in essence, for them to pay the tax but in doing so they were only giving Caesar his property back, they weren’t submitting to the Romans as their masters. It’s like saying, ‘send this garbage back to the dump’. Yet, he has said, basically, to pay the tax, so he couldn’t be accused of offending Rome overtly. To discover the second point Jesus is making we must consider what he meant by saying to give to God what is his. Does he mean that men are made in God’s image and should give themselves to him? Is he referring to the idea that the sacrificial system of the Temple needed to be replaced by a more complete system of worship? Did he mean that truly giving oneself to God would reveal that the normal revolutionary tactics of violence and aggression won’t work? He probably meant all of that.



Devotional Thought

What does giving to God what is his mean to you? What in your life belongs to God? What wuld your life look like if you gave everything to God that was his?