ANDREW WOMMACK MINISTRIES
teaching God’s unconditional love and grace
September 18th
OUR LIFE BELONGS TO GOD
Matthew 22:20-21 “And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
The image on the denarius, the only small silver coin acceptable for imperial tax payments, was probably that of Tiberius Caesar (reigned A.D. 14-37). The inscription upon the coin read “Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus” with the reverse side reading “Chief Priest.” This inscription was a claim to divinity and as emperor, the right to be worshiped.
The Jews had tried many times to accuse Jesus on the basis of religious issues and had always failed. Now they approached Him about paying taxes in hopes that His answer might give them the opportunity to deliver Him to Pilate for prosecution.
These Pharisees and Herodians reasoned that any answer that Jesus gave would be wrong. If He approved of the Roman taxes, then He would lose popularity with the masses. If He spoke against the Roman taxes, then the Jews would hand Him over to the Roman government and Pilate would dispose of Him. It looked like they had Jesus trapped. Jesus, however, answered with such simple wisdom that these Pharisees and Herodians were caught in their own trap and made to look like fools.
Jesus declared, “Render (give back) to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mk. 12:17). People are made in God’s image, so we must render to God the things belonging to God (our lives) and to Caesar the things belonging to Caesar (his money and other benefits of his rule).
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I must take issue with your interpretation of the “render-unto-Caesar incident. In addition to Matthew Ch. 22, it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Mark, with only slight differences between the Evangelists’ reports regarding what exactly transpired. Only Luke records the design of the “trap, which “the Pharisees and Herodians had set for Jesus, and the purpose for asking him whether or not to pay Caesar’s tax. Luke explicitly states their purpose was to “trap him in his speech so as to hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.” The governor was Pilate and he was responsible for collecting Roman taxes in Judea. His enemies knew full well Jesus would condemn Caesar’s tax and never even considered he would say “pay the tax.” Caesar’s tax, which was collected by means of brutal force or coercion, violates Jesus’ Father command, “thou shall not steal!.” Furthermore, taxation negates Jesus’ injunctions to “do to others as you would have them do to you,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” His enemies knew Jesus the man very well, for they had kept him under surveillance since almost the beginning of his public ministry. They knew him well enough to know he would not be concerned if his answer would offend anyone. The only reason for Jesus not responding bluntly to their question, “Should we pay Caesar tax?” by saying. “No, don’t pay that thieving, murdering, enslaving pedophile anything,was because in so doing he would have been fooled and trapped by his duplicitous questioners. So Jesus responded by saying exactly what they had hoped he would say, “don’t pay,” but in such a way that it left them completely befuddled.
“Give Caesar what is Caesar’s did not mean pay him the tax, it meant exactly what it says: “Give Caesar what belongs to him–no more, no less, nothing that is yours! In other words, give him nothing, because no one in Palestine had anything belonging to Caesar. On the contrary, everything Caesar might claim to be his was not his, for everything in his possession had been acquired “illegally” in violation of God’s commandment by means of plunder, slavery, taxation and/or other forms of stealing.