Render to Caesar

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. ¹⁶ And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. ¹⁷ Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ ¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰ And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ ²¹ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ²² When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Matthew 22:15-22

This incident is also related in both Luke 20:20-26 and Mark 12:17.

No discussion on financial conduct in a Christian context would be complete without addressing the question about tax. To pay or not to pay? That is the question.

Matt 22:15-22 is, arguably,  the most referenced and quoted passage on this subject. Despite the resounding Render to Caesar catch-phrase, the question of tax is not what this scripture is primarily about. That said, it certainly offers some insight into Jesus’ view on taxes and their payment.

To do this scripture justice, we need to answer several questions:

• What was actually going on here?
• What was the real question Jesus answered?
• What does this mean with respect to paying tax?

Render to Caesar – What was actually Going on Here?

In truth, this question was not about tax at all. The people doing the asking already knew how they, and the Jewish population, felt about paying tax. Actually, they were using this as an opportunity to destroy Jesus’ reputation.

Render to Caesar? By posing the question, they put Jesus between a rock and a hard place and this is made clear in verses 15-18. They asked, ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ The implication, while not explicitly stated was ‘Is it lawful under Jewish law, to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Yes, or no.’

Neither answer would have ended well for Jesus. To say, ‘Yes, when it comes to tax, we should render to Caesar,’ would have put him on the side of Rome and the tax collectors. It is clear in other passages of scripture that tax collectors were reviled by the Jewish population. So much so that they were ostracized from society and treated like lepers. To answer yes would have alienated every person in the crowd and word would have spread quickly that this rabbi was a Roman sympathizer. In an instant, Jesus would have lost the ear of the very people he came to save.

So what then? To answer no? This would have labelled him as a rebel and trouble-maker in the eyes of Israel’s Roman overlords. Rome’s response would have been swift and brutal.

Either way the pharisees, who instigated this line of questioning, would win. They would be rid of the person who had begun to make their lives so uncomfortable. Jesus’ response is sheer genius! First, he challenges them on their insincerity and calls out their own hypocrisy. And second, he doesn’t answer the question at all. Instead, he answers a different question entirely.

The Real Question Jesus Answered

Instead of tackling the question head-on; ‘To pay or not to pay?’ Jesus chose to focus on the bigger question around value systems. In His answer, He uses a simple illustration, thus rephrasing the question.

Caesar was an earthly ruler; a ruler of this world. God is a far higher power, the King of Kings. God created the world and everything in it – including Caesar. In this world, Caesar may have wielded ultimate political power but every Jew understood that even Caesar ate, slept and breathed only because God allowed it.

Furthermore, Jesus used a coin to illustrate that money was a material object; an object of this world. It was created by Caesar’s mint and, as such, marked with his likeness and inscription. Incidentally, this is true for many of today’s currencies as it was in Jesus’ time.

Conversely, people are eternal beings created by God, in His likeness. His primary concern is and always will be for our eternal souls. Jesus’ illustration reduces money – and tax – to its proper place in the spiritual context. While we may acknowledge it as an important aspect of this life, next to eternity, it is insignificant.

In short, Jesus asserted that money is of this world, created by the rulers of this world. If those rulers require tax, then give them what is theirs. God is eternal and His focus is on eternal things. What He wants is our hearts, minds and souls. And Jesus asserts that we should render unto God what is God’s.

What does this mean with respect to paying tax?

In Matt 22:15-22, Jesus is quick to divert our focus to the truly important matters in life; what we should render to God. This could mean giving of our finances and there is certainly plenty of scripture on that subject. More on that in another post. However, in the context of this passage, when Jesus says render to God what is God’s, I don’t believe he is referring to money as that would have undermined His point. 

What God requires of us and what we should render to Him are our hearts, minds and souls. Our worship, adoration and thanksgiving. Our fears, our burdens and our griefs. Our prayers and our obedience to His word. Our repentant hearts and our faith in Jesus. This is heaven’s currency and what we should render unto God.

I think it is also clear from the text that Jesus instructs us to pay the lawful taxes due to our earthly governments; render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. In the passage, he clearly acknowledges the legal requirement to pay tax under Roman law but also points out the insignificance of both tax and money in the eternal context.

Beyond that, this passage offers no specific instruction on how to approach the nuts and bolts of taxation from a practical standpoint. To fully understand God’s view on paying taxes, we have to look to other passages in the Bible.

I will look at these in future posts.