The Pharisees, seeking to checkmate Jesus into saying something blasphemous or heretical, asked if it were lawful—according to the Law of Moses—to pay the census tax. They likely remembered from their own history what befell David and the people when he dared to take a census of God’s people, wanting to know how large an army he could raise and how much he could make in taxes (2 Samuel 24). He sinned in God’s sight, seeking to increase his own wealth and power by treating his subjects as his own possession, forgetting that they belonged to God. God had promised to Abraham that his descendants would be “…as countless as the stars of the sky…” (Genesis 22:17) and it is God and God alone who “…numbers the stars, and gives to all of them their names,” (Psalm 147:4). How dare David, appointed king over God’s people by God Himself, count the heads of His people for his own purposes!
Thus the Pharisees wanted to see what the Son of David would say to Caesar’s demands that all pay the census tax; after all, Caesar demanded so based on his authority as the son of the gods, and because he was, in the eyes of the Romans, a god in his own right. To be counted by the Romans was, in a sense, to be claimed by a foreign god, as one of his possessions, and the Pharisees would have no part in that. What would Jesus say, He who was counted in the census of Caesar Augustus at His birth (Luke 2:1-3)?
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” Jesus says, asking for a Roman coin. Already He points out their hypocrisy, for they carry in their pockets an image of a foreign god! They seek to trap Jesus in violating God’s Law, and they themselves are already guilty. Yet He seeks to make a deeper point: Caesar, in spite of his worldly power, cannot own or possess anyone. They believe paying the census tax means belonging to Caesar; Jesus reveals their little idolatry in this way: “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” In this way He shows them that the coin itself belongs to Caesar, and in imposing a tax Caesar is not taking any person into possession, as his image and name is written only upon the coin; thus he has a right to it. However, they have forgotten that it is not Caesar’s but God’s image and likeness that is written upon their souls (Genesis 1:26-27): the Pharisees belong solely to God, period. They refuse to pay the census tax not because of their own righteousness, but because they had completely forgotten that they belong to God: they belonged only to themselves.
Too often we fall into the same little trap: we end up being owned by our possessions, our culture, our politics, and we find ourselves unwitting slaves of worldly things and wonder why we feel anxious, confused, and frustrated at every turn. We end up rendering to all our worldly caesars not merely what belongs to them, but we end up surrendering our dignity, our time, our attention, our bodies, and our very selves. We easily use others as commodities, as possessions, blind to the image and likeness of God engraved on their souls. Repay to God what belongs to God: love Him more than anything else in this world.