Render Unto Caesar
The Christian Ambassador • Sermon • Submitted
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The year was A.D. 33, give or take a year or two. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the last time.
Upon His entry into the city the previous Sunday upon a donkey’s foal, He had been heralded by throngs of people lining the road, spreading palm fronds and their coats along the road before Him, and shouting “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The time was drawing near when the religious leaders would haul Jesus before the Roman authorities in Jerusalem and demand His crucifixion. But they had not yet landed on that plan.
They already hated Him, and they wanted Him dead, because He had told them their works-based religion would not gain them entrance into heaven.
But He was popular among the people, and He had done nothing that would land Him in trouble with the Roman occupiers, and the religious and political leaders among the Jews had not yet found a way to trick Him into saying or doing something that would jeopardize Him with either the people or with Rome.
Luke writes in chapter 19 of his Gospel that “the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy [Jesus], and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.”
So they were frustrated, and they were angry, and they looked for any opportunity they might find to stop the teaching of this God-man who had so shaken up the status quo in Judea and in Samaria.
Picture yourself at the temple in Jerusalem on this day. It’s not the kind of building we tend to associate with temples. This was a grand complex of structures that the illegitimate King Herod had built and restored in an effort to win the favor of the Jewish citizens of Judea.
Its focus was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where God’s presence in Israel dwelt upon the mercy seat. This was the curtained room that only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and then only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
Leaving the Holy of Holies, the high priest would descend eight feet down a set of steps into the Court of priests; then three feet down another set of steps into the Court of Israel; then 10 feet down another set of steps into the Court of Women; and finally, outside the temple proper and down another eight feet on a grand set of steps into the Court of Gentiles.
Picture yourself among the throngs of those who have come to Jerusalem for the coming Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Historians tell us there were between 100 thousand and 200 thousand permanent residents of Jerusalem at this time in history, but that the city’s population swelled to as many as 1 million during the feast seasons.
These visitors would have come from all over the Ancient Near East, and among them would have been followers of Judaism, as well as God-fearing Gentiles. The temple complex would have been a busy and noisy place during this week.
So let’s imagine we were there as Jesus sat nearby, possibly on those grand steps in the Court of the Gentiles, where just a couple of days earlier, He had turned over the tables of the moneychangers, or perhaps along Solomon’s Portico, where Peter would preach his second sermon in the Book of Acts.
On this day, it would be Jesus who would preach, but as so often happened, his teaching this day was done in parables. And, as so often happened, His teaching would enrage the Jewish religious and political leaders.
There they are, asking Him on whose authority He speaks as He does. On whose authority had He overturned the tables of the money-changers? Who was the rabbi who had taught Him the gospel of grace that He was now teaching in the temple?
But Jesus turned that question on its head, and He sprang a trap of His own that showed His accusers to be merely engaging in a game of Gotcha, rather than seeking true revelation from Him.
And then, He told the parable of the vine-growers, where the vine-growers represented the religious leaders who had been entrusted with God’s word and the slaves that they had killed representing the prophets of God whom they had killed, and the master’s son whom they killed representing Jesus, whom God had sent to establish His kingdom.
And Jesus said that by killing the son, the vine-growers — in other words, the Pharisees and Sadducees and others who were plotting to kill Jesus — would lose any claim they thought they had on the vineyard, on God’s kingdom. The kingdom would be given to others — to the Gentile and Jewish believers who would come to Jesus in faith that He was the Son of God.
And as He finished this parable, we can see the chief priests and the scribes move in to lay hands on Jesus. We can see the rage on their faces. We can see the hatred in their clenched teeth. But then, as Luke writes in verse 19 of chapter 20, we can see them step back, because they feared the people.
The people had hard lives under Roman rule, but Jesus offered them hope. The people had hard lives under Jerusalem’s religious elite, but Jesus offered them grace.
And so, those who wanted to see Jesus dead put their heads together and tried to come up with yet another trap that they could spring upon Him.
Picture this in your mind as you turn with me to Matthew’s account of this incident, in Matthew, chapter 22, starting at verse 15.
Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.
Now, the first thing I want you to notice here is that the religious leaders of Jerusalem, the Pharisees, had teamed up with the Herodians to spring this trap.
The Herodians were the Jews who were in league with King Herod. They supported him and were generally hated because they were seen to be traitors to their homeland. By being in league with Herod, they were also in league with Rome, whom Herod served as the puppet king of Judea.
But the Pharisees saw what they considered to be an opportunity to expose Jesus in front of those who would most likely run right back to Herod and tell him that this Jesus was stirring things up against the Roman occupiers. Politics, it has been said, makes strange bedfellows.
Politics also sometimes makes people say things they don’t really believe. It makes people try to cozy up to others by whispering words of blessing when their hearts are full of cursing.
And so we hear this group telling Jesus, “We know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth.”
They didn’t really believe that about Jesus, or they wouldn’t have been trying to find a way to trap Him. They wouldn’t have been conspiring to kill Him.
Nonetheless, having buttered Him up with this false praise, they continued.
Verse 17
“Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?”
This was a masterful riddle that they had posed to Jesus.
If He responded that the poll-tax should not be paid, then they would have all the evidence they needed for Jesus to be punished for sedition against the Roman Empire.
But if He responded that the poll-tax should NOT be paid, Jesus would lose the support of the people.
Rome taxed the people heavily. This poll-tax was a tax levied during the census and was based on the value of property owned, much like our own property taxes or real estate taxes. Goods that were sold were also taxed, along with imports and exports, and the tax collectors added their own interest to the taxes they collected. One source I found stated that the combination of all those taxes could raise the cost of goods to 100 times their value by the time the average Jew went to market.
So taxes were a big deal, not just to Caesar, but also to the average Jew living in Judea at the time, and this was, therefore a great question to put before Jesus if you were among those who hated Him and wanted to see Him dead.
I can imagine that this busy and noisy Court of the Gentiles must have gone silent for a moment as everyone waited for Jesus’ reply.
But Jesus knew the kind of people He was dealing with, and He had the wisdom of God within Him.
Verse 18
But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
The key to this passage is in the word that’s translated here as “likeness.” This is the Greek word, eikon, from which we get our English word, “icon.” And throughout much of the Bible, this word is translated as “image.”
“Whose image is on the coin? Caesar’s. Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
The point here is that the poll-tax was Caesar’s thing, as was the coin that was required to pay it. The Roman law that instituted the poll-tax was Caesar’s, and Jesus was telling the people that they needed to obey that law.
Jesus was already King of the Jews. He was already King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He had already brought the Kingdom of God to Earth, and so He would have had every right to to say, “No, don’t pay the poll-tax. It’s unjust and doesn’t represent My Father’s character.”
But even though He had already established God’s Kingdom here, there was still a sense — and there is still a sense today — that His Kingdom has not arrived in its fullness.
So, He said, use the coin with Caesar’s image to pay the tax, even though it’s unjust, but give God the things that have His image.
The Pharisees and the Herodians were willing to pay the poll-tax — remember that their question was simply meant to entrap Jesus — but they weren’t willing to give themselves to God by following Jesus in faith that He was God’s Son.
That’s the most important lesson from this little parable: God wants each of His image-bearers to devote themselves to Him through faith in Jesus.
But today, I want to spend some time talking about the first part of Jesus’ response and to see how and when the Bible suggests we as Christians should choose not to give to Caesar what Caesar demands.
I’m going to give you a comprehensive list of the seven situations when the Bible shows us that God approved of disobedience to civil law. There are seven. And only seven.
First, when the law does not allow us to worship God. We see this in Exodus 5:1.
And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”
This was a reasonable request on the part of Moses and Aaron. They simply asked to be allowed to go three days’ journey into the wilderness, where they could offer sacrifices to God.
But the Pharaoh said no. “Get back to work!”
Notice here that Pharaoh didn’t simply deny them the ability to worship God as they wished. He denied it completely.
This is why I have been so careful about following the governor’s orders concerning worship during the pandemic. We have not been denied the ability to worship; we have simply been told to do so with constraints that do not violate Scripture.
The second circumstance in which God approved of civil disobedience was when the government commanded God’s people to kill innocent people.
We see that in Exodus, chapter 1, when the Pharaoh commanded first that the male children of Hebrew women be killed as they were born. And then, when the midwives said that wasn’t possible because the Hebrew women birthed their babies before the midwives could arrive, the Pharaoh ordered that the Hebrew women cast their sons into the Nile when they were born.
We know at least one of the Hebrew slaves disobeyed this command, because she put her child, Moses, into a wicker basket and set him among the reeds along the bank of the river. And we know that God approved of this disobedience, because He sent the Pharaoh’s own daughter to retrieve the infant Moses and raise him as her own son.
From a modern perspective, think of the evil of abortion, which our nation’s laws allow. We can work through political channels to try to have those laws changed, and we can (and should) work to support organizations that offer alternatives to women considering abortion, but until the government begins to REQUIRE abortions (as happened under China’s one-child laws) we cannot disobey or support those who seek to end abortion through violence.
The third set of circumstances in which God approves of civil disobedience are when the government commands that God’s servants be killed.
We see this in 1 Kings, chapter 18, when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, and a man named Obadiah hid 100 of God’s prophets in caves and provided them with bread and water until the peril was gone.
The fourth circumstance in which God approves of civil disobedience is when government demands that God’s people worship idols.
We see that in Daniel, chapter 3, when Nebuchadnezzar built a 90-foot tall statue of himself and ordered that everyone fall down and worship the statue whenever they heard music.
But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to do so, because they worshiped Yahweh alone, and they were thrown into the fiery furnace for their disobedience.
How’d that work out for them? Just fine. They came out without even smelling like smoke.
The fifth circumstance in which God approves of civil disobedience is when government demands that people pray only to a man.
We see that in Daniel, chapter 6, when King Darius decrees that for 30 days no one may make petitions to any god or man besides him.
Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.
And so, Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. How’d that work out for him? He wound up with some pet lions, even though they were so hungry they tore Daniel’s accusers and their families to pieces when Darius took Daniel out and threw them into the den in his place.
The sixth circumstance in which God approves of civil disobedience is when government demands that believers not preach the gospel.
We see this in Acts, chapter 4, when the Jewish religious leaders demand that Peter and John cease their preaching about Jesus.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
And so, Peter and John continued to tell others about Jesus, and the church continued to grow, and the high priest had them thrown into jail.
How’d that work out for them? Well, God sent an angel to open the gates of the prison and to tell them to keep on preaching.
And the seventh circumstance in which God approves of civil disobedience is when government demands that believers worship a man.
We see this in Revelation, chapter 13, where Satan brings up the antichrist, and where all who are on earth at that time will be commanded to worship him.
How will that work out for those who have believed in Jesus during this Great Tribulation and refuse to worship the antichrist?
John writes that they will all be killed. God never promises that He will save us from the penalty here on earth of even the disobedience He condones. He saved Daniel, but He did not save Paul.
So we have seven circumstances in which God clearly approves of disobeying earthly government:
Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 142 Disobedience Is Allowed Only When Government Usurps God’s Authority
1. When it does not allow worship of God (Exod. 5:1).
2. When it commands believers to kill innocent lives (Exod. 1:15–21).
3. When it commands that God’s servants be killed (1 Kings 18:1–4).
4. When it commands believers to worship idols (Dan. 3).
5. When it commands believers to pray only to a man (Dan. 6).
6. When it forbids believers to propagate the gospel (Acts 4:17–19).
7. When it commands believers to worship a man (Rev. 13).
All these cases have this in common: whereas believers are always to obey government when it takes its place under God, they should never obey it when it takes the place of God. In short, governments and laws can permit evil but they cannot command it.
We Christians are not called to establish God’s kingdom here on earth. We are called to display it, even as we must submit to unjust, unrighteous, and ungodly governments.
None of these circumstances exists in America today, so our responsibility right now is clear: Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.
Until the day — and it could very well be coming — when our government commands us to do one or more of these seven things, we must obey.
But what happens if we find ourselves put in the position where we must disobey?
How do we respond if our government doesn’t simply LIMIT religious freedom but rather negates it?
Then, we must refuse to obey. But we must not revolt.
Think about Peter and John when they preached the gospel after having been commanded not to do so. What did they say? “You be the judge.”
They acknowledged the authority the religious leaders of Jerusalem had to judge them here on earth, and they submitted to the punishment of imprisonment when they were caught disobeying their command.
They didn’t rise up and foment revolution. They went to prison and had faith that God would work whatever plan He knew to be best.
Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 142 The Bible Places Limits on How One Can Disobey Government
The Israelites refused to obey Pharaoh’s command but they did not revolt against him. They followed a “love it or leave it” policy with Egypt, but they did not attack it. Nowhere in Scripture is the sword given to the citizens against the state. Rather, the sword is given to the government to use on the governed
In fact, the Bible warns us in Proverbs 24:21 not even to associate with those who try to rise up against the government.
My son, fear the Lord and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change, For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?
We live in fraught times. We live in a time of great political upheval, and we do not know how things will be here tomorrow.
But we who follow Jesus Christ in faith know this: We know that He is already King of kings and Lord of lords. We know that He will return one day and reign upon the earth. And we know that His kingdom will be one of perfect righteousness and justice and peace.
Until then, we must render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.