God And Caesar
GOD AND CAESAR
MARK 12:13-17
Jesus talks about our allegiance to God and our allegiance to the State.
We have already met the extraordinary combination of the Pharisees and Herodians in opposition to Jesus (3:6). Now they reappear with a question regarding the duty of Jews to the Roman government. The word translated as “taxes” is “census.” This was a poll tax levied on all the people and paid directly into Rome’s treasury. It was a particularly hated tax, since it was one of the most obvious evidences of Jewish subjection to a foreign power, and there had been riots at its introduction (Acts 5:37). The question posed was a trap: was Jesus prepared to lose the sympathy of the people who paid the tax so unwillingly or to face a charge of subverting the people and even of inciting them to rebellion? Was the Messiah going to declare himself? Jesus’ answer, which skilfully evaded the dilemma, depended upon the fact that his questioners themselves used Roman coinage in daily life. This was why he asked them to produce the coin.
The coin bore the emperor’s head on one side and an image of the goddess of peace on the other, with an inscription which read in translation: “Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, Chief Priest”—all of which was repulsive to Jewish (and later to Christian) sentiment. Jesus elicited the fact that his questioners recognized that the coin belonged to Caesar: it bore his image and inscription. Therefore, he argued, they were bound to pay him for the use of his money and, presumably, for all other benefits of his rule. One commentator stresses that the word “render” really means not simply “give” but “give back”; the money was Caesar’s and must be repaid to him.
The point was made, and Jesus could have stopped there. But he added, “And give back to God the things that are God’s.” This could be taken literally of paying to God the temple tax which was due to him (Matthew 17:24-27), but there is surely a deeper meaning. Men are “God’s coinage,” bearing his image, and what belongs to God must be paid back to him.
Thus the two duties are put side by side. The position of Caesar vis-à-vis God is not clarified. That is not the purpose of this story, and other passages of Scripture must be consulted when the problem of the Christian and the State is discussed. What is stressed here is that the disciple of Jesus has a duty to the community of which he is a member, and, inasmuch as he cannot live without receiving the benefits of the community, so he must make his contribution to it, even if he disapproves of it.