The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax."
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
Here Jesus side steps the obvious trap, that if he said pay taxes to Caesar he would betray the Jewish people and prop up his Roman oppressors, and if he says no to paying taxes he would be arrested instantly. Jesus' response is quite clever because he says that you can only pay worldly demands with worldly goods and heavenly things with heavenly goods. So Jesus' answer is pay your taxes to Caesar because they are his coins. This is a lesson to us all, that although we are a people of God, we should not forget that we belong in the world as well.
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