Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Jesus was becoming famous for his frankness and freedom in speaking. He didn't hesitate to say what he wanted to say no matter who was listening, no matter who might take offense, whether Jewish or Roman leaders or militia. Clearly the Pharisees were upset by this, since they themselves did not ever speak with clear sincerity what they were thinking. They spoke to mask their hypocrisy, and with all of their words carefully calibrated for political effect. They seemed to regard the way that Jesus spoke as immature and naive, something which could be provoked in order to push him into their trap.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
The Pharisees expected that Jesus did not have any good options for how a response. If he spoke freely in favor of the tax he would have alienated his Jewish audience who suffered daily under the oppression of the occupation by Rome. If he spoke against it the Herodians would have quickly brought word of it to the Roman authorities branding Jesus as a political dissident and potentially dangerous revolutionary. And if he didn't say either of these things they probably thought his only option would be an unsatisfactory compromise, one was an obvious retreat from his normal freedom in speaking, showing him to be really no better, more truthful and forthright, than anyone else.
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax."
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
Even before giving his response to their question Jesus already exposed the Pharisees as hypocrites. They postured themselves as opposed to the tax, as though they would express shock and dismay if Jesus said it was to be paid. Yet the fact that they produced this coin immediately revealed they were nevertheless participants in the Roman economic system, and doubtless paid the tax just as everyone did.
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"
They replied, "Caesar's."
On a certain level Caesar was entitled to support for what he provided. The infrastructure of society and economy required support in order to be sustainable. And there were genuine common goods which only such systems could provide.
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
We sometimes misunderstand this statement to mean that there are two separate worlds, the economic/political and the religious, which are meant to remain separate and govern different aspects of our life. In this situation politics would be free and unencumbered by religious influence to pursue whatever ends seemed most expedient. Religion would by relegated to a mostly subjective matter, where private worship was really the only thing that fell under its auspices. It would be presumed that it had nothing practical or concrete to say in the real world of politics. But this take on the separation of Church and state is decidedly not what Jesus was advocating.
Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.
What, after all, does Caesar have that is entirely his own? Everything in the sphere of politics is properly viewed as a stewardship of God's own prerogatives. We see this in clearly in God's relation to King Cyrus in the first reading.
I have called you by your name,
giving you a title, though you knew me not.
Whatever must be repaid to Caesar is still ultimately not his own. For all that Caesar has and is, since he too is made in the image of God, must finally be repaid to God who is in fact the source of all things. Caesar might have given orders for the coins to be made in his image. But he did not create the metal nor the people who executed these commands. He was not self-created but already indebted to God just by virtue of his very being before he could achieve or merit anything himself.
When we repay to Caesar what is temporarily his we are meant to do so with a view to God's ultimate ownership of all things. And this makes us realize that politics is not an entirely secular affair, that the public square is not meant to exist without the guiding influence of religion. Practically speaking it does mean that we must sometimes support regimes that are not entirely good, just as the Roman regime was at best a mixed bag. But it means that our own political involvement should not pretend to be without reference to God. Politically, we must begin where we are, take what we have, and work and pray to guide it more closely into line with God's law and design. This doesn't require working toward a theocracy so much as creating a world where mercy and justice can flourish, and where the natural moral law is the source of the civil and political order. Man truly alive and flourishing in this way is the repayment desired by God since there is nothing else he himself could stand to gain.
It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
people may know that there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, there is no other.
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