And the scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, but they feared the people. For they understood that He spoke this parable against them. So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, so that they might catch Him in some statement, in order to deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor. And they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But He perceived their craftiness and said to them, “Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were unable to catch Him in a word in the presence of the people; and marveling at His answer, they became silent.
Luke 20:19-26
Introduction
This famous interchange is often cited as the reason we as Christians are supposed to pay taxes, submit to governing authorities, etc. While it is true we ought to do those things, these verses are not why. That can be found much more clearly in Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2: 13-14, and Titus 3:1. While it is absolutely true that we ought to pay our taxes, and Jesus affirms that here, the point He makes is much more profound. It is His answer that causes them to become silent before Him because He does not answer a pressing question on everyone’s mind, but instead drives home a key truth that everyone seemed to miss until that point.
The attempted trick
The prior parable, that is the one He “spoke… against them”, is the parable of the vine-growers. In this story, Jesus explains how certain people are like tenant farmers who actually believed the vineyards they tended belonged to them rather than the lord over that vineyard. Those unrighteous tenants treated the lord’s servants poorly, ultimately killing his own son for the sake of their land. This is the parable He spoke against the scribes and chief priests. It was the leaders of the people who taught them that the things entrusted to the people of Israel actually belonged to the people of Israel rather than to God.
While the Pharisees were not specifically named in these verses, Mark’s account of this event (Mark 12) does name them, and it can easily be concluded that the scribes here are, if not synonymous with the Pharisees, aligned with them.
After the destruction of the Temple, Pharisaism became the predominant sect, today being known as Orthodox Judaism. Essential to Pharisaism is the oral tradition Jesus spoke so much against. In His day it was limited to the Mishna, which is still central to Jewish oral tradition, but today it has been expanded to include additional stories and debates.
One such story is called The Oven of Akhnai. The lesson from this story is that interpretation of God’s Law and righteousness is decided by the majority of scholars. In it, the rabbis of the Sanhedrin debate whether a new type of oven would be considered kosher. All but one conclude the oven is impure, leading to a heated debate which included the supposed voice of God agreeing with the singular rabbi. The response, which is held up in praise, is that “the Law is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12) and so it belongs to them, and that in matters of Law, they ought to “follow after the majority” (Exodus 23:2).
These interpretations, however, conclude the opposite of what the verses actually say. In Deuteronomy 30:11-13, for instance, Moses tells the people that the Law “is not too difficult for you” because “it is not in heaven” and “the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” Likewise, Exodus 23:2 begins with, “You shall not follow the masses in doing evil”. Witnessing the added context, it is easy to see that Pharisaism does not respect the commands of God, and instead teaches that all which God entrusted to His people in fact belong to them.
It was this exact attitude Jesus taught against in the parable of the vine-growers. And because of that, they wanted to teach Him a lesson by giving Him the impossible task of either siding with the Roman occupiers by affirming the oppressive taxes or supporting those in favor rebellion by teaching against paying Roman tax. It was through this that they wished to catch Him opposing Caesar in order to accuse Him of a crime against Rome.
Flipping the script
While the scribes and chief priests understood the parable was against them, they still did not grasp the lesson it taught. That is clearly demonstrable by the fact that in that very moment they continued to grasp tighter onto their invented possession by trying to murder the Son of God. And so the Lord took the message of His parable and drove it home with this simple statement, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Instead of an affirmation of any particular taxation, this is Jesus doubling down on His point: God is the One who planted this world. All of it belongs to Him. The denarius they showed Him belongs to God, the land they stood on belongs to God, and all the commandments belong to God. The very people listening belong to God, and He demands that which bears His image. You are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), and you owe Him your allegiance. But you and I are lawbreakers, unable to properly devote ourselves to God apart from the perfect obedience of Christ. Those who rejected Him did not understand this, and so they missed out on the free gift found in the gospel. All those who believe and trust in the Son’s work on the cross receive His righteousness by the work of the Spirit and the will of the Father. And it is by this that we are His.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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