THE TEMPLE WAR: Paying Taxes

Sep 13, 2026 • Rory Mosley

070 THE TEMPLE WAR: Paying Taxes

Mark 12:13-17

September 13, 2026

In the 1988 presidential race it was Vice President George H.W. Bush

Who made the famous promise he would live to regret.

“Read my lips, no new taxes”

The phrase won him a presidential race, and quite possibly lost him the next one.

What Bush and virtually every politician ever has known is that

The subject of taxes is a “hot button topic”.

· Because the population absolutely hates paying taxes,

· Because no government will ever operate without them,

· The issue of taxes has destroyed more than one candidate who didn’t tread the path lightly.

So it is no surprise to us that

As the religious leaders seek to ruin Jesus’ popularity and credibility

That they would bring up the subject of taxes.

What better way to turn the crowd on Jesus

Than to prove that Jesus is nothing more than a shady politician

And that following Him could cost them money?

WELL HERE WE ARE.

We are in the middle of the “THE TEMPLE WAR”

· Jesus cleared out this temple

· And now He has returned to renovate it

While Luke and John both focused on the fact that Jesus was “preaching”

Mark only mentioned that Jesus was “walking the temple” (11:27)

That is to say, “Like He owned the place”

And the religious elite hated it.

So one by one they will approach Jesus with various organized attacks seeking to uproot Him, discredit Him, and condemn Him.

We saw Sunday night them question His authority, and we saw Jesus destroy their argument and send them home defeated and scared.

WELL THIS MORNING, THEY HAVE REGROUPED.

They have enlisted a new band of special forces

And they will try to flank Jesus on another subject.

It’s still a bad idea, but this morning they attack Him REGARDING TAXES.

BUT AS WE HAVE COME TO EXPECT,

Jesus is going to do more than absorb their blows.

He’s going to push back and when He does we all learn.

Let’s break this text down into two major points.

#1 THE TRAP

Mark 12:13-15a

FIRST IT WAS the chief priests, and scribes, and elders who confronted Jesus questioning His authority.

But Jesus exposed their rebellious hearts and the judgment that would soon fall upon them, and they were forced to flee in defeat.

Mark 12:12 “And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.”

They left the court, but they didn’t give up on trying to take Jesus down.

(13) “Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement.”

It’s like they returned to their secret lair and said,

· “Ok, Pharisees, you’re up!”

· “Go see if you can expose Him to the people.”

And the plan would involve the issue of taxes.

This is why the “Herodians” were involved in the plot.

Ordinarily “Pharisees and Herodians” were bitter enemies.

· The Pharisees prided themselves on spiritual realities and spiritual

solutions, claiming to worship God above all.

· Whereas the Herodians were totally political. They loved politics, they loved

Rome, they benefited greatly from a secular political system.

They were literally sending Jesus “The Preachers and the Politicians”.

WHY?

Because the goal was “to trap Him in a statement.”

INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT the word “trap” is different than the word Matthew uses in the story, though they are both translated the same.

Matthew uses the word (pog-ee-DO-o) which means “to ensnare or to entrap”

· A word used of a trap to catch a bird or some other small animal.

But Mark uses a different word,

He uses (a-GREW-o) which mean “to hunt”

This ISN’T one of those situations where they are just going to try and get Jesus talking and hope to catch some inconsistency in what He says.

This is a premeditated hunt.

· They are going to put on their camo.

· They are going to cover their scent.

· They are going to load their rifle.

· They are going to bait the field.

· And when they get the shot they are going to take it.

It’s time to put an end to this Jesus character.

And just look at HOW they approach Him.

(14a) “They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.”

· There’s the camo we talked about.

· There’s them covering their scent.

They come to Jesus behind a cloak of flattery.

It’s like a man approaching an animal with a pistol behind his back,

All the while saying, “Here pretty boy, I’m not going to hurt you”

Everything they said here about Jesus was absolutely true,

The problem was that they didn’t believe a word they were saying.

· Jesus is “truthful”

· And Jesus did “defer to no one”

· Jesus was not “partial to any”

· Jesus did “teach the way of God in truth.”

The reason they say all that is because

They are trying to get Him to drop His guard.

It is also a tactic to appeal to a man’s pride.

THEIR GOAL WILL BE to get Him to step out on the ledge,

Throw out His chest, and say something really incriminating.

So first they try to grease His ego by talking about how impressive it is

That He never backs down with the truth.

When we used to play softball,

It was always my goal to get the big hitters to overswing.

If the batter is too amped up and overswings, most of the time he will be early and reach for a ball and end up popping it up for an easy out.

So when those big guys would come up, I always liked to turn around and yell at the outfield, “Back up, this guy hits a ton, he’s about to smash one, get deep.”

My only goal was to get the batter to puff out his chest

And feel the need to live up to the expectations I just announced.

That’s what they’re trying to do to Jesus.

It’s good old-fashioned flattery in order to destroy Him.

Flattery is when someone says something to your face

That they wouldn’t say behind your back.

When someone approaches you and starts tooting your horn like that,

You’d be well-advised to just let it go in one ear and out the other.

Ecclesiastes 7:5 “It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools.”

Well, the fools are here singing a song about Jesus

And like a wise man HE KNOWS BETTER than to listen to it.

John 2:24-25 “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

He’s seen camo before.

He knows what a hunter looks like.

AND HERE COMES THE TRAP

(14b-15a) “Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?”

Notice how direct and forceful they are.

It starts with a question regarding the Law of God,

But you can also see that they don’t want any hypotheticals here.

They are trying to keep Him from going into

Another one of those condemning parables like He likes to do.

So they get very direct. “Shall we pay our shall we not pay?”

Now let me explain the issue and why this is such a clever trap.

My translation asks about “a poll-tax”.

· If you read the KJV it asks about “paying tribute”

· The NIV just calls it “taxes”

But let me explain what this tax is

And why the Pharisees have appealed to the Law of God about it.

There was a tax / offering that God had instituted which Israel was required to pay to Him.

Exodus 30:11-16 “The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. “This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord. “Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the Lord. “The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. “You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.”

Whenever a census was taken it was required by God that

His people recognize the reality of life.

TURN TO: PSALM 90

That’s the idea here.

When you count your number, recognize the reality of life.

· Look how many you are.

· Look how you have grown.

· Look at how you number like the sand of the sea.

· Look at how God has rescued you as a people for Himself.

And when you recognized all that God had done for you,

You were required to also recognize that you belonged to Him.

All Israel was thus required to pay a ransom for themselves to God.

It was “a half a shekel”

· In Bible times a shekel was roughly 17 cents.

· It was also the worth of a denarius which was considered a generous days wage.

So you owed God a half a days wage to ransom your life

In recognition that God had created you and saved you

And that YOU OWE YOUR LIFE TO HIM.

Psalms 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.”

Failure to pay the tax and recognize God’s ownership of your life

Would cause a plague to break out on the people.

INCIDENTALLY this is the very tax that is referenced in Matthew’s gospel

Matthew 17:24 “When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”

· That is the story in which Jesus told Peter to cast a line, catch out a fish, and

pull out a shekel and pay both of their tax.

I JUST TELL YOU THAT TO POINT OUT THAT

Jews were accustomed to

Recognizing God’s ownership of their lives

And paying a ransom to Him for allowing them to live at all.

Now, the tax mentioned in Mark 12

Is NOT the same tax, but it’s the same principle.

This was “a poll-tax” or “head tax” or “tribute”.

It was the same kind of tax,

But instead of being paid to God, it was paid to Caesar.

John Grassmick wrote: “‘Taxes’ (keenson) was a Latin loanword meaning “census.” It referred to the annual poll tax (head tax) demanded by the Roman emperor from all Jews since A.D. 6 when Judea became a Roman province.”

(Woolvard, John F., Zuck, Roy B. [The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament; Chariot Victor Publishing; Colorado Springs, CO; 1983] pg. 161)

So in many ways it was Caesar requiring of you

The same thing God required of you.

That he, in a sense, owned you and you owed life to him,

And thus you must pay a ransom of your life to him.

IT WAS REPULSIVE!

John Calvin wrote, “They paid to a tyrants what they were formerly in the habit of paying to God.”

(Calvin, John [Calvin’s Commentaries Volume XVI – second; Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, Michigan] pg. 368)

SO NOW YOU UNDERSTAND WHY

This is the chosen topic of discussion with Jesus.

· Jews hated paying that tax.

· They hated what it cost,

· They hated what it represented.

But this also explains why both the “Pharisees and Herodians” came.

They came asking, “Shall we pay or shall we not pay?”

The Pharisees hoped He would say, “Yes, pay it” so that they could ruin His reputation before the crowd who clearly didn’t want to pay taxes to Caesar.

The Herodians hoped He would say, “No! don’t pay it” so that they could report Him to the Roman government and have Him condemned as a renegade.

Incidentally this had already happened to one zealot in Jerusalem.

Acts 5:37 “After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered.”

· That revolt was all about a refusal to pay this poll-tax to Rome.

· He was killed along with all his followers.

NOW YOU UNDERSTAND THE GOAL HERE WITH JESUS.

· They flattered Him to “puff Him up”

· Then asked Him to speak the truth about paying taxes.

· The crowd expected Him to “say it with your chest”

· “Read My lips, don’t pay that tax!”

IT’S A PRETTY GOOD PLAN

IN OUR DAY paying taxes is not so much about worship or honor or a declaration that our government owns us, but it is still hated.

· There are so many taxes

· The money is so poorly managed,

· The money is stolen by politicians who get richer while we get poorer,

· The government uses our money to fund things we don’t agree with.

It’s not the same issue, but even today it would NOT be far-fetched

For someone to rise up and declare paying taxes to be unbiblical.

BUT THE STAGE IS SET.

They have just dropped on Jesus the perfect trap.

#2 THE TRUTH

Mark 12:15b-17

The first thing we notice is that Jesus was NOT AT ALL FOOLED by their camouflage and skunk scent.

“But He, knowing their hypocrisy…”

· He knew all men.

· He knew what they were up to.

· He was not going to take their flattery bait.

He “said to them, “Why are you testing Me?”

He pulled back the curtain on their tactics for all the crowd to see.

This was not a sincere visit.

This was not a sincere question.

They didn’t really want to know what the Law taught.

THIS WAS A TRAP.

And He had seen it before.

“testing” is (pie-ROD-zo)

Mark 1:13 “And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.”

· There the same word is translated “tempted”.

They were simply doing what their father had done.

· This was a test meant to condemn.

· There was nothing innocent about it and Jesus called them out.

He knew what they were doing, and now, so did the crowd.

And yet, even though their motives were impure,

JESUS DID NOT DODGE THE ISSUE.

For Jesus had a message of His own that needed to be proclaimed.

So Jesus says, “Bring Me a denarius to look at.”

It insinuates that Jesus didn’t have one.

He was poor.

(16) “They brought one. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

The “likeness” on the coin was most likely Tiberius Caesar.

William Barclay noted, “Round the coin there would be the title which declared that this was the coin ‘of Tiberius Caesar, the divine Augustus, son of Augustus,’ and on the reverse would be the title ‘pontifex maximus,’ ‘the high priest of the Roman nation.’”

(Barclay, William [The Gospel of Mark; The Westminster Press; Philadelphia, PA; 1975] pg. 286)

And that just makes it worse.

· To the Jews this was a graven image.

· To make matters worse Caesar claimed to be divine.

· And to make it still worse, he claimed to be a high priest.

This was as offensive as you can imagine.

Perhaps Jesus was about to unload

On the obvious idolatrous aspects of this coin

And the unlawfulness of this tax.

BUT THAT IS WHEN JESUS STUNNED EVERYONE.

Leave it to Jesus to say more in one sentence

Than any other man can say in a full volume.

He looks at the coin,

Points out that it contains a likeness and inscription of Caesar and then…

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

FIRST YOU NOTICE that Jesus absolutely declared that the Jews should be paying that tax.

WHY?

· Because they lived under Caesar’s rule.

· They walked on Caesar’s roads.

· They enjoyed Caesar’s military protection.

· They shopped with Caesar’s currency.

Like it or not, they were under Caesar’s authority

And they absolutely did owe Caesar for all of those things.

Jesus DID NOT ENDORSE the way he ruled or the fiscal responsibility of how he used the money, or even the pagan ideologies that he held.

BUT IT DIDN’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT

The Jews under Caesar’s rule owed Caesar for the benefits they enjoyed.

And this has been the principle for

Why the Bible clearly commands believers to pay their taxes.

Romans 13:6-7 “For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

· Paul told us that there was no authority except for that which God had

established

· And that they were a minister of God to us.

· And for that, we owe taxes.

Peter wrote:

1 Peter 2:17 “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”

No one is denying the many issues we have even with our government.

· They DO tax us heavily.

· They DO handle the money poorly.

· They DO seem to get rich off our backs.

· They DO fund things we find utterly offensive to God.

And certainly they will answer to God for everyone of those things.

But it doesn’t change the fact that

We still live under military protection they provide,

We drive on streets they provide, infrastructure they provide, etc.

We DO NOT see our government as divine or a savior

But WE DO recognize that there is at least some aspect of our lives that we owe to their leadership.

AND FOR THAT, GOD DIRECTS US TO PAY TAXES.

God would deal with Caesar, but the command was simple,

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”

PAY WHAT YOU OWE HIM.

That answer certainly satisfies the Herodians

· Who were very much in favor of supporting the Roman government,

But it also must satisfy the crowd

· For Jesus DID NOT endorse the Roman government,

· He merely endorsed gratitude and faithfulness toward benefits received.

There is nothing incriminating about that.

BUT WE ALSO NOTICE THAT JESUS DID NOT STOP THERE.

As I said, He’s not just playing defense.

Jesus adds one more statement to His answer

And it cuts to the very heart of everyone who hears it.

That word “and” is a very big word here.

“and to God the things that are God’s.”

When we talked about the issue of taxes

· We are forced to consider what “things are Caesar’s”?

· And what should we “render” to him as a result.

And we can see benefits we receive from the government.

· Not flawless by any stretch, but benefits.

· And Jesus was absolutely clear that you owe him for that.

And with that thought on our minds

Jesus changes the conversation from Caesar to God.

If you owe Caesar for the work he does on your behalf,

How much do you owe God?

You don’t even approve of Caesar, yet God still commanded you to honor him, respect him, and pay taxes to him for his benefits toward you.

If that is true of Caesar how much more would it be true for God?

That we are to render “to God the things that are God’s”.

BUT HERE IS WHERE WE MUST GO A STEP DEEPER

Though we recognize the benefits of Caesar and that we owe him for those benefits, it was not the benefits of Caesar that Jesus pointed out.

Jesus DIDN’T SAY, “Who built this temple? Who built those roads?”

Jesus asked for a coin and He asked who’s “likeness” was on it.

Literally, “Who’s image is on it?”

That coin contained Caesar’s image

Thus it belonged to Caesar and must be given back to him.

So we must “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”

BUT NOW WE ARE ASKING:

WHAT THINGS ARE GOD’S?

That coin bore Caesar’s image and you owe it to him.

And you say, “Well, I’m off the hook there because God specifically commanded us not to make any graven images of Him.”

THAT’S TRUE, BUT that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something that bears God’s image that you are specifically required to give Him.

What is it in this world that bears the image of God?

YOU DO

Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

All man bears the image of God.

We were created in His image.

Caesar may have given you roads, but God gave you life.

You may owe Caesar a coin that bears his image.

But you owe God your life which was created in His image.

AND IF YOU ARE A REDEEMED CHILD OF GOD THAT IS DOUBLY TRUE

Since not only were you created in the image of God,

But you are now being recreated into the intended image before the fall.

Colossians 3:10 “and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him”

That word “render” that Jesus used.

It is (ah-pah-DID-o-mee)

It means “discharge what is due; a debt; a wage; a tribute”

Matthew 5:33 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’”

· There the word is translated “fulfill”

Luke 19:8 “Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

· There the same word is translated “give back”

WE AREN’T TALKING ABOUT A GIFT HERE.

We are talking about a debt that is owed.

YOU OWE YOUR LIFE TO GOD.

So…WHAT DOES HE WANT?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?”

Fear Him, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him, keep His commands

With all your heart and with all your soul

We’ve been studying it with the youth the past 3 Wednesday nights.

Psalms 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

Caesar wants your money God wants your heart.

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

AND THIS IS ALL OVER THE BIBLE.

Psalms 116 for example.

· It is a Psalm that celebrates salvation.

Psalms 116:3-4 “The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I beseech You, save my life!”

· Here was a man who was lost and he knew it

· He cried out to God for salvation.

· And God saved him.

So what does that man owe God?

Psalms 116:12-19 “What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation And call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His godly ones. O Lord, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds. To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the Lord’s house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!”

That is the very question we are asking.

“What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me?”

The Psalmist gave God his life.

· My vows? I’ll pay them.

· Death to self? Absolutely

· Service? It is all Yours.

· Thanksgiving? Every day!

· Worship? In the Lord’s house in front of everyone!

GOD DESERVES OUR LIFE.

Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

That’s absolutely true if you are a believer in Jesus Christ.

God has saved you. Christ has ransomed you.

He bought you with a price. You OWE Him your life.

“Render to God the things that are God’s.”

BUT LET ME ALSO SAY,

Even if you don’t believe in Jesus, don’t assume you owe God any less.

TURN TO: ACTS 17:22-31

Here Paul stood up in a pagan city with no believers

NOTICE WHAT HE TOLD THEM.

· He speaks of God who made the world.

· God who made even you.

· God who “Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;”

And what does He want? What does He require?

· (27) “that they would seek God”

· (28) “for in Him we live and move and exist”

You wouldn’t do any of those things were it not for God.

You owe Him your life.

You owe Him for the creation of your life.

The problem in Athens is that instead of giving God their lives

They were building altars even to gods they didn’t even know.

TODAY men worship themselves and treat their own will as sovereign.

Either way it is a failure to give God what He deserves.

And so the command was simple: REPENT!

(30-31) “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

IT IS NOT OK TO FAIL TO GIVE GOD WHAT HE IS OWED.

Ask Hezekiah:

2 Chronicles 32:24-25 “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill; and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.”

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE POINT?

If you don’t pay taxes to Caesar

· He has the authority to arrest you, fine you, or worse.

· God gave him that authority.

· He is owed what bears his image.

· The same is true in America.

But Jesus says to the Pharisees, Herodians and everyone listening

You have an even bigger debt that you have failed to pay.

YOU HAVE A DEBT TO GOD.

YOU OWE HIM YOUR LIFE.

The Pharisees weren’t ready for that one.

They just found out they had a debt before God