After failing to find an opportunity to arrest Jesus without endangering themselves with the people, the Pharisees left him and took counsel together concerning how they might entrap him in his words (Matthew 22:15). Having agreed upon a method, they sent certain of their own disciples together with a few members of the Herodian party (Mark 12:13) in an effort to either discredit Jesus or have him arrested by the Romans. The Herodians were supporters of Herod and his descendants. They were a political party rather than a religious group and were brought along by the Pharisees, in the hope that Jesus could be arrested and removed from the public eye (cp. Luke 20:20). In so doing, the religious leaders could escape any blame on their part in the eyes of the common people. Moreover, this wasn’t the first time political favor was sought to effect a religious purpose (cp. Mark 3:6), nor would it be the last.[1]
Believing that Jesus would enjoy the praise they eagerly sought in public (cp. Mark 12:38-29; Luke 11:23), the Pharisees sought to entice him with flattery and asked whether or not it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar (Mark 12:14). How should Jesus, the Messianic figure, reply? If he said yes, then the Jews’ Messiah would be nothing more than a client king of the hated Empire of Rome. If Jesus said no, then he could be arrested for seeking to incite a rebellion against Rome by rejecting Caesar’s right to tax the Jewish state. It seemed there was no way in which Jesus could reply to this question and avoid either getting into trouble with Rome or keep from being discredited in the eyes of the people.
It wasn’t difficult for Jesus to see through their plot, so, he called them hypocrites (Matthew 22:18), asking why they were tempting him. Then he asked one of them to give him a sample of the tribute money (Mark 12:15). When a coin was given him, Jesus asked whose image was on it, and what inscription was with the image (Mark 12:16). Suddenly, it was they who were caught in the snare they, themselves, set up for Jesus. First of all, we may presume at least one of the Pharisees had a sample of the tribute money. In other words, Jesus cast out the businessmen from the Temple, and it doesn’t seem anyone went outside the compound to retrieve a coin. It was already the possession of one of Jesus’ accusers! This means they were getting a cut in the form of Roman currency from the businessmen’s profits by permitting them to set up shop within the Temple compound. In other words, the Temple authorities were profiting off Caesar being their king (cp. John 19:5)!
Secondly, the Roman coin had Caesar’s image on its front side, and it was illegal to bring images of foreign gods into the Temple of the Lord. The fact that Caesar was a foreign god is understood in the inscription on the coin. It read from the Latin: “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.”[2] In other words, Tiberius Caesar, the son of god. On the reverse side was an image of Livia, the goddess of peace and daughter of the Roman king god, Jupiter. These images of foreign gods were readily available and in the possession of the Jewish authorities, while they stood in the Temple of the Most High God at Jerusalem.
When asked about the identity of the image and its inscription, their only reply was Caesar’s. How could they publicly repeat its inscription in the Temple of the Lord? Yet, the fact that they were hoarding Caesar’s currency was incriminating enough. Whatever the legal tender is of a certain land, that money reveals who is lord of that land. Therefore, at least according to the Jewish authorities, Caesar was lord of Judea. By offering a sample of their currency, they divulged who their lord was.
Jesus’ reply was a play on the word image or likeness. Men were created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). The image on the coin was that of Caesar, so give his money back to him (Mark 12:17). On the other hand, if man is in the image of God, he needs to render his entire self to Almighty God who created him.
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[1] Today, many Christians also seek to use political means to gain their religious goals on the abortion issue, believing they are serving Christ in doing so. They are not! One simply cannot take the same power that crucified Christ and somehow morph it into a tool to serve the Lord. While the Lord will use worldly power to judge evil men, he never has nor will he ever use evil men to produce righteous behavior. That is the labor of the righteous, not the state (the world).
[2] See Wicipedia: Render onto Caesar under ‘coin.”
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