Luke 20:20 – 26 Give to Caesar

Luke 20:20 – 26 Give to Caesar

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. 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. Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?" Recognizing their craftiness he said to them, "Show me a denarius; whose image and name does it bear?" They replied, "Caesar's." So he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." 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.

Looking for any excuse to cause Jesus’ downfall, the Scribes and Pharisees send spies to try to trip Jesus up. They ask him whether they ought to pay taxes or not. If the Scribes and Chief Priests can get Jesus to deny the Roman’s authority perhaps the Romans will arrest Jesus. Jesus of course sees through their ploy and answers with the following statement: “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This outfoxes his adversaries for the moment, but I want to look more closely at this statement. What does it really mean? What is Caesar’s? What is God’s?

Caesar is the civil authority. In return for taxes paid the population receives protection and services. At least that is what a government is supposed to do, although we can all attest to the fact that that government’s oppress, misuse resources and are subject to corruption and mistakes. They are the imperfect practical reality of our lives. But what is God’s? We know from our reading of scripture that God wants us to love him and love others as we love ourselves. He wants to be at the center of our lives. Our dealings with our government and the economy are not to be the primary relationships in our lives and receive our primary focus. Our love for God and those around us, our families, our neighbors, are where our true mission lies.