A fine example of Jesus’ wit; it is easy to imagine him, as George Bernard Shaw does, laughing to himself over this repartee. Jesus here is an aikido master, using the opponent’s own energy to send him sprawling. The point of his response is not to take a position, either for or against obedience to the Roman empire. Rather, it is to say: first things first; if you get caught in politics, it will be hard to enter the kingdom of God; whereas entering the kingdom is the greatest blessing you can bring to your friends, your neighbors, and your country.
One day, as he was teaching in the Temple, some scribes said to him, “Rabbi, is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar, or not?”
And Jesus said, “Bring me a coin.”
And they brought one. And he said, “Whose image is on it?”
And they said, “Caesar’s.”
And Jesus said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
One day: Mark reads, “And they [the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders] sent to him certain of the Pharisees and Herodians, to trap him in his words” In the version of this incident in the Gospel of Thomas (Thomas, 100), the questioners are undesignated, and there is no mention of a plot:
They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Caesar’s men are asking us to pay taxes.”
He answered, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, to God the things that are God’s, and to me the things that are mine.”
tax:
The Greek is a transliteration of the Latin census, which was a poll tax paid directly into the Roman imperial fiscus, or treasury. It was an object of deep resentment to Jews, not only because it was a visible sign of overlordship, but because the coinage carried the name and a representation of the emperor [and thus involved breaking the Second Commandment]. The question therefore—should we pay, or not?—was a “no-win” problem. To answer yes would incur disfavor, and to answer no put the respondent at risk.
(C.S. Mann, Mark, Doubleday & Co., 1986, p. 469)
is it lawful to pay the tax: “No” would be the radical answer of the old Quakers, Thoreau, and Tolstoy. “Yes” would be the answer not only of the collaborators, but of those who, in spite of their contempt for a government of brute force, saw it as a necessary evil. The Ethics of the Fathers quotes Rabbi Hanina as saying, “Pray for the welfare of the empire, because if it weren’t for the fear of it, men would swallow one another alive.”
sources: Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:26