Mrk. 12:17 ... Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'"
Jesus made this statement in reply to adversaries who had come to "trap Him in His talk," (v.13). He was busy teaching the people about the Kingdom of God, which was soon to be established in their midst and opened to them for membership as citizens. They were fascinated and delighted with His message, for it is reported that "the great throng heard Him gladly," (v.37). But the religious overseers of these common people saw Jesus in a very different way. He was giving the people hope which they could not, and for this they envied Him greatly. Their envy had grown through the success of Jesus' rapport with the people until, at last, it blossomed into fear. They feared that Jesus would undermine their position of power, wealth, and prestige. Beyond that they feared that Jesus' movement would turn political, antagonize their Roman overlords, and call down upon their country a brutal retaliation for which the Romans were so well known. They had already decided that Jesus' role as a leader of the people must be terminated. When all other approaches failed, they manipulated both the common people and the Romans to engineer His crucifixion.
At this point in the process, however, they were trying to ruin Jesus by causing Him to contradict Himself or say something embarrassing or manifestly false. Their favored tactic was to present Him with a carefully contrived dilemma, hoping He would impale Himself on one of its horns. In this case it had to do with paying taxes. There were two taxes imposed on the Jews in Palestine at this time. One was a half-shekel poll tax required by the Law of Moses, (Mat. 17:24-27). The other was the tax levied by the authorities in distant Rome and collected by the hated publicans. The Jews accepted the Mosaic tax as a religious duty, but they despised the Roman tax as something oppressive, which was implicated with Gentile pollution and drained off their national wealth for the opulence of foreign evil rulers. The Pharisees and Herodians who posed this dilemma to Jesus saw no way that He could break it. If He said, "Pay the Roman tax," the people would be incensed and reject Him as a traitor. If He sought to protect His favor with the people by saying, "Don't pay the Roman tax," then they would report Him to the authorities who would either imprison Him, banish Him, or even execute Him.
What the Jewish logicians failed to realize was that they were trying to match wits with God Himself and that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," (I Cor. 1:25). Jesus broke their dilemma easily with His brilliant answer, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Though to them Jesus was an enemy, they nevertheless marveled at His answer. They recognized with wonder that He had escaped with superior sagacity what they considered to be an inescapable trap.
Jesus' answer, however, is far more than a gem of mental acuity. It has an application that is not reduced by time or place. Above the Christian there always exist the power of human government and the power of God. God does not want us to create a conflict between the two unless truth and righteousness are at stake, (Acts 5:29). We must obey human law and pay the taxes it imposes on us, (Rom. 13:1,6). What many people ignore, however, is that we must also pay God His due. To perform one's civil duty as a good citizen is far less than enough. God supercedes human government and its law with His own sovereignty and law. To fail to take that into account with irreverent disobedience is the ultimate tragedy. Here in America we must not let our political process blind us to the reality of God and His law.
