“They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,

‘Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,

for you do not regard a person's status.

Tell us, then, what is your opinion:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?’”

Do you think the Pharisees are really interested in taxes? Sure, there are some differences of opinion going into this story. The zealots desired an overthrow of the Romans and were opposed to paying the tax. The Herodians held an allegiance to the authority of the Romans and supported paying the tax. The Pharisees were a bit pragmatic. For them, to possess a coin with an image of the emperor which claimed his divinity was to be in possession of a graven image, expressly forbidden by God’s law. It is better to be alive than dead, however, so they had figured out a way to pay the tax without ever possessing or handling the coins. At this moment, though, they aren’t so interested in taxes. Matthew tells us that they are trying to entrap Jesus in speech. Though they attempt to hide the treachery with flattery, Jesus is fully aware of this malice. He overcomes their attack. 

It is tempting to think of Jesus’s response as just clever. The first clever step was to ask them for a coin, which they shouldn’t possess. He bests them when a coin is immediately produced. Then, with his second obvious question, the answer can’t be avoided, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” Finally, when he says, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” Jesus sidesteps the trap and bests them again. We may admire Jesus’s skill, like that of a bullfighter deftly avoiding being impaled by horns or of a running back accelerating, leaping, pounding, or spinning to avoid a tackle. Mesmerized by Jesus’s ability, we can get stuck in the exchange and draw the wrong conclusion. This isn’t about taxes or even authority. It doesn’t establish an independent sphere of action for the emperor and another for God, as if the emperor has absolute authority in his sphere and no accountability. Even if minimized, as in the saying, “A penny for Caesar and the rest to God,” Jesus is not setting up two realms. And his answer isn’t just clever, it’s transcendent. It doesn’t just avoid the trap. It overcomes the attack. 

The deeper realization would have come to Jesus’s listeners that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. That is true, but Jesus is also not just saying to give taxes to Cesar and give ourselves to God. At our Eucharist, we do make an offering of all we are to God, who gives all of himself to us. We bear the image of God and offer what belongs to God back to him. Our belonging is the belonging of love, not of possession, for in God we are home. We belong as much with God as we do to God. Even so, Jesus is still not creating two realms. There are not two separate spheres. There is not a personal realm of God and a public realm of Caesar. There is no comparison of different realities. In other words, Caesar is not the god of taxes. In the first reading from Isaiah, God states, “I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me.” We cannot separate or partition a sphere where God is not God. Nobody gets a pass, not even Caesar. In all spheres, God is still God and everything belongs to him. God is the God of all. You see, the coin may have been made with Caesar’s image and inscription on it, but in whose image was Caesar made?