Chapter 30 - Our Obligation to God and Government (22:15-22)

30 Our Obligation to God and Government (22:15-22)

Then the Pharisees went and counseled together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they marveled, and leaving Him, they went away. (22:15-22)

Taxes are of major importance in any developed society, and without them government could not function. They are also a perennial point of contention for those citizens who wonder why their taxes are so high and why they are not spent more wisely.

From time to time certain Christian groups raise an organized protest against a given tax or a particular use of tax money they feel is contrary to biblical principles and the constitution. An outcry was raised some years ago when the United States government ordered churches and other religious organizations to withhold Social Security taxes from the payrolls of all employees except pastors. Some Christians vociferously argued that the law required the church to take money donated to the Lord’s work and use it to pay the government.

It is with the ever-present issue of paying taxes that Jesus deals in the present passage.

It was still Wednesday of Passover week, and Jesus was teaching in the Temple, which He had violently cleansed the day before. He had just finished telling and explaining three judgment parables against unbelieving Israel, particularly directed against the Temple rulers who had challenged His authority (21:23). After the second parable the chief priests and Pharisees were so enraged that they would have had Him arrested on the spot had they not feared the multitudes (21:46). It was bad enough that He had devastated the physical domain of their concession booths in the Temple. Now He also devastated their religious domain, exposing their unbelief and ungodliness before all Israel.

The religious leaders resented Jesus because He exposed their pride, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness. They envied His great popularity with the people, especially in light of the fact that He had never sought or received official Sanhedrin certification as a rabbi. Most of all, they were incensed at His claim to be the Messiah and the Son of God, a claim which in their eyes was blatant blasphemy. He even dared to publicly humiliate them in the Temple, the one place where they thought their honor was sacrosanct and their authority incontestable. Now, after the third scathing parable, they were all the more determined to find a means of doing away with Him.

Following Jesus’ series of three judgment parables against them, those religionists responded by confronting Him with a series of three questions, all designed to maneuver Him into condemning Himself either politically or religiously. The first question was devised by the Pharisees but asked of Jesus surreptitiously by their disciples (22:15-22), the second was asked by the Sadducees (vv. 23-33), and the third by the Pharisees directly (vv. 34-40). Instead of taking Jesus’ warnings to heart and asking Him how they might avoid the judgment and receive mercy from God, the only word they wanted from Him was that which would bring about His own destruction.

THE ATTACK

The Pharisees had always been Jesus’ most vocal and vehement enemies, and at this moment, in response to His powerfully intimidating parables, they now went and counseled together how they might trap Jesus in what He said. While Jesus continued to teach the crowds in the Court of the Gentiles, the Pharisees gathered privately in another part of the Temple to plan their next move in private. Because they were still afraid to take action against Him directly, they cleverly planned to trap Him into making a subversive statement against Rome that would insure His arrest and execution as an insurrectionist. They wanted to “catch Him in some statement, so as to deliver Him up to the rule and the authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20), who at that time was Pilate. That way they would have Him out of the way without getting their own hands sullied or arousing the anger of the people.

Probably because the Pharisees were easily distinguished by their dress and many of them were known to Jesus by sight, they decided to send their disciples to Him. The Pharisees were Jesus’ harshest critics and He theirs, and for them to flatter Him directly would have been ludicrous and self-defeating. Presumably their disciples would not be recognized as such and they could pretend simply to be a group of sincere admirers who wanted Jesus’ advice about a question that burned in the minds of most Jews of that day. They hoped He would be caught off guard and entrap Himself before He realized what was happening.

The Herodians were not normal allies of the Pharisees. In fact, the two groups were usually at great odds with each other. Not much is known about the Herodians besides what can be inferred from their name. The Herod family was not Jewish but Idumean, descendants of Israel’s ancient enemies the Edomites. Beginning with Herod the Great, they had received favors from Rome in the form of various high political appointments, including rulerships over parts of Palestine.

The Herodians had no love for Jesus and may even have been instructed by Herod Antipas to try to instigate His death or at least imprisonment. It was that tetrarch who had imprisoned and eventually beheaded Jesus’ forerunner and friend, John the Baptist, and when Herod heard of Jesus’ miraculous works, he was afraid that He was John risen from the dead. But he was also curious to see Jesus in order to witness His miracle-working power (Luke 9:7; cf. 23:8). Some time later, certain Pharisees who were friendly to Jesus warned Him to flee Perea because “Herod wants to kill you” (Luke 13:31). Consequently, during the latter part of His ministry Jesus had avoided the territory of Herod because of the hostility toward Him there, “for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem” (13:33).

Any Herodians, even if they were Jews as these men were, would have had strong allegiance to Rome, and it was doubtlessly for that reason that the Pharisees asked some of them to accompany their disciples as they confronted Jesus. Should Jesus fall into their trap and make the expected objection to paying Roman taxes, the Herodian Roman sympathizers would serve as credible witnesses. Although the Pharisees despised the Herodians as irreligious traitors, it well suited their purpose to enlist these men’s help in entrapping Jesus.

Just as the Pharisees’ praise of Jesus would not have been taken seriously, neither would anything they said in support of Rome. The Pharisees were highly religious and fiercely nationalistic, not unlike the Zealots. But they perhaps despised the Romans more for their paganism than for their military oppression. In any case, their hatred of Rome was no secret, and were they to report a seditious statement or activity to the governor, they would themselves have become suspect. The Herodians were therefore useful, even if dishonorable, co-conspirators, and they would make perfect pro-Roman witnesses against Jesus. Although the Pharisees and Herodians violently disagreed about religion and politics, they wholeheartedly agreed about Jesus and were not loath to make common cause against Him.

With the Herodians supporting them, the disciples of the Pharisees, whom Luke describes as “spies who pretended to be righteous” (Luke 20:20), flatteringly said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one: for You are not partial to any.” To address a Jewish man as Teacher was a high form of honor, reserved for rabbis who had distinguished themselves as astute students and interpreters of Jewish law and tradition. The Talmud said, “The one who teaches the law shall gain a seat in the academy on high.”

The men outwardly praised Jesus’ personal and doctrinal integrity by declaring that He was truthful and taught the way of God in truth. He was God’s Man teaching God’s truth, they affirmed. Neither did He defer to or become partial to any, they added. He would not be swayed by threats or opposition but was known for standing His ground with courage and conviction.

What those men said of Jesus could not have been more accurate, but they did not believe a word of it. Although flattery often involved lying, it is most deceptive and despicable when it employs the truth to achieve its wicked purposes.

Assuming that Jesus was inwardly reveling in their flattery, the men sprang their trap question: “Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” One of the highest forms of praise is to ask a person’s advice on an important issue. Therefore, after Jesus’ ego was, as they supposed, stimulated by the previous compliments, the questioners were certain that, like most men, He would be eager to display the wisdom for which He had just been praised. In doing so He would blurt out an unguarded answer that would become His death warrant.

Poll-tax translates knsos, taken from the Latin (i.e., Roman) censere, from which is derived the English census. Of the many taxes the Romans exacted from occupied territories, none was more onerous to Jews than the poll-tax, a tax payable yearly by every individual and therefore sometimes called the head tax. Among other things, it was for the purpose of collecting the poll-tax that Rome took a periodic census, such as the one that had required Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem just before Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-4).

Paying for the support of the occupying forces and providing the many beneficial services for which Rome was famous required an enormous amount of money, necessarily supplied by taxation. Consequently, a land tax of one tenth of the grain and one fifth of the wine and oil produced was assessed annually, as was a one percent income tax on wage earners. Customs taxes on merchandise were collected at all ports and major crossroads.

The Romans offered many services to conquered peoples, not the least beneficial of which was the Pax Romana, or Roman peace. Because of their strategic military and commercial locations, many countries of the Near East had had little respite from war for centuries. They fought one invader after another and were ruled by one conqueror after another. At least under Roman protection they were free from war and could travel in relative safety anywhere in the empire. The Romans also provided valuable roads and aqueducts, many ruins of which still exist today.

Although the poll-tax may not have been the most costly tax for most people, it was the most resented by Jews. Perhaps it was because they considered themselves as personally belonging to God rather than to Caesar. It was the census tax that incited the insurrection of Judas of Galilee in A.D. 6 that was instrumental in the deposing of Herod Archelaus and his replacement by a Roman governor. Judas’s rallying cry was that, because God was their only God and Lord, the census tax would not be paid to Rome. As Gamaliel reminded the Sanhedrin when Peter and the other apostles were being questioned in Jerusalem, the rebel Judas “perished, and all those who followed him were scattered” (Acts 5:37). It was the nationalistic, anti-Roman sentiment of Judas on which the Zealot movement was built and that was behind the rebellion of A.D. 66 that eventuated in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple four years later.

It was therefore not by accident that the Pharisees had instructed their disciples to induce Jesus to make a statement about the poll-tax. If He gave an answer favorable to the tax, He would become despised by the Jewish multitudes who until then highly admired Him. In that case, the Jewish leaders would then be free to arrest and have Him executed without interference from the populace. But they presumed He would answer otherwise and openly declare that the tax was both unjust and ungodly and should not be paid to the oppressive, pagan Caesar, thus incurring the wrath of Rome as an insurrectionist.

THE ACCUSATION

But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? (22:18)

But by His divine discernment Jesus perceived their malice. It was not possible to blind-side Jesus, because “He Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). He omnisciently knew the question they would ask and the reason for asking it even before it came to the minds of the Pharisees who concocted it. He knew the men who posed the question were not the ones who devised it, and that the words of praise they had just showered on Him were not motivated by admiration but malice. He knew their flattering tongues were tipped with poison. He also knew exactly the right answer.

Before answering their question, He threw a question of His own in their faces: “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?” He let them know that their wicked scheme was transparent to Him, that He knew their purpose was to test Him, not to seek His wisdom, and that He was hereby exposing them as the hypocrites they were. Although He had never seen them before, He knew they were emissaries of the Pharisees as surely as if He had overheard the plot. That demonstration of omniscience was in itself another marvelous testimony to His deity.

Not only the Old Testament but rabbinic tradition strongly condemned flattery and hypocrisy. Rabbi Eleazar had written in the Talmud, “Any community in which is flattery will finally go into exile. It is written [Job 15:34], ‘For the community of flatterers is [barren]’” (Sotah 42a). Rabbi Jeremiah ben Abba had declared that four types of people do not deserve to be blessed by God: scorners, liars, tale-bearers, and hypocrites (Sanhedrin 103a).

THE ANALOGY

Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” (22:19-21a)

Jesus then said, “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” Disregarding Jesus’ harsh accusations against them, the men readily brought Him a denarius, being more than glad to help Him fall into their snare. The specific coin used for the poll-tax was the denarius, which amounted to the daily wage for a soldier or common laborer in Palestine.

Although several coinages, including Greek and Hebrew, were used in Israel at the time, and exchange from one to the other was easy, only the Roman denarius could be used to pay the poll-tax. It was a silver coin, minted expressly by the emperor, who alone had the authority to issue coins in silver or gold. All such coins, including the denarius, bore an engraving of the emperor on one side and an identifying inscription on the other.

That fact made the coins especially offensive to Jews for several reasons. For one thing, the emperor’s picture was a reminder of Roman oppression, and for another, the Mosaic law specifically forbade the making of images (Ex. 20:4). In modern Israel, certain extremely orthodox Jews strictly forbid the taking of their photographs, because the resulting picture is considered a graven image.

If the particular coin in Jesus’ hand was minted by Tiberius, one side bore an engraving of his face and the reverse an engraving of him sitting on his throne in priestly robes, with an inscription designating him as the high priest. Several emperors, including Julius Caesar, had even accepted appellations of deity for themselves, thereby demanding religious as well as political homage. At the appearance of an unusual star in 17 B.C., Augustus Caesar had proclaimed a twelve-day celebration, at which the Roman college of priests, of which he was chief, granted mass absolution from sin for all the people of the empire. During that same year coins were minted claiming Augustus as the Son of God. And the idea of a divine emperor was inconceivably repulsive to Jews.

Although any child would have known the answer to His question, Jesus held up the coin and asked, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” Thinking that He was at last about to speak the fatal words against Rome, the men eagerly replied, perhaps in unison, Caesar’s. Because Jesus had claimed deity, calling Himself God’s Son, the disciples of the Pharisees confidently expected Him to denounce as a false god and blasphemer the caesar whose likeness and inscription He was holding up before them.

THE ANSWER AND THE AFTERMATH

Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they marveled, and leaving Him, they went away. (22:21b-22)

But instead, Jesus said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” The profundity of that statement is often missed because of its simplicity. Apodidmi (render) means to pay or give back, implying a debt. It carries the idea of obligation and responsibility for something that is not optional. Jesus’ answer to the original question (v. 17) was therefore, “Yes, it is entirely lawful and right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar, because that tax is Caesar’s, belonging to the things in his domain.”

Jesus did not use the word give, as had the disciples of the Pharisees in asking the question. For them, as for most Jews, paying any tax to Rome was not considered a legitimate duty and was done only with the greatest reluctance. Now Jesus declared that the payment not only was perfectly legal but morally obligatory.

Jesus here declared the divinely-ordained obligation of citizens to pay taxes to whatever government is over them. Paying taxes is a legitimate duty of every person, but is specially binding on believers because they are specially bound to God’s Word. Jesus made no qualifying exemptions or exceptions, even under rulers such as the blasphemous, pagan, idolatrous government that in a few days would nail Him to the cross. The government that executed the Son of God was to be paid taxes by God’s people. The state has the divine right to assess taxes that are within its sphere of responsibility, and its citizens have the divine obligation to pay them.

Giving a universal command, but in the context of living under that same pagan Roman system, Paul wrote, “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. . . . Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor” (Rom. 13:1, 5-7). We are not only to respect and submit to such rulers and leaders but also to pray for them. “I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Tim. 2:1-3).

Teaching the same principle, Peter wrote, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:13-15).

By God’s own sovereign decree, presidents, kings, prime ministers, governors, mayors, police, and all other governmental authorities stand in His place, as it were, for the preservation of society. To resist government is therefore to resist God. To refuse to pay taxes is to disobey God’s command. By God’s own declaration, to pay taxes to Caesar honors God.

If in an age of pagan despotism and open persecution of the church believers were obligated to pay taxes, how much more obligated are modern Christians who live in free and democratic societies? Regardless of the seemingly spiritual reasons that may be proposed for resisting the payment of taxes, there are none that the Lord recognizes. To argue that paying taxes to a worldly, humanistic government is ungodly and unjustified is spurious and contradicts what God Himself says on the subject. His own Word commands unequivocally that taxes are to be paid because, by His divine ordination, they are a part of the things that are Caesar’s. All things belong to God, but He has decreed that a certain amount of that which He entrusts to each person is to be paid to human governments as taxes.

But even more importantly, Jesus went on to say, men must render to God the things that are God’s. He was not separating secular human society from religion, saying, in effect, that one owes allegiance to human government in regard to material things and allegiance to God in regard to the spiritual. Scripture never makes such a dichotomy, because all things and every area of life belong to God. Jesus was still talking about Caesar, saying that the things that are God’s do not belong to Caesar and should never be offered to him, but only to God.

As a representative of human government, Caesar had the right to assess taxes, but as a representative of human religion, as emperors frequently were, they had no right to command worship. Men are to pay taxes to the head of a government as a human ruler but never homage to him as a god. His realm is social and economic, and to the extent that he steps outside that realm, his authority ceases and men’s obligation to him ceases. When the Sanhedrin, which had political as well religious authority in Jerusalem, gave the apostles “strict orders not to continue teaching in [Jesus’] name,” Peter replied for all of them, saying, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:28-29).

The church in the Soviet Union and other communist countries is persecuted today because it refuses to give total allegiance to the state. Although the majority of Christians in those lands are good citizens in every way, including in the payment of taxes, they will not surrender their souls or the souls of their children to the government, because such homage is solely the prerogative of God.

Upon hearing Jesus’ response, the disciples of the Pharisees were utterly astonished at His wisdom. They marveled, and leaving Him, they went away. They had nothing to say, and had the presence of mind to leave before exposing still more of their ignorance and wickedness.