Teacher, is it lawful or not to pay the census tax to Caesar? All the three synoptic Gospels agree that the above question was presented to Jesus as a trap/snare. Jesus had rubbed shoulders with quite a number of individuals and groups as he went about ministering to people, and although they might have wanted to do away with him, either their plans had so far failed to work or they had not yet built a strong and impenetrable case against him. However, they were not ready to give up just yet. In today’s Gospel reading, we see them resorting to wanting to trap him with something he would say. They approached Jesus with a very provocative question, one that they believed would finally do the trick for them. You see, the question of paying tax to Caesar was a very sensitive and volatile one in Jesus’ community by then.
The Jewish nation was at this time under Roman occupation, a situation in which the Jewish community was not so happy to find itself. As if being taken hostage in one’s own country wasn’t bad enough, the native population was forced to pay taxes to the Roman government. It was a move that doubled the burden that the Jews were carrying, for the Jews were already paying the temple tax (for maintaining the temple). And while the people were obviously against such an oppressive practice, there was nothing they could do for refusing to comply was a punishable crime. Those who had tried to stand up against Roman oppression by leading an uprising were crushed and used as an example to those who might have wanted to resist the Romans. Raising the question about the census tax and laying it before Jesus was, therefore, a clever and cunning way of putting Jesus in trouble.
Whichever way Jesus decided to answer the question (yes or no), he was bound to get into trouble with either his own people or the Romans. To answer that it was wrong to pay taxes to the Roman government would certainly endear Jesus to the people. However, it would place Jesus on the wrong side of the Roman government. No one in his right mind would want to publicly oppose the Romans. On the other hand, if Jesus answered that it was lawful to pay the census tax, he would be deemed a traitor by his people. Realizing the hypocrisy of those who had put the question before him, Jesus evaded their trap. “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” was all he could say.
While Jesus’ answer did spare him from getting into trouble with the authorities, it is one of those statements by Jesus that has not only become a proverbial saying but one that has also been both misinterpreted and misused. Today, we use the statement to point to the perceived separation between the Church and State as well as to express the presumed separation between the spiritual and the material. The statement is also used as a rally call for responsible participation in public/state affairs (taxes, fees, fines). Whichever way we tend to use it, there is always a likelihood of the statement being wrongly applied. For those who use it to point to the separation between Church and State, there is the danger of concluding that Jesus himself sanctioned such separations, that Jesus did see the importance of separating the affairs of the Church from those of the State. However, I would think that such a conclusion would be further from what Jesus had in mind. His detractors, those who wanted to trap him, wanted him to fall into this same trap. In the statement, Jesus was pointing to the fact that there is nothing that absolutely belongs to Caesar that doesn’t belong to God.
If I give to Caesar what Caesar demands of me (taxes, fees, fines), I do so because God enables me to do it. Actually, God wants me, as a responsible child of God and citizen of my community, to give my contribution for the wellbeing of the society. Responsible governing of any society begins at the individual level. My participation in the building of the society becomes my means of thanking God for all the services rendered by the state for my well-being. But even as I go about helping to build the society, I should be careful not to let that participation injure of sever my relationship with God. For before I become a member of the society, I am first of all a child of God. As a child of God, I belong to God - me in my entirety, both body and spirit (soul). That is why as Christians we must not participate in activities that are immoral or that are harmful to the sanctity of life in the name of building the society. When we do that, we rob God what is rightly his in order to give to Caesar. Let us strive to give God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.