Jesus the Tax Resistor

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s

The three synoptic gospels start this story with the Pharisees trying to “entangle” “entrap” or “deliver him (Jesus) up to the authority” Therefore there must have been an expectation that Jesus believed in tax resistance to Rome but they needed him to publicly state this to have him arrested. I think this is also supported by Luke 23.2 whereupon handing Jesus to Pilate the assembly says “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor”

Many tax collectors over collected taxes so as to make a profit. This put an even heavier burden on the largely poor agricultural population of Israel. Often people had to mortgage their lands. Upon the ever rising taxes eventually the people would lose their land to the money-lenders. In the time of Jesus, there was still a strong sense of God haven given this land to the Jewish people and the land was God’s and should not be transferred to Romans or used to facilitate payment of taxes to Rome.

Jesus had to find a way to give his tax resistance message to the people so as to maintain his integrity, without publicly denouncing the Romans which would lead to his arrest. His wording is highly ambiguous just for that reason. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s – which is nothing, Render unto God what is God’s – which is everything, particularly the land.