They watched him closely and sent agents
pretending to be righteous who were to trap him in speech, in order to hand him
over to the authority and power of the governor. 21 They posed this
question to him, “Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is correct, and
you show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22
Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?” 23 Recognizing
their craftiness he said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius; whose image
and name does it bear?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” 25 So he said to them,
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” 26
They were unable to trap him by something he might say before the people, and
so amazed were they at his reply that they fell silent.
The chief priests and scribes were watching Jesus closely (Lk.
6:7; 14:1) looking for a way to kill him but were finding it difficult because
the people were believing in him (Lk. 19:47-48). Ironically, they flattered Jesus with what
they did not accept as the truth (v. 21) and, in an effort to trap him (cf.
11:54), asked him if the Mosaic Law allowed the Jews to pay taxes to the Roman emperor. If Jesus answered yes, he would appear to be
in favor of the hated Roman occupation which would most likely turn the people
against him. If he said no that would make
him a revolutionary opposed to Rome and they would be able to turn him over to
the Roman governor, Pilate, for execution (cf. Jn. 19:15-16). During Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the Jews brought
the same charge against him, “We found this man misleading our people; he
opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a
king (Lk. 23:2).”
Jesus said to them, “Show me a denarius; whose image and
name does it bear?” They replied, “Caesar’s (v. 24).” The Jewish officials produced a coin with Caesar’s
image on it thereby indicating by possession of the coin that they thought it was
okay to pay “tribute to Caesar (v. 22).”
The Denarius was a Roman coin with the emperor’s image on it and an
inscription proclaiming the Roman emperor to be divine. Hence the answer, “repay to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God (v. 25).” The coin belonged to Caesar since it bore his
image, but what belongs to God? The
Torah tells us, “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after
our likeness. ….. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he
created them; male and female he created them (Gen. 1:26-27).” If human beings bear God’s image, then God
has lordship over all human beings including Caesar who, based on the Mosaic
law, would have been blaspheming (Num. 15:30-31).
Almighty God, grant us the grace to render to you the honor, love
and worship due to our creator. Help us
to never worship the gods of this world and to be ever vigilant as we seek to
attain the glory earned for us through the merits of your Son. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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