"Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?"
What looks like a simple tax question was actually a perfectly crafted political trap. Imagine religious leaders so desperate to discredit Jesus that they'd bring together groups that normally hate each other – just to set up an impossible question."
The Pharisees and Herodians were religious and political opponents who rarely agreed on anything. Yet, they united against Jesus to create a no-win scenario. If Jesus said, 'Pay taxes,' he'd alienate the Jewish resistance. If he said, 'Don't pay,' he'd be accused of sedition against Rome.
This wasn't just a question. It was a binary choice designed to force Jesus into an impossible corner – exactly how our current political discourse operates.
Jesus refuses to play by their binary rules. When asked about paying taxes, he doesn't choose sides. Instead, he reframes the entire conversation.
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”
This isn't tax policy. This is a profound statement about true allegiance.
Dominative Christianism often reduces the passage to a simplistic endorsement of patriotic duty. 'Pay your taxes, be a good citizen' becomes a way to sacralize a particular national identity.
When nationalism meets faith, we risk missing the subversive heart of Jesus's response—how he challenges the entire premise of earthly authority.
On the other hand, Providential Identitarianism wants to read the passage as a sophisticated act of political resistance. Jesus becomes a clever strategist, outmaneuvering imperial power.
But this misses the deeper theological truth. Jesus isn't primarily a political strategist – he's revealing something profound about human identity.
Notice how Jesus first asks to see the coin. His questioners have it – he doesn't. He's already exposing their complicity with the very system they're critiquing.
The coin bears Caesar's image. But humans? We bear God's image. This isn't about taxes. This is about ultimate allegiance.
Both Dominative Christianism and Providential Identitarianism trap us in binary thinking that betrays Jesus's teaching.
Truth isn't about:
Picking the right political side
Maintaining the current power structure
Overthrowing the current power structure.
Truth is about recognizing whose image we truly bear.
A coin. An image. A profound question. When religious leaders tried to trap Jesus, he didn't choose sides. He revealed a deeper reality.
The coin belongs to Caesar. But you? You belong to God. Our ultimate allegiance isn't to political tribes or ideological camps. It's to the one who created us in divine image.
Whose image are you bearing today?
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