What Is Caesar's

13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, 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 the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should 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.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him.

Yet again, the religious and secular authorities attempt to get Jesus to incriminate himself with one party or another. This time it is the Pharisees and Herodians who though sharing some similar interests also had striking differences. The Pharisees although exceptionally religiously devoted were the more moderate wing of Judaism. The Herodians were a political group allied with King Herod, who although a Jew was not particularly religious. The family had paid for the temple renovation not as an act of piety but as a way to cement their control of the people. The Herodians were also very much sympathizers with the Roman occupation as Herod drew all of his authority from the Caesar.

The biggest area of conflict between the two groups would have been over the question of taxation. The Herodians would have supported the Roman taxes as their payment insured Herod's continued rule. The Pharisees, on the other hand, would have been more likely to side with the people and see foreign taxes as something to be done eliminated.

They approach Jesus with a real question, but with false motives. Their first words are the sort of flattery that is spoken while their forked tongues hiss between licked lips. They "know" that Jesus is a person with integrity and will answer their question honestly because he follows God and not other people. They ask him a deceptively simple yes/no question.

But, when the two groups combine to ask Jesus is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, they each have a different "correct" answer in mind. If Jesus supports the tax, the Herodians will be happy, but the crowd will turn against him and Jesus will lose his protection from the religious authorities. If Jesus opposes the tax, the Pharisees will applaud, but the machinery of the government will be set against him for speaking treason. Jesus' answer is unimportant because his answer is wrong either way.

The pharisees and Herodians claim to know Jesus (when it is clear they don't), but Jesus knows them and that their question is one of hypocrisy. So rather than a yes or no, he asks them to bring him a denarius, a Roman coins to examine. 

When it is placed in his hand, he asks the assembled his own question. Whose image and inscription are on the coin? They reply that it is Caesar. Much like the trick question he has been asked, Jesus ensnares those in the crowd with his seemingly simple query. First, he condemns the people who are carrying the coins. The face stamped on the coin is a graven image and thus in violation of one of the commandments. The inscription indicated the deity of the Caesar again in violation of the decalogue. Whoever even carried one of these coins was in violation of the Jewish faith, and the ability to produce one when asked for clearly implies that some (and probably most) of the crowd carried them.

But Jesus continues to argue that whatever bears Caesar's mark must belong to Caesar and therefore should be given to him. Which seems at first to indicate that Jesus is in favor of the empire's tax. However, Jesus concludes his statement and to God that which is God's.

An important note is that when God creates humanity in Genesis it is done in God's image. So when Jesus asks what image is on the coin, he calls to mind that all people are made in God's image. If the presence of the image indicates ownership then clearly if every person bears God's image then every person should be rendered unto God. Which leaves us with a very different question that remains unasked in the air, Does anything belong to Caesar when everything belongs to God.

There is as there has been before amazement at Jesus' words. This is clearly as it has alway been different from belief. The Pharisees and Herodians are just as hard hearted as ever, but they can't believe their cunning plan has failed and the knot they hoped to tie Jesus up in is instead holding them too tight to wriggle out of.