Traps
“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Matthew 22:19-22 (NIV)

In the temple that day, amid tension between opposing factions, those who were against Jesus decided to collaborate. You know you’re in trouble when people who hate each other work together to come after you. They decide to collaborate to make sure Jesus is the target of the takedown, with the goal to take Him out. Herodians, Pharisees, and religious leaders are falling fast into the trap of their own anxiety and their need to redirect the people’s attention and affections back toward them.

There’s a plot unfolding—an attempt to trap Jesus. The trap is laid in the form of an innocent, innocuous question regarding payment of taxes to Caesar. The question is straightforward: “Jesus, is it lawful to pay Caesar taxes?” The question, of course, is designed to trap Jesus because the answer may appear to be simple, but it is very dangerous.

If Jesus answers yes, He risks alienating the Jewish people because they resented Roman rule. They saw paying taxes as a betrayal of faith. But if He answers no, He could be accused of inciting rebellion against Imperial Rome, which would mean that Rome would see Him as a political threat, which would justify Him being arrested, perhaps even killed. It’s a crafty trap.

So here’s Jesus’s answer: “Render to Caesar what belongs to him, but give to God what belongs to God.” Jesus does something here that is so spiritually profound. Jesus’s answer reveals dual citizenship for the child of God. It really is a revelation that the child of God is in this world but not of this world. Christians are dual card-carrying members, one of the earthly realm and one of a heavenly realm. We are not separate from the society we traffic in, but in salvation we carry a much more important citizenship because we have been blessed to have been born from above. We call it the kingdom of God, and the Bible says, the kingdom dwells within us.

It’s not only the promise of heaven when you die, but when you anchor your faith in Jesus, it’s the promise that heaven can be brought to your life while you live. So Jesus avoids the trap by revealing that there is a separation of realms, that there is in fact an earthly authority, and there is a divine authority. Jesus shows us that honor is called for in both realms, but greater priority is placed on the divine realm because that is where a relationship with Jesus is nurtured.