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SearchGod is Not of This World
Tuesday morning, when Jesus arrived in the temple court and began to teach, he had uttered but
few words when a group of the younger students from the academies, who had been rehearsed
for this purpose, came forward and by their spokesman addressed Jesus: "Master, we know you
are a righteous teacher, and we know that you proclaim the ways of truth, and that you serve only
God, for you fear no man, and that you are no respecter of persons. We are only students, and we
would know the truth about a matter which troubles us; our difficulty is this: Is it lawful for us to
give tribute to Caesar? Shall we give or shall we not give?" Jesus, perceiving their hypocrisy and
craftiness, said to them: "Why do you thus come to tempt me? Show me the tribute money, and I
will answer you." And when they handed him a denarius, he looked at it and said, "Whose image
and superscription does this coin bear?" And when they answered him, "Caesar's," Jesus said,
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's."
When he had thus answered these young scribes and their Herodian accomplices, they withdrew
from his presence, and the people, even the Sadducees, enjoyed their discomfiture. Even the
youths who had endeavored to entrap him marveled greatly at the unexpected sagacity of the
Master's answer.
The previous day the rulers had sought to trip him before the multitude on matters of
ecclesiastical authority, and having failed, they now sought to involve him in a damaging
discussion of civil authority. Both Pilate and Herod were in Jerusalem at this time, and Jesus'
enemies conjectured that, if he would dare to advise against the payment of tribute to Caesar,
they could go at once before the Roman authorities and charge him with sedition. On the other
hand, if he should advise the payment of tribute in so many words, they rightly calculated that
such a pronouncement would greatly wound the national pride of his Jewish hearers, thereby
alienating the good will and affection of the multitude.
In all this the enemies of Jesus were defeated since it was a well-known ruling of the Sanhedrin,
made for the guidance of the Jews dispersed among the gentile nations, that the "right of coinage
carried with it the right to levy taxes." In this manner Jesus avoided their trap. To have answered
"No" to their question would have been equivalent to inciting rebellion; to have answered "Yes"
would have shocked the deep-rooted nationalist sentiments of that day. The Master did not evade
the question; he merely employed the wisdom of making a double reply. Jesus was never
evasive, but he was always wise in his dealings with those who sought to harass and destroy him.