Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
25 He said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Dig Deeper
When I was teaching high school history I had begun to develop a pretty good history book collection. I loved buying new history books as well as going to used bookstores or even antique stores and buying much older books. I got to the point where I had so many books that I could take bookshelves and put them around my desk, leaving just a small doorway-size opening to create a mini-office space. My students were free to come in and borrow any books that they wanted. What I discovered after a while, however, was that many of the books just weren’t coming back. Students would mistreat the books or would lose them and my collection began to dwindle a bit. On top of that I would forget after a time who had borrowed what books and if they didn’t bring them back on their own I was out of luck. To try to help with this problem I began to make students sign books out but I also got a really nice stamper. This thing would imprint a seal on the first page of each book that reminded anyone who opened the book that it belonged to me. It was stamped with the image that I had chosen as a stern reminder to anyone who might misuse, mistreat, or even throw the book away. This helped the situation quite a bit but I had one book that I was rather found of that I noticed was missing one year near the end of the school year. I looked on the sign-out list and asked the student who had signed that book out where it was. They said they would go look for it but came back the next day to inform me that they had actually given the book to one of their non-school friends and that the friend had given to someone else. My question was how could they do such a thing? The book had my seal on it. How could he give away something that had my seal on there?
If we had no other account of Jesus that survived the annals of history other than this short account in verses 20-26, then the one thing that we would still know for sure is that Jesus was probably the most brilliant man that ever lived. His constant ability to avoid traps and turn the tables in situations in which it seemed that there was no possible way to answer is simply awe-inspiring. Similarly, if this was the only passage that survived that Luke had written, we would still know that Luke was an absolutely brilliant writer with an ability to finely craft a story that marvelously painted a memorable scene in just a few short words. This scene is stunning in its ability to capture what actually happened and make the clear point that Jesus was getting at it. If something is stamped with the seal or image of its true owner, then that thing ultimately belongs to the owner and that should give pause to anyone who thinks of misusing that item without considering the owner.
As the scene opens up, we are informed that the religious leaders had apparently become nearly obsessed with Jesus. They were watching his every move, waiting for a mistake; waiting for an opening. They knew that he was dangerous to their positions of authority for if someone claiming the kind of authority that Jesus was claiming was left unopposed, it just might mean that they would lose everything that they valued so dearly. Jesus must be stopped.
The lengths that they were now willing to go to shows just how dangerous they believed Jesus to be. They sent in spies who had a plan to catch Jesus in a trap. What this tells us is about the great amount of planning and forethought that they were putting into stopping Jesus. They had carefully listened to and noted his every word. They had studied the reaction of the crowds and carefully considered what might turn the people against Jesus. They so valued and craved the adulation and acceptance of the people that it never occurred to them the thought that Jesus might not need the approval of the crowds in the way that they did. But more importantly, if they could turn the crowds against Jesus then they could get rid of him with no negative repercussions for themselves.
What is more, if they could catch him saying something incriminating then they could hand him over the Romans with evidence that he was an anti-Roman revolutionary and could stand by and claim innocence while the hated Romans put Jesus to death. If handled perfectly, the chief priests could have Jesus killed by the Romans while actually consolidating the will of the people behind them.
These spies went along with Jesus pretending to be serious disciples who wanted to hear his words. They acted as though they were sincere questioners with a very difficult question that they needed him to work out for them. The reality was that it was a clever and well thought out trap. In fact, the question seemed absolutely perfect. It was a loaded question and put Jesus in a no-win situation, similar to the famous old question “have you stopped beating your wife?”. How do you answer that question? Should the people of God pay taxes to Caesar or not? If Jesus answered that they should not, the chief priests would have everything they needed to turn Jesus over to Rome as an anti-Roman revolutionary who was inciting people to not pay this yearly tax (the yearly tax was not that heavy but it was still much-hated by the Jews as an annual reminder of their subservience to Rome). But if Jesus answered that they probably should pay taxes, then he would lose the support of the crowds and be seen as just another Roman shill. Without the crowd support, the priests could then have Jesus quietly removed without fear of opposition or negative public opinion for them. In their eyes, this question was fool-proof. It was brilliant because no matter what Jesus answered, he would be right where they wanted him. There was no way out of this trap.
Or wasn’t there? Luke has perfectly built up the tension in a few short verses but then tells us that Jesus saw through their duplicity. But what could he do? How could Jesus possibly get out of this one? Would this be the beginning of the violent end that Jesus had talked about so often? As regular readers of the Gospels, we know that Jesus would eventually meet a violent death but it would happen in his timing, when he laid down his life and made himself a willing sacrifice. It would not come through the clever scheming of the chief priests and teachers of the law. What Jesus did in response to this seemingly fool-proof trap was nothing short of sheer brilliance. Rather than playing their game, he took the issue back to God. He made the issue a God thing.
First, he asks them to produce one of the hated Roman coins. They were so hated and despised by the Jews because they believed these coins to be in clear violation of God’s commandments against idolatry. The coins had Caesar’s image on them and for any Jewish coin, or anything, else to have the image of a living being was considered blatant idolatry and in violation of the second Commandment. To make matters worse, the denarius at the time had an inscription which read “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus son of the divine Augustus.” In asking them to produce such a blasphemous item, Jesus has already put them on the defensive and in an embarrassing situation. Why would they have such an item that was allegedly so offensive? Jesus didn’t have one on him but they had one. The tables were already beginning to turn. Being able to produce such a coin out of their “pockets” was clear evidence that they were in the “pocket” of Rome.
Once the coin had been produced, Jesus asked a seemingly obvious question. Whose image appeared on the coin? I have seen some of these coins in person and it does not take a rocket scientist to determine that the image on it is none other than the mighty Caesar. Putting his image on those coins reminded everyone instantly who was in charge, who ultimately owned the coins, and who had the authority of everything that was based on the necessity of those coins. The coins were a constant reminder that Caesar was, in the earthly sense, Lord of all.
Jesus then gave one of the shortest and most brilliantly devastating answers of all time to a question that seemed like it was impenetrable. He simply declared that they should “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” This should not be reduced to some sort of principle on the relationship between church and state as some have attempted to do (although those are important issues to work out). The genius of Jesus’ answer relies on understanding one of the more subtle but most important themes in all of Scripture.
In Genesis 1:26-27, we are told that part of God’s original purpose for man was to be made in his image. The Hebrew word “Tselem” or “image” is the literally the word “idol” and it meant to be a representative of something (the Greek word for “image” is “eikon” from which we get our word “icon”). Thus, humans were made to represent God in the world of his creation, in other words, to bear his image and rule wisely. But sin corrupted that image and made humans incapable of fully doing this (Gen. 5:1-3). Jesus, however, was the complete human being, the perfect image of God (Col. 1:15; 2: Cor. 4:4). This is all vitally important because human beings were made to worship God, so if we cease to worship God we will worship something (Ps. 97:7; 106:20; Isa. 40:18; Jer. 10:14; Rom. 1:23). The fact of the matter is that we slowly become like what we consistently worship (Ps. 135:15-18). The New Testament is clear that if we worship parts of the creation, we will become corrupted just like those created things (Rom. 1:18-23), but if we enter into the life of Christ and worship the true and living God, then and only then will we be renewed in the image of God (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).
When we understand all of that, Jesus’ point becomes crystal clear. If Caesar wanted his money back through taxes, fine. It was his anyway and God does not need such things to provide for his people. We can tend to get so caught up in worry over material things, wealth, and even whether we will have jobs or not to provide for us but Jesus was quite adamant that the one who committed to worshiping God with their life will seek God’s agenda first and trust that God will provide those things (see Matt. 6:25-34). Giving taxes to Caesar was unimportant from God’s point of view. They could go ahead and do it without any thought that they were submitting themselves to Caesar. Caesar wanted what had his image on it and that was just fine.
But God also wanted what was his and had his image imprinted on it. Jesus was not saying “give the portion of your money that belongs to Caesar and then be sure to give your tithes to God.” His point was that God owned each human being (Ezek. 18:4) so the most appropriate act that any human being could do was to give themselves to God and fulfill the ultimate purpose for each human being. Give to Caesar the pittance that was Caesar’s. Money was just money. But God wanted their allegiance to his Messiah so that they could be restored in the image of their creator. This is what he wants for each of us from that day to this one.
But there is one final and important note here. Jesus had shown the logic of their little trap to be faulty and has exposed them as hypocrites who were more concerned about matters of this present age while missing the things that were truly important to God. We all have those times when our hearts are revealed as being distant from God’s will and we have the choice to carry on with our agenda or to repent. Sadly, though, rather than this episode leading to the understanding and repentance of thsoe opposed to Jesus it led to their astonishment and silence. They would move no closer to God. It is truly a cautionary tale for us.
Devotional Thought
What do you worship? What takes priority in your life? Do you truly seek to grow in and display the image of God in your life or do you far too often get caught up in the details of other images and other things?
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