Mark 12:17, commentary and pictures

Jesus answered a trap about paying tribute by distinguishing what belongs to civil rulers from what belongs to God, requiring each to be given its due. The coin bearing Caesar's image showed tribute was due to him, and those living under a government's protection should peaceably pay tribute and obey its laws so long as this does not conflict with higher duty to God, whose claims remain supreme. Jesus himself paid the tax and taught his followers to do so, giving advantage to neither side and proving he was no rebel. Failure to give God His due brings foreign rule as its penalty, as seen when unfaithfulness left Jerusalem under Roman ensign, sentinel, and governor. Giving God what is His means meeting His first sacred claim on means through tithes and offerings, which debt, family provision, or prosperity never excuses withholding.

Trap and Response

The question put to Jesus was a deliberate trap laid by the Pharisees together with the Herodians as witnesses, designed to force Him to offend either Jewish law or Roman authority. Though the Pharisees themselves chafed under Roman taxes and held tribute to be contrary to God's law, their spies came with flattery about His fearless truthfulness and asked whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar. They expected a refusal to be reported as rebellion against Rome bringing arrest, and approval to be used to turn the Jews against Him as opposing God's law.

When He exposed their hypocrisy He asked to see the tribute money, and they at once brought a coin bearing the image and superscription of the Roman ruler. When He asked whose image it bore they answered Caesar's, and that image and inscription identified it as Caesar's and showed why tribute was due. His answer was direct and candid, not evasive, giving plain intelligent words that settled the disputed question. Those words brought precious light to the people and sowed seeds of truth.

The reply exposed the questioners' hypocrisy, presumption and discernment of motive and displayed divine wisdom. It left them with nothing further to say and made them marvel at Him. After marveling they hardened their hearts rather than accepting its evidence. They persisted in opposition and kept seeking another pretext against Him, though many recognized the principle and thereafter held to it even while some remained dissatisfied.

The incident falls within illustrations and warnings about the result of rejecting the Son of God. Those warnings apply in every age: those who refuse to receive Christ as Redeemer face the doom foreshadowed by the examples unless they repent.

Duties to Caesar and God

Render to civil rulers what properly belongs to them, and render to God what belongs to God, keeping the two claims distinct. The tribute question is answered by distinguishing the claim of Caesar from the claim of God, exposing hypocrisy and displaying wisdom that leaves the hearers marveling.

Those living under civil government and under its protection should give that government the support it claims in tribute and remain peaceably subject to its laws and obey them. This obedience holds only so far as it does not conflict with a higher duty to God, for first allegiance belongs to God. His claims remain supreme and must always be answered with obedience. The coin's image and inscription show why tribute was due to Caesar, while duty to God sets a clear limit beside it.

Giving God what is due means faithfully meeting His claims and fulfilling obligations to Him. That demand rebuked Israel, whose failure to meet God's claims produced apostasy and a broken national condition subject to a foreign power. Had the nation been faithful to God it would have been spared foreign rule and would not have become subject to Rome. Roman rule over Jerusalem was the penalty for not giving God His due, seen in the Roman ensign over Jerusalem, the Roman sentinel at her gates, and the Roman governor within her walls.

The duty to the reigning authority is to be fulfilled without giving advantage to either Roman or Jewish power. Jesus Himself paid the tax and taught His disciples to do so, showing obedience to the reigning power rather than leadership of sedition. He directed the questioners to Caesar's image and inscription on the coin and told them to give Caesar what belonged to him, while also giving God what is due to Him. Therefore the charge that He forbade payment of tribute and stirred rebellion was false.

Giving God His Due

What belongs to human authorities and what belongs to God are distinct, and duty to the one does not cancel duty to the other. Being in debt is no excuse for withholding an offering from God. The one in debt should first set aside from what is possessed the amount owed to others, and then give God a suitable proportion of what remains.

God holds the first and sacred claim on a suitable proportion of a person's means, to be rendered through tithes and offerings. Giving children a portion may itself be a duty, yet provision for children and other family claims must never withhold what belongs to God. His offering is not to be taken from His altar nor used for their benefit.

In these last days God requires sacrifices and offerings no less than Israel gave. All whom He has blessed with means, including the widow and the fatherless, are to remember His blessings. Those He has especially prospered are to appear before Him with self-sacrifice and bring offerings measured by the blessings bestowed on them. To prosper and then withhold is base ingratitude, making His bounties into cords binding the heart to possessions. It lets worldly business take the affections and the whole being, neglects devotion and religious privileges, and even fails to come before God as much as once a year. So serving temporal interests instead of His requirements turns His blessings into a curse.