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Author: Stephen Weller
574 words, 3 minutes read time

Should We Pay Taxes to Caesar?

Scripture: Mark 12:13; Luke 20:20

With our previous lesson we finished our study of the parable of the wedding feast. With this lesson we will begin a new section about paying taxes to Caesar.

^{Mk 12:13} And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. ^{Lk 20:20} So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

In Matthew 22:16, “Pharisees” is replaced with “their disciples” and thus the Pharisees must have sent those in training to become full members of the brotherhood of Pharisees. These along with the Herodians, a loosely organized group that sought to advance the political and economic influence of the Herodian family, were sent to try to trap Jesus with a difficult question.

It appears that the Pharisees were watching at a distance and sent these as spies because they would appear as less of a threat to Jesus at the time. These spies pretended to be sincere in asking their question in hopes that they might catch him in giving an answer that the Pharisees could use against him in delivering him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

^{Mk 12:14} And they came and said to him, ^{Lk 20:21} “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, ^{Mk 12:14} and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?”

These spies approach Jesus and with insincerity and flatter him with praise for being a good honest sincere teacher in an attempt to show that they were sincerely interested in knowing his thoughts about their question. By asking about paying taxes to Caesar they thought they had a question that would finally trap Jesus because of its implications. In Mark 10:2, the Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” In Mark 11:28, Jesus was asked, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” In these and other cases, Jesus answered their questions in ways they hadn’t expected.

The reason this question about paying taxes to Caesar was chosen is that it put Jesus in between the Roman authority and the people. If Jesus replied that it was right to pay taxes to Caesar then the crowds would rise up against him because they hated the taxes, but if Jesus said it was not right to pay taxes to Caesar then they would have reason to arrest him. The Pharisees should know by now that they will never outwit Jesus, but that will have to wait until the next lesson.

Conclusion

Those who do not believe God and resist him with their choices will continue to do so unless God extends mercy to them. Without that mercy, a major group of religious leaders continue to grow in their anger toward and hate of Jesus, and now out of that hatred they ask a question in hopes of gaining evidence for an arrest.