Render to Caesar?

The passage is Luke 20:26. The scene is “Jesus in the Jerusalem temple surrounded by the temple authorities.” The question is: “How then should God’s people relate to the political powers that be?” The chief priests ask: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Luke 20:22)

But, a bit of the larger context: “Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Israel’s true king, having proclaimed the coming of God’s sovereign and saving rule on earth as in heaven, set his face toward the heart of Israel itself—the king is on his way to the great city, to Jeru-shalom (English: Jerusalem), “the City of Shalom”, or, “the City of Peace.” But when the king arrives, he says, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:41). The City of Peace has forgotten her true self.

Jesus then enters into Jerusalem’s temple where God had promised that He Himself would one day return—WHO DOES THIS MAN THINK HE IS?

“Perhaps he wants to start a revolt against the Romans. Perhaps he wants a riot,” think the chief priests. This naturally prompts the question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

They think they’ve got Him in a bind. To say “no” would please lots of those in the temple, but it would also start a riot and Pilate would certainly come and kill many of the Israelites. To say “yes” would mean, to many standing nearby, that Jesus was just like some of the chief priests who held to the tenets of: “Pay your taxes, honor the emperor, and get as much self-gain as you can out of the messy and corrupt arrangement.”

Jesus asks for the coin with which the tax would be paid: “’Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.‘” (Luke 20:24-25)

Jesus is standing in the temple! He asks for a coin which bears the image of Caesar and has written on the front and on the back: “Tib. Caes. Div. Fil. Pont. Max.” which are abbreviations for: “Tiberius Caesar, Son of God, the Great High Priest.”

The scene couldn’t be more charged with intensity. Who is actually “God’s Son”? Who is the true “High Priest”? Who’s the real King?

What’s the connection, however, between asking about the coin and its image before saying: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s?”

The connection is cryptic and explosive—”Hmm, this coin bears Caesar’s image; fine, let Caesar have his image. You, however, bear God’s image (Gen. 1:26-28), therefore let God have HIS image.”

Is Jesus, therefore, attributing to the government sole authority or is he attributing that to God? Is he advocating that the two should never come into conflict? Or, Is he calling for a total revolt against power?

No. Jesus’ solution is altogether more profound and more complex. Remember, when Jesus arrives, he hopes to find a City of Peace. We all, then, in our various ways, both political and otherwise, have to learn to live in this complex world as obedient images of the one true God while also lovingly and peacefully engaging the larger questions of our day.

Come join us at Ooltewah United Methodist Church as we try to learn week in and week out what it looks like to “render to God the things that are God’s.”