Render to God what belongs to him

Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17)

If I had a nickel for every time a Christian has quoted this as a way of telling me that I am preaching wrongly against government, well, they’d want me to hand over all those nickels to the IRS.

Christ’s statement was a trick answer to a trick question. If we don’t comprehend that much (which is clear from the text) we have no hope of applying it to our lives.

We see that the trick question on taxes was asked by a strange coalition of Pharisees and Herodians (12:13). They weren’t hoping to learn from Jesus, but to trap him.

The Pharisees can be likened to the Alt Right in America. They were the original “Faith, Family, and Freedom” crowd, who believed in doing what God said and defending their nation. The Pharisees were conservatives, who hated having to pay taxes to the occupying Romans.

In this passage, they team up with the Herodians. This crew resembles the modern, Establishment “swamp” that the conservatives hope to see drained. They got their name, Herodians, for their tactic of cozying up to the Herods, the puppet kings that the Romans supported. Most people saw them as sell-outs, who were OK with the tyrants as long as some nice benefits came their way.

So you have the group that couldn’t stand the Romans, teaming up with the group that adored Roman rule, and the thing that brought them together was their common hatred of Christ.

They devised a trap question, thinking it would catch Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Whatever he said, He’d be in trouble. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”

If he said no, the Herodians would go back to their swamp-buddies and report that Jesus was teaching sedition. He’d be carried off as a rebel. Problem solved.

If he said yes, the Pharisees would go to their followers (most of the common folk) and tell them that Jesus was no friend of Israel, but rather a supporter of Rome. His popularity with the crowds would be decimated. Problem solved.

He was under no obligation to answer them as if the question was real. It wasn’t, and he didn’t.

Give Caesar what is his, but give God what belongs to God. Both groups were left wondering what just happened here. He wasn’t preaching a tax rebellion, but neither was he preaching that Caesar was in the place of God.

So now, it’s important to ask, “What exactly belongs to Caesar (or, the federal government)?” The Bible makes it clear that no king gets to say for himself what belongs to him. That’s not up to him. On the other hand, the Scripture declares that “the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1)

What belongs to the government, according to God? Not everything it wants. That’s for sure. In fact, the answer is really, “not much.” On the other hand, what should be rendered unto God? This isn’t complex, though the implications may discomfort us: Everything is God’s, including Caesar.

Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:

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