And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
Comment: Back in chapter 11 we read, ‘And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him.’ Jesus answered their question then and they went away beaten in their attempts to defeat Jesus and find an excuse to have Him killed. I presume that they are the ‘they’ at the beginning of this passage. Today they sent to Him two groups with opposite attitudes to their religion! The Pharisees were strict adherents to the Biblical Law but had added a lot of their even stricter additions making it difficult to be keep their laws and certainly they knew from before that Jesus didn’t agree with their additions! The Herodians were much more ‘liberated’. Herod was a Roman appointee and although a sort of Jew certainly supported the Roman taxes! Hence they verbalized their trick question. The passage uses the words ‘their hypocrisy’, another word may be ‘their duplicity’. They thought that whatever answer Jesus gave, one of the two groups would be able to report Him to the authorities – the Pharisees to the Jewish council; the Herodians to the Roman authorities! Jesus answer was perfect! “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It does leave us in a quandary sometimes as we try to work out what we should give/render to whom!
Proverbs 3: 9 – Honour the LORD with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.
Prayer: Father, it is not always easy to decide my responsibilities with giving. Please help me to be honest and cheerful in my giving. I don’t want to cheat either You or my country!
As I read it! 