Give to God What Belongs to God

Causing a Stir

The Gospel writer, Mark, tells the story of Jesus being confronted by the religious leaders of his day with a question about whether or not its right to pay taxes to Rome. Jesus responds them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God” (Mark 12:17a, ERV International Edition). The wisdom of his response confounds his opponents: “The men were amazed at what Jesus said” (Mark 12:17b). I have to admit that Jesus’s response has always baffled me. I’ve been taught that the main idea is that we should pay our taxes to our governments because God has put them over us for his purposes. But we should also never neglect our obligations to God. Yet I can’t help but feel that there is more going on in this story than meets the eye. And simple propositional answers just aren’t satisfying.

This incident occurred in Jerusalem during the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. After Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he entered the temple and makes a holy ruckus! He overturns tables and chases out the money lenders exclaiming “My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have changed it into a ‘hiding place for thieves’” (Mark 11:15-19, cf. Isaiah 56:7). Jesus is behaving in the style of the prophets of old who would use dramatic visual displays to pronounce judgement against the idolatry of God’s people. Needless to say, Jesus caused quite a stir among those at the temple, and royally irritated his flagrant criticism of the religious leaders upon whose position and authority he was trampling on so brazenly!

Confronting the Authorities

Following this event, and most likely in response to it, Jesus is confronted with a series of challenges from the temple and religious authorities in Jerusalem, including our story about paying taxes. This was the ultimate Shark Week! This particular challenge was instigated by two very unlikely bedfellows: the Pharisees (who regarded the Romans as an idolatrous, “unclean,” pagan empire from whose political control over Israel they desired God to free them) and the Herodians (who accommodated to Roman rule and looked for ways to actually benefit from it). These two traditional enemies colluded with each other to find a way to have Jesus killed because his teaching and influence were a threat to their power structures and visions of who was truly God’s chosen people. And so, the honor-shame game was afoot…

First, we watch as these disingenuous charlatans flatter Jesus with insincere praise (Mark 12:14). After buttering Jesus up, they sprung the trap: “Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them or not?” (Mark 12:14). They were referring to the imperial tax imposed by Rome upon Judea when it became a Roman province in 6 CE. If Jesus would have said “Yes, pay the taxes,” then he would have given the Pharisees cause to denounce him as a traitor to his own Jewish people. If he would have said “No, do not pay the taxes,” then the Herodians would have had just cause to accuse Jesus of further inciting the religious anti-Roman zealotry so fervent and explosive in and around Jerusalem at the time. With either answer, Jesus would have incriminated himself and given his enemies a reason to have him killed and put out of their way.

But Jesus confounds these challengers with an unexpected answer:

But Jesus knew that these men were really trying to trick him. He said, “Why are you trying to catch me saying something wrong? Bring me a silver coin. Let me see it.” They gave Jesus a coin and he asked, “Whose picture is on the coin? And whose name is written on it?” They answered, “It is Caesar’s picture and Caesar’s name.” Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” Then the men were amazed at what Jesus said. (Mark 12:15-17)

The denarius that they showed Jesus would have had stamped on one side the image of Caesar with an inscription that said “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus,” and on the other side, “High Priest.”[1] At a time when the people of God so narrowly, and sometimes militantly, defined themselves by their socio-political position, paying the imperial tax to Rome with coins marked with Caesar’s image was a continual reminder that they were still a people in exile, dominated by a foreign empire and continually shamed by their subjugation.

Locating Our Identity

But in Jesus’ surprising answer, he actually re-zones the identity of the people of God away from a geo-political and ethnic identity. He tells his challengers, “Give to God what belongs to God.” If the image of Caesar was imprinted on the denarius, upon what was the image of God imprinted? Upon people created in the image of God to cultivate and fill the earth, and to expand the goodness of God’s reign throughout the cosmos (Gen. 1:26-28)!

Jesus essentially drew a sharp line between the identity of disciples as citizens of God’s cosmic Kingdom and loyalty to their earthly nation-states.[2] As followers of Jesus, our citizenship transcends geographical, social, and ethnic boundaries. We are not called to make our earthly nations ultimate, or even penultimate. We are called to make Jesus our ultimate King by giving to him what belongs to him: our very lives to the honor of his great name. We are called to embody the Good News of the life, death, resurrection, and eternal reign of Jesus in our day-to-day lives.

Scripture continually calls us, as disciples of Jesus, to pray for the flourishing of our communities and our world (Jer. 29:7; 1 Tim. 2:1-3). We submit to the earthly governments that God has put in charge over us for our good (Rom. 13:1-7), even by paying our taxes, to the extent that those governments do not force us to betray our true citizenship in Christ Jesus. We can participate as members of our nations and communities as “a light for other people” and to “live so that they see the good things [we] do and praise [our] Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). As followers of out King Jesus, we pray that God may use us as his “cross-shaped” image-bearers to be agents of transformation, as a spiritual temple built upon the cornerstone of Christ Jesus to declare the wonderful things he has done in the contexts of the world which we in habit (1 Pet. 2:4-10).

[1] Timothy G. Gombis, The Story of God Bible Commentary: Mark (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2021), p. 420.

[2] Ibid. p. 421.