Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. (Mat.22:21)

When the Pharisees and the Herodians addressed Jesus, in the Gospel for this Sunday, they said they acknowledged four things about the Lord: First, that He was honest; Second, He was a reliable teacher; Third, He was not a flatterer; Fourth, He did not quail when confronted with the Jewish intelligentsia — the intellectual elites who then as now felt they knew what was best for man. Neither did He quake before the established nobility (the civil authority) of the land. It is apparent, in context that they were not sincere, although they certainly were correct in these observations. In fact, they were appealing to His supposed ego before springing what they saw as a trap on Him.

Early in this memorable day of public teaching, Jesus had already been attacked by the elders, chief priests and scribes; but He had defeated them, exposed them to ridicule, and He had indicted them as apostates and murderers. We know from scripture that in their furious hate the opposition would have dealt with Him. Had Him killed at once except for one problem: they feared the multitudes with whom Jesus was so popular.

Remember that Jesus had just entered Jerusalem in a great triumphal procession on what we call Palm Sunday, sitting upon an ass with the crowd singing and shouting the great messianic psalm, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." "Long live the son of David." So with the support of the people behind Him, the Pharisees and their cohorts, the Sadducees and Herodians must first discredit him with the people.

They must attempt to entangle Him in His teaching so that they can bring a charge against Him and get rid of Him. The question that they ask relates to the payment of tax money to the Roman government. The more conservative Jews, the Pharisees and radical zealots, held that God was the true King and ruler of Israel and that it was an absolute denial of God, as king, to pay taxes to any earthly prince or heathen state. The more liberal parties, the Sadducees and Herodians, the priests and aristocracy, sided with the sons of King Herod, puppets who owed their power to Rome and had adopted Hellenism, Greek philosophy, as the successor to the worship of God, casting their own religion on the garbage heap of time. So, both the conservative and liberal enemies of Jesus, united in their hatred of Him, send representatives of both parties so that if He avoids offending one party He will displease the other, presumably a no-win situation.

As a consequence the combined delegation — containing bitter enemies united only in their hate for Christ, approaches Jesus with the flattering assurance that He is so truthful and courageous that He will not hesitate to express His true convictions. They then pose their artfully contrived question, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?" Here is the supposed dilemma: If Jesus says, "yes!" and makes the unpopular pronouncement that it is legal to pay Roman taxes. The reasoning is that He will cease to be a popular hero, for the people loathe the detested Roman conqueror. Shall His answer be, "No!" Then His enemies will spirit Him off to the Romans to be charged with sedition, treason, conspiring to revolt for advocating the withholding of taxes.

Jesus not only escapes the snare but He lays down a law for all times to come, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." He is able to arrive at this conclusion and declare this great political and economic as well as religious principle because of the nature of the imperial Roman coinage system itself. The Roman empire issued its own medium of monetary exchange, which by law had to be used in all transactions. Furthermore, the coins of Rome bore the likeness of the Roman emperor who ruled at the time the coins were minted. On the reverse side there was generally a likeness of the Roman eagle, symbol of power.

This caused a real problem in Israel. When the devout Jew went to pay his temple tax required of every able bodied Jew above the age of twelve, each year, for the maintenance of the temple and the priesthood, the Roman coinage could not be accepted because of the commandment, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image or the likeness thereof" — the picture of the Emperor and the Eagle were graven images of pagan gods. Because of the commandment and to avoid rebellion, the Romans permitted the Temple hierarchy to issue its own coinage which bore an engraving of the face of the temple on one side and on the reverse side there was an engraving of the seven branched candlestick, the menorah. This temple coinage could be legally used no where but inside the Temple itself. So, when the Jew paid his yearly temple tax he merely exchanged Roman coins for temple coins which left him complying with the Law of Moses and the laws of the Roman Empire while keeping a clear conscience at the same time.

(If you recall, when Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple in Jerusalem it was for charging a usurious rate for exchanging Roman coinage for temple coinage.) Therefore to the consternation of His enemies, Jesus, very astutely observed that one already paid Caesar with the money Caesar minted and one paid God with the money that the temple minted. The Pharisees and Herodians, who were collaborators with the Roman occupiers, were put to shame, once more. Truth stood against them. Given their own duplicity they should have been able to see the ultimate outcome of their argument. But they hated Jesus all the more for exposing them as the frauds they were. Any man who insists on his own way, no matter who he is, will hate Jesus. What does all of this mean to us. Every Christian has a dual citizenship. He or she is a citizen of the country in which they are born, and to it each owes his allegiance and support for law and order and justice, for safety against aggressors which only an established government can give. Every citizen must support the establishment and maintenance of public services. Few are wealthy enough to have a personal garbage system or a private water works. All need roads. For these services all must pay. Because the Christian is a man of honor, he must be a responsible citizen — failure in good citizenship is also failure in Christian duty. Numberless troubles are in store in any country where Christians refuse to take their part in the administrative process and leave it to a selfish, self-seeking partisanship, in which unchristian men and women rule. The Christian has a duty to not only pay taxes in support of Caesar in return for the services for which the rule of Caesar brings, but also to be engaged in upholding morality, ethics, and personal responsibility.

This is because the Christian is also a citizen of the Kingdom of God; not only in the next life, but here and now. There are matters of religion and of principle in which the responsibility of the Christian is to God. If one carefully analyzes "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" one will find a universal truth that is characteristic of a moral society. The distinguishing characteristic delineated by Jesus was simply this: "The payment of a tax, whether it be called "tax" or "tithe", is not a gift to him who levies it, but it is "a debt owing to him for benefits received."

By the way, our Jewish friends understand this very well. Even in the modern synagogue, there is no such thing as a pledge campaign. Observant Jews fill out there tithe report and attach their 1040 federal tax return. They are assessed 10% of their taxable income. There is an appeal process for hardship situations. If one is not in good standing, one cannot attend on high holy days.

In modern Germany, one declares one's religious affiliation on one's tax return. And be it Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Jewish or Muslin, a tax is collected and given to the religious authorities. Atheists are exempt. Perhaps this is one reason only 6% of Germans are practicing Christians.

Too often in America we think "separation of Church and State" means there is no place for the Church and all power to the State. Like the elites in New Testament times, many in our society who disagree on everything else are united in their hatred of Christ. But the fact is that both Caesar and God have their sphere of influence in the lives of men, therefore, to pay taxes to one is not to rob the other of what is rightfully due. Jesus delivered His edict without dividing the secular from the sacred — He united without unifying the two spheres in which His disciples have to live. His disciples are citizens of two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, and His disciples have their duties and responsibilities in both which are complimentary, not mutually exclusive.

What are some of the things that are God's? I am a man — a citizen of the United States of America and a citizen of the Kingdom of God. I am a citizen of this country by birth and a citizen of heaven by my new birth in Christ. While I owe it my faithful allegiance in all matters not contrary to my Christian Faith, the United States Government did not give me my life or make me in its image. God did. God watches over my life and provides for me. He has a plan for me and leads me to find myself and to find Him. God gives me air to breathe and water to drink and food to eat. I am responsible unto God for the life I have and live. At the end of my life He will ask me to give an account of what I have done with the life that He gave me and the talents and gifts that He has provided me with to benefit myself and others.

Once, long, long ago as a man, God held me responsible to obey His law, but like all men, from my birth, I failed. I sinned, I fell short of the goal that God had intended for me to achieve, but out of the abundant grace and mercy of His heart God sent a sinless Savior, by whom and through whom, all my past ignorance and negligence, the things not done and left undone, have been forgiven. All these blessings I receive from God. I do not receive them from the federal government. And for the federal government to take upon itself what does not rightfully belong to it is to not only violate the Constitution which limits its reach into my private affairs, but is to usurp the authority that rightfully belongs to God alone.

If I am to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, I will pay my taxes and support the authority of the state in all things which are lawful to its authority. If I am to render unto God the things that are God's I will worship Him and serve Him with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. My money may bear the image of Caesar — it may used for taxes, for buying, and for selling — but my soul has the image of God stamped upon it — I was created in the image and likeness of God and my life eternally belongs to Him.

Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.