“Pick a side, Jesus!” This was the unspoken demand of the Pharisees’ disciples and the Herodians when they sought to entrap Jesus that day in Jerusalem. “Are you team God or team Caesar?” It is interesting to note how their mutual hatred of Jesus brought together such religiously and politically disparate groups. The Pharisees opposed Roman rule, seeing it as categorically in opposition to the Jewish quest for independence. The Herodians, on the other hand, supported the dynasty of Herod the Great―Caesar’s appointed ruler. Yet here these warring factions work in tandem to try to force Jesus’ hand.

We always want Jesus on our side, supporting our stance or our political party. We even have our Bible verses cherry-picked to justify our position. As Solomon says in Proverbs 21:2 (ESV): “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Jesus will not be so easily drawn into their conflict. His allegiance is not to a political party but to God alone, whose eternal-kingdom values cut across the grain of every earthly platform. His final answer to the question of his opponents, to “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (v. 21), is not so much evasive as it is disrupting. He is helping them to see that citizenship in the Kingdom of God ultimately eclipses their citizenship in any earthly kingdom.

Reflection Questions

1. Would you have been a Pharisee or Herodian? Why? Would you have felt pressured to choose?

2. Why do you think they wanted to manipulate Jesus and his words? In what ways do we tend to do the same?

3. How do you know when your allegiance to a political party has surpassed your allegiance to God?

4. How does Jesus’ response here challenge and comfort you?