you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion
Do we come to Jesus looking for a mere opinion, for one more option in the marketplace of ideas? The Pharisees did not have room to hear anything more from Jesus. They did not ask him to speak anything but the sort of truth which did not concern he himself in others. It was as if they said, 'You know how opinions don't matter to you? What's yours?'
Jesus was not concerned with the opinions of others, not merely because he himself had a better opinion, but because he himself was the one who brought "grace and truth" to the world (see John 1:17). He himself was "the way and the truth and the life" (see John 14:6). The reason he "was born and came into the world" was "to testify to the truth" (see John 18:37). The Pharisees tried to flatter him by saying that he was truthful and taught the way of God in accordance with the truth. But in fact, their flattery, which they did not really believe, did not go far enough. An opinion, which was the only thing to which they were willing to listen was not something Jesus could have. There was no lack of certainty in him that could only resolve into the probability of an opinion. And it was no doubt this that chaffed the Pharisees so much.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
The Pharisees thought they had him with this question. There wasn't supposed to be a right answer. The Pharisees themselves would have resented the Roman tax. They wished they could have said that it was not within God's law to pay it. But they knew that to do so would be seditious and would turn the Roman authorities against them. So here, they thought, they would show that Jesus was no better than they. He would either say it was lawful to pay the taxes and thus show himself to be just as ready to compromise (as anyone who merely holds an opinion would be ready) as any Pharisee. Or he would say it was not lawful in which case the Roman authorities would make short work of him. However, whenever anyone tried to trap Jesus had not only escaped but turned the trap against those who set it.
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
By saying that one must repay to Caesar what is his Jesus didn't mean that there were separate secular and sacred spheres of life and that taxes were, after all, the prerogative of the government, no use involving God after all. Rather by using the word "image" he reminded his listeners that they were all, including Caesar, made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:27) and that there was no sphere that did not concern him. But the surprising thing was that this meant that God could work even through pagan rulers. The corollary was that it was not simply a concession but rather a sacred duty to support them in that work for the common good. The Pharisees could only see the possibility of God working in their own people and so an entity like Rome could only represent some evil outside of the sphere of providence. Jesus revealed that they weren't thinking big enough about the way God could work in the world. It was the same with the pagan Cyrus in the first reading.
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
subduing nations before him,
and making kings run in his service
It is the same for all established authority insofar as it does not transgress God's law but rather is at the service of his image found in both those governed and those who govern.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God (see Romans 13:1).
It is nevertheless the case the the civil order often fails to respect the image in which its constituents were created. It is at such times that Caesar is asking for something that he cannot claim. Christians have always resisted authorities who do such things, who make idols of themselves or of the state.
We have a truth that is solid and not merely an opinion. We have something that helps us to navigate the world where others might be tempted to compromise. The whole sphere of the world is God's sphere. This conviction gives us strength.
For our gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
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