One day the Pharisees, accompanied by supporters of Herod, ask him a tricky question: Is it against the law to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
Their question is a Catch 22: If you are against the payment of taxes, you could be denounced to the Roman authorities as a subversive (in fact, according to Luke 23:2, before Pilate they accused him of inciting the people not to pay taxes to Caesar).
If you are in favour, you attract the antipathy of the people who hate the Roman colonisers.
Every Roman coin had images of the emperor. Graven images amount to idolatry and are prohibited by Jewish law. Using the money of Tiberius meant idolatry.
Jesus is aware of the pitfalls that they have laid for him. He does not avoid the question. As he usually does, he skillfully leads the interlocutors at the root of the problem.
He wants them first to show him the money, which they do without question. They do not realise that Jesus is playing a trick on them as well: first, he asks for the money.
It means that he does not have any, and if they pull it out, it means that they use it without any problem.
What’s more, the dispute takes place in the precincts of the temple (Matthew 21:23) and in the holy place, and they do not profane it with that image. They have scruples only when they have to pay taxes.
After looking at the money Jesus asks, “Whose image is this?” “Caesar’s,” they say. “So,” he concludes, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s” (v.21).
The first message is: it is a moral and civil duty to contribute to the common good by taxes. There is no reason that justifies tax evasion or theft of state assets.
Whatever the policy and economic choice of the government, the disciple of Christ is called to be an honest and exemplary citizen.
He is actively engaged in building a just society. He makes political choices that favour the weakest, not those that safeguard their own interests.
Jesus’ answer, however, is not limited to state the duty to contribute to the common good with the payment of taxes. He adds: “Give to God what is God’s.”
The verb he uses more precisely means to return. What belongs to God? Tertullian already in 200 AD.realised that he was the man that was handed back to God. Creating him, in fact, he had said: “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26).
If the coin had to be returned to Caesar because on it was stamped the face of his master, man must be returned to God.
Man is the only creature on whom the face of God is imprinted. He is sacred and no one can take him as his own.
Those who make a person their own (by enslaving, oppressing, exploiting, dominating, using the person as an object…) should immediately return him to his Lord.
Father Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications (bibleclaret.org)
Translated by Father John Ledesma SDB
Abridged by Father Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
