Render Unto Caesar

Hey, 

Today we are going to look at the story in Luke 20:20-26, where Jesus is asked about whether the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar or not.  As he always does, Jesus sees right through the trap and outsmarts his opponents.  Here is my translation: 

 20 Watching him closely, they sent spies who pretended to be sincere, hoping to trap him with his own words. Then they intended to hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor. 21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality, but instead teach God’s true path.  22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

23 Jesus saw through their deceit, and said to them,  24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription is on it?” 

They replied, “Caesar.”

25 Jesus said to them, “Then give to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what is God’s.” 

26 They were unable to trap in words in the presence of the people. Since the people were amazed by his answers, they remained silent.

The chief priests and scribes are really desperate to trap Jesus somehow.  They send spies who pretend to be sincere, in hopes that they can somehow trap Jesus in his own words.  They have been trying to trap him for a while, but Jesus always outsmarts them and their trap always springs back on themselves. If, somehow, their trap was successful, they intended to hand Jesus over to the governor, Pilate, a man with a reputation for cruelty. The blame for Jesus’ demise could be placed on the enemy Romans. 

These spies start with flattery, making statements about how Jesus teaches the truth and does not show any partiality. Then they put out what they believe to be a trap that Jesus can’t get out of.  They ask about whether they should pay taxes to Caesar or not.  

If Jesus says ;yes,; it will make the people angry, as it sounds like he supports their cruel overlords, the Romans.  If he says ‘no,’ the Romans would take this as treason and do Jewish leadership’s dirty work for them and get rid of Jesus. 

Michael Burns, explains in his book Escaping the Beast, the meaning of what Jesus says here.  Jesus' question is important.  He asks in response whose image is on the coin.  The answer is "Caesar.'  Jesus then says that we should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God. He takes his audience all the way back to Genesis 1 where God created mankind in His image.  So, while the coin bears the image of Caesar, each person bears the image of God.  Caesar can have his coin, God wants something from us that is far more valuable than our money. We owe Him, ourselves.  (Burns, 231.)

Jesus has recognized the need to honor our civic responsibility to pay taxes, but that we have an even greater responsibility to honor God.   

We can also see something that Jesus is not.  He is not trying to lead a revolution.  Darrell Bock says this: “One can at least say that Jesus rejects an aggressive, nationalistic, revolutionary Zealot-like approach to the question.  Jesus' current kingship is not designed to lead a revolution to overthrow Rome.  Whatever he is teaching, it is not political insubordination.” (Bock, 1614.)

This section of scripture ends by saying that the people were amazed by his answer and so his detractors remained silent.  Jesus has outsmarted them again.  They were hoping that either the people or the Romans would be upset by his answer.  Jesus, being infinitely smarter than his opponents, answered in a way that they could not have anticipated and he upset neither.