Mark 12:16-17

‘And they brought it. And he says to them, “Whose is this image and superscription?”. And they said to him, “Caesar’s”. And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and render to God what is God’s.”

As we have noted earlier, a sovereign’s issued currency was seen as belonging to that sovereign. And to possess such currency was to admit obligation to the monarch. Thus, He said, those who possessed such currency should give it back to Caesar, for it belonged to him and by their possession of it they were showing that they were his subjects. And that it did belong to him was shown by the fact that his head was stamped on it, and the writing on it was with his authorisation and further evidenced it as his. So let them give it back to him.

The reply was brilliant. The crowds would recognise that as a prophet of God He did not carry such currency, but that these His opponents did. And they would wholeheartedly agree with Him that such currency should be despised and rejected, and not carried. Indeed God did not want it, and men who did carry it merely demonstrated that they were Caesar’s men, not God’s. Thus the Pharisees and courtiers of Herod stood condemned by their own question, while Jesus was exonerated and vindicated in front of the crowd.

Meanwhile Jesus had in their view correctly stated that all things apart from what was stamped as Caesar’s, and was thus idolatrous, was God’s. There was here a quite clear declaration of God’s superiority to Caesar. In all things that mattered men must look directly to God. Caesar’s rule was limited. He had rightly judged.

Yet the crowds would have had to acknowledge, if they were honest, that sometimes they did have to handle the hated coinage, when they paid their poll tax. Thus by their very act of doing so they were acknowledging Caesar’s right to it. They would also have to acknowledge, when they thought about it, that even much of the other coinage they used was issued in Caesar’s name, so that when it came to money they held it under Caesar’s authority, and while they did so they therefore owed a duty to him. The alternative was to have nothing to do with anything Roman and face the consequences. His answer allowed them to do compromise.

There is, of course, the seed here of the later view that the powers that be are ordained of God and should be respected accordingly. But that was not really what Jesus was saying here. Nor was He splitting the world into two, part of which belonged to the state and part to God. He was rather emphasising that all things are God’s, except things of which He disapproves, and must therefore be used accordingly

This would certainly include paying one’s dues. And for those who used Caesar’s coinage that would include paying their taxes. They could not take the benefits and reject the responsibilities. So He did countenance obedient response to the state where it was not against God.