So tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar, or not?”
The disciples of the Pharisees now frame the trap-laden question they have devised, trying to cast Jesus into a political and religious snare. If he were to say, “You must pay the tax,” they would declare that he is betraying the Jews’ national faith, but if he were to say, “You must not,” they would report him to the Herodians as a rebel against Rome. The condition of these people’s hearts is such that they are not seeking the truth in order to understand it, but in order to entrap. Yet through this question Jesus is about to reveal divine wisdom, showing that faith and civic duty can coexist in harmony.