Give Your Tribute Appropriately

Luke 20:20-26

The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?

20 So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.

21 Then they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth: 22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

23 But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test Me? 24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?"

They answered and said, "Caesar's."

25 And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

26 But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.

This answer of Jesus to the conniving contrarians concerning taxes was a lesson from life about where and who and why we give tribute to God and man.  The pretenders to righteousness tried to catch the Lord of all creation in a trap by misusing His words or trying to make Jesus slip in His response to their cunning craftiness (Ephesians 4:14), but met a divine response to their devilish attempt.  They thought to use a legal argument to hand Him over to the authorities to stop Jesus from telling the truth and healing the body and souls of men and women as He set them free from the tyranny of the Law (Romans 8:2) which no person is able to fully keep (Deuteronomy 27:26, Galatians 3:11-12, 13, 23-25, James 2:10).  These self righteousness ones therefore feebly attempted to throw Him off guard by first commending the teachings of Jesus as being truth from God but then shifted in the same sentence to slyly asking Him if it was lawful in God’s eyes to pay taxes to the occupying government under Caesar.  Jesus of course knew their heart motives and intent (Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 1:16) as the living Word of God and the divine creator and ruler over them all, and so wisely answered straight to the point of that sword pointed back at them.  He asked them simply who owned the money they did not want to pay in taxes based on the image of the creator on the coin.  Of course they had to answer it was the king of Rome who owned it and Jesus told them to give the tribute of taxes back to its owner.  This is a picture of our tribute to God which holds His image that includes each of us as well as all creation which are made by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16).  He even clarified this to the self-righteous who tested Him by not only commanding them to render the tribute of Rome in taxes to Caesar, but also the tribute of their lives and all they possessed to God in heaven above as their rightful King.  The saying, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” still holds true and is repeated often and observed very little today by those refusing to pay taxes as tribute to the leaders God puts over us (Romans 13:1) and holding back all tribute of honor and obedience with praise and glory to God for all we have and are.  The world is utterly unable to resist the word of God in these matters yet daily does so to its own disadvantage and accountability.  May we instead give proper tribute to Whom it is due in all things as we follow Jesus in spirit and in truth.  Let us give our tribute appropriately.