13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true 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?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.

Mark 12:13-17 (ESV)

Never try to trick Jesus. Throughout history, opportunistic men have sought vainly to enlist God’s support for purely human agendas or to keep God out of public affairs altogether. Time and again, such attempts have failed ignominiously. The Pharisees learned this lesson the hard way when they tried to force Jesus to become either an insurrectionist against Caesar or a betrayer of Jewish civil pride. The Lord deflected their plans while setting forth a theory of government which serves the West until this very day.

A new strand of Jewish thought1 taught that paying taxes to non-Jewish rulers was treason against God. Against this view, which was popular among Pharisees, the Herodians sought to protect the political power that flowed from Roman support. Had Jesus answered that it was not right to pay taxes, the Herodians would have accused Him of sedition against the Roman government. Had He affirmed the payment of taxes, the Pharisees would have charged Him with heresy for assisting the Romans in crushing the Jews. Both parties wanted to see Jesus dead.

Aware of their “trap,” Jesus called for a denarius. On it, Caesar’s image reflected the fact that life in the Roman state was legitimately supported by the Roman treasury. Citizens and non-citizens alike were to “render” money to Rome to maintain its public services. (The word, “render,” means “giving back to someone that which is his.”) Jesus made it clear that His followers were not exempt. He also declared that people were obligated to render to God that which was His. (Of course, Caesar himself belonged to God, to whom absolute allegiance was due.) The end result would be a dual kingdom—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Each would coexist until the end of the world, at which time God alone would reign.

With this statement Jesus declared an end to the theocratic state. Until then, Israel was ruled by Moses, Joshua, David and other kings, but now Caesar held sway over the province of Judea. Rather than proclaim such earthly kingdoms illegitimate, the Messiah introduced His audience to a radical notion: a free church and a free state. As the apostle Paul would reiterate, the Church corporate is a good citizen, honoring the right rule of civil order, even if it is secular. Out of the train of this genius arose the cherished ideals of respect for the individual, a free Church uncorrupted by Caesar’s power, and government checked by the conscience of people informed by biblical morals.

Contrast these notions with the Islamic demand that only those who submit to the Qur’an are legitimate authorities, and one quickly sees why the present global crisis is a choice between, as philosopher Roger Scruton has put it, “The West and the Rest.”2 The former leaves room for both God and Caesar, while the latter has confused the two, resulting in oppression, disaster, and human cruelty.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Historically attributed to Judas, the Galilean (see Acts 5:37).
 
2  Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002).
 First Baptist Church of  Perryville is located at 4800 West Pulaski Highway, Perryville, MD.