15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said.
16 And they *sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.
17 Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
19 Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax. And they brought Him a denarius.
20 And He *said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
21 They *said to Him, Caesar’s. Then He *said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.[1]

Who were the Pharisees?
The Pharisees were separatists (Hebrew ‘persahin’ from parash, ‘to separate’).
They wanted to be separate from the pagan/gentile type practices that were
being adopted in the culture since Israel was no longer a free nation.
There were two other major parties at the time: The Essenes and the Sadducees.
The Essenes were similar to the Pharisees, but were more mystical in their
approach to theology.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and would only believe
doctrines from the Pentateuch.

It is obvious that they were against Christ, but major reasons would be:

1. Christ claimed to be God
2. Christ did not interpret the law the way that they interpreted the law
3. Christ exercised grace (while they exercised legalism)
4. Christ called them vipers, white-washed tombs and sons of hell

[Read Matthew 23:13-36]

Trapping God

The pagan (lost) mind is obsessed with denying God and His truth (Romans 1:25).
The Pharisees gathered together to trap God in His words.
God’s Word was what they would use to try to trap Christ.
John 1:1 clearly points the futility of such an offensive attack.

Herodians

A Jewish sect similar to the Pharisees, but who like the Herods (a line of rulers) and were politically for Rome and the Herods.

Jesus the Teacher

The pharisees start in with what in English sounds like a complement, but
look how they try to trap him; this is an insult.
Jesus was called “Teacher” (like a school master, not Rabbi – a respected
leader/teacher) and then they said that He tought and held the truth.
If this was someone who was testifying to the truth or someone preaching the
truth then why attempt to trap Him?

Christ’s Character
What can we learn of Christ’s character from this brief description?
Truth

Christ was truthful and taught God’s way in truth.
There was not a precedence for heresy, which would not require them to trap
Him since He would have already been indictable.
Christ was the embodiment of truth and carried it to people and lived truth
for them.

Impartiality

Complementing Christ’s passion for truth was His impartiality..
This trait is incredibly powerful, it allowed Christ to reach out to the sick
and dieing (which would have compromised legalistic rules set up outside
of the Law) as well as reject teachings just because they’re popular or
culturally acceptable.
Christ did not have any secret agenda that was swayed by political
motivation.

Is It Lawful?

The Law (being the Old Testament’s 613 laws) comprised part of the
Pharisees’ code of conduct.
To combat the probability that one would come in contact with a temptation to
sin more laws were put in place to avoid running into the
original laws.

Poll-Tax

One particular Roman institution was the poll-tax which was essentially a
one-size-fits-all tax for every Roman Citizen.
There were other taxes on top of this, but this was the ‘base tax.’

Presuppositions
What are some of the presuppositions (assumptions) of the Pharisees
coming into this ‘debate’?

When the Pharisees asked this their presuppositions included at least the following:

1. Christ was a liar and his faults would be found
2. Salvation could be achieved by adhering to the Law 100% (rather than
   faith in God)
3. If Christ’s teachings on this happened to revolt against Rome, that the
   Romans could take care of Christ as a political enemy or dissident.

Christ Knew Their Hearts

Christ knew their wicked desires and carefully answered the question by digging at its root issue.
His answer nailed them as the ones who were in error calling them Hypocrites.

The Coin

The coin was a superficial indicator.
It allowed a visual illustration of that which was more important: the makeup
of mankind.
Caesar was the source of value for the coin.
His name and image were on the coin.
The money was temporal and really only reflected the current ruling empire (just like dollars today may not be worth anything in 30 years, 100 years or 100 years).

Christ’s concern was the real anatomy of a human: Mind, Body and Spirit.
Genesis 1:27 clearly shows that God created man in His image.
The general characteristics of mankind reflect God!
The Pharisees wanted to make everything a legal matter that didn’t have to do
with ownership – Christ made it a personal matter of ownership.

Rendering

If they were to render to Caesar what was Caesars and to God what was God that means that we need to ask

• What is God’s
• How do we render those things to God?
• What prevents us from rendering things to Him?
• What if we fail to render them to God?

Conclusion

Christ’s character draws us in to know more intimately this wise, loving
savior.
We need to understand the concept of Lordship (bond-servanthood) and submit
ourselves to Jesus Christ and render ourselves to Him.