…Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God’s. Matthew 22:21
Similar to the situation in Palestine today, the Jewish people of the first century lived under occupation. The conservative sect of the Pharisees particularly loathed the Roman rule, while the pro-Roman Sadducees sought to profit by it.
Since they were the chosen people of God, the Pharisees affirmed that Jehovah was their sole ruler, and refused to acknowledge the occupation of Caesar. Standing with the Pharisees on this moral high ground, zealots or dagger men would kidnap, assassinate, and destroy the property of Roman-sympathising Jews in a style of guerrilla warfare that may justly be called terrorism. In the years leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, these acts of terror reached a climax. Josephus writes of the assassination of a Roman-sympathising high priest:
But while the countryside was thus cleared [of brigands], a different type of bandits sprang up in Jerusalem, the so-called sicarii, who murdered men in broad daylight in the heart of the city. Especially during the festivals they would mingle with the crowd, carrying short daggers concealed under their clothing, with which they stabbed their enemies. Then when they fell, the murderers would join in the cries of indignation and, through this plausible behavior, avoided discovery. The first to be assassinated by them was Jonathan the High Priest. After his death, there were numerous daily murders.
In tempting Jesus with the question, ‘Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?’, the Pharisees sought to ‘entangle him in his talk’ (Matthew 22:17,15). This was extremely crafty, since if Jesus answered that it was not lawful, they would have accused him of sedition to the Romans, but if He had said that it was lawful, they would have accused Him to the patriotic Jews, who held that paying tribute was opposed to the law of God.
With perfect wisdom, Jesus obtained the confession from his antagonists that it was the ‘image and superscription’ of Caesar upon the tribute money. With this, he sent the hypocrites away vanquished with the words: ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 22:20-21).
Tiberius Caesar, whose image would have been on the coin presented to Jesus, is recorded as a vile and contemptible person. Yet the Lord declares that paying tribute – and in general, living in obedience to even abominable ‘powers that be’ – in no wise places you in bondage to any man.
In this wonderful lesson, the Lord rebuked the vindictive and rebellious spirit which ruled the Jews. Jesus also rebuked many Christians today who believe that the moral worth of their country’s leaders determines whether or not they should obey them. In fact, to resist against those that have been ‘ordained of God’ is to resist against ‘the ordinance of God’ as did the Jews, who subsequently ‘receive[d] to themselves damnation’ by the destroying armies of Titus (Romans 13:1-2).
As the Lord’s free men and women, the Christian is to recognise that our liberty is totally unaffected by whatever state we may find ourselves in. Indeed, the Christian may ‘render unto God’ his dues of joyous prayer and ‘praises unto God’, while chained in the vilest dungeon as did Paul and Silas at Philippi.
Christopher Sparks