Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Politics and Religion
“Render Unto Caesar”: Faith, Politics, and Elections

“Render Unto Caesar”: Faith, Politics, and Elections

Last updated on: October 5, 2026 at 11:59 am by Leah D. Schade

0 Comments

“Render Unto Caesar”: Faith, Politics, and Elections 2026-10-05T11:59:24-04:00 Leah D. Schade

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jesus’ famous line—“Render unto Caesar”—isn’t just about taxes. It’s a radical challenge to how Christians engage with power, politics, and elections.

Render Unto Caesar - Tiberius Coin, Trump Coin

Render Unto Caesar – Tiberius Coin, Trump Coin. Image created by the author.

Here’s the scene: the religious leaders approach Jesus with a seemingly no-win question intended to make him lose face no matter how he answers. Initially, his response seems like a clever way to thread the needle and avoid their trap. But if we go deeper, we see that his answer is even more profound and ingenious than it first appears.

For Christians today, the “render unto Caesar” scene has important insights that should inform how we evaluate and choose our elected leaders. Let’s dig in.

The Trap Behind the Question

All three synoptic Gospels recount this story. In Matthew 22:15–22 and Mark 12:13–17, the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians. Luke 20:20–26 says that they were “spies” sent by “teachers of the law and the chief priests.” We’ll focus on the Matthew text—with the 2026 U.S. midterms in view—since it is the assigned Gospel in the Revised Common Lectionary for Oct. 18.

First, don’t miss the detail about the Herodians. This political sect supported the Herodian dynasty, a puppet government of Rome. To go after Jesus, they strategically conspire with disciples of the Pharisees, thus aligning political and religious power. Together they devise a scenario intended to bring about his downfall.

Leading with saccharine flattery, they pose a question with a seemingly impossible dilemma.

“Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matt. 22:16-17)

Here’s the problem. If Jesus says, “Pay the tax,” he angers Jews hoping for liberation from Rome. If he says, “Don’t pay,” he can be accused of sedition. Later, they will use this very charge to sentence him to crucifixion. On this occasion, however, Jesus shuts them down with a brilliant reply.

Hypocrites

First, Jesus calls them out for their hypocrisy. What he does next reveals why their question was disingenuous.

He asks them to show him the coin used for the tax. The coin was stamped with Emperor Tiberius’s image. So, what’s the big deal? Didn’t all the Roman coins have images of the emperor? Yes, but this one was especially problematic.

See, during Rome’s imperial period (27 BCE–476 CE), many Roman rulers issued coins with their likenesses. It was a form of propaganda and a tool for economic control. But some, like Tiberius, used the coin to promote the idea that they themselves were divine. The coin had an inscription calling him “son of the divine Augustus.”

In other words, Rome used the very coins that circulated in their economy to promote the worship of the emperor. For Jews, this violated both the commandment against idolatry (Exodus 20:3) and the one against graven images (Exodus 20:4). As biblical scholar Ulrich Luz explains, “The emperor controlled the production of the coins, and they were officially his property. Yet like it or not, Jews had to use this coin; it was the one required for the poll tax in all provinces.”*

So, Jesus is confronting them with the fact that by using the coin, they’ve already accepted the political reality they’re asking him to resist. That’s why he calls them hypocrites.

More Than a Gotcha Moment

But this is more than a gotcha moment. It’s an opportunity to press religious leaders—and the crowd watching this confrontation—to go deeper with their principles and religious convictions.

Remember that this scene follows a previous encounter when religious leaders were, once again, trying to trap him. He used that as a teachable moment as well. In Matthew 21:23-32, the chief priests and elders challenged Jesus, demanding that he justify his authority for overturning the moneychangers’ tables in the temple.

That public protest was a direct challenge to religious leaders who benefited from the Roman economic system. When Jesus drove out the moneychangers, he exposed their corruption and implicated the fusion of religion and empire.

The religious leaders, in turn, tried to bait him into claiming divine authority—thus committing blasphemy. He responded with a clever rejoinder that flipped the trap onto them instead. Yet, he followed up with a parable about two sons that moved the conversation to deeper theological reflection.

Jesus does the same thing when he asks the religious leaders and Herodians to show him the coin.

Render Unto Caesar

Titian’s painting of “The Tribute Money” (1516) captures this teachable moment.

Titian, The Tribute Money, 1516, Render Unto Caesar

Titian, The Tribute Money, 1516, Render Unto Caesar. (Public Domain)

Notice that Jesus isn’t looking at the coin. He already knows what’s there. No, he’s looking into the eyes of his adversary. He tells him:

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

The Greek verb for “render” is apodidōmi. It has several related meanings, including “give back,” “return something that was borrowed,” and “pay what is due.”

Jesus is saying: give back to the ruler what belongs to the ruler. Give back to God what belongs to God.

Here’s the theological conundrum Jesus puts into play. The coin bears Caesar’s image, but human beings bear God’s image (Genesis 1:26). So, Jesus shifts from a question about taxes to a question about identity and faith: “Whose image do you bear? And to whom do you give your ultimate allegiance?”

The Teachable Moment Reveals Disquieting Tensions

Jesus’s challenge raised uncomfortable questions for the religious leaders of his time.

First, what happens when the ruler says that HE is God and that everything belongs to him? Jesus compels his adversaries to wrestle with this instead of normalizing it.

Second, how can people remain faithful to God when their power, position, and wealth are beholden to Caesar? This gets to the crux of the matter for the Herodians and religious leaders who would rather avoid such scrutiny.

It also raises thorny questions for Christians in the U.S. today.

Render Unto Trump?

The question for Christians is not simply whether a ruler may collect taxes. It is about how they respond when political leaders make claims on what belongs to God alone. So, there’s a direct line from Caesar’s coin to the exercise of political power in the United States today.

What does it mean when a U.S. president puts his own image on a coin? Christians simply cannot square this with Jesus’s teaching, because it is plainly idolatry.
How do we respond when a Trump-stacked Supreme Court decides in favor of putting U.S. presidents above the law? Christians should recognize and refute the god-like power that has been granted to a single human being.
What happens when a U.S. president claims, “I am the code,” in response to his proposed ballroom plans violating building codes? This is a Caesar-like claim to personal sovereignty over law, and it echoes the Matthew 22 dynamics almost too perfectly.

With all of this in mind, Jesus’s teaching about the Roman coin can serve as a warning to Christian voters about granting any political leader unquestioning loyalty, divine authority, or moral exemption.

The Stakes for Christian Voters

On Oct. 18, exactly 16 days will remain until the 2026 midterm election. Christians—and pastors who preach on this passage—should be clear about what is at stake in this election.

We must ask: do our actions, votes, financial decisions, and political rhetoric bear the image of God or Caesar? This applies to us as individuals, but we must also pose these questions to our leaders and to those seeking election.

It should not be lost on us that the very administration whose vice president once quoted “render unto Caesar” has now literally stamped Trump’s own image on a coin.

And we should not forget that Trump and his supporters have claimed his divinity on more than one occasion. He has said he is “the chosen one.” And he has shared a bizarre video claiming that God made him to be a “caretaker.”

Render Unto Trump What is God’s?

Further, Christians are facing increasing pressure to accept the practice of rendering unto Trump what is God’s.

We are told to accept that this administration has the right to decide what species survive and what can be rendered extinct.
The message from the president is that AI tech lords should have free rein to render communities, water, land, and the human intellectual collective for their own power and profit.
We are also told to accept the rendition of people detained by ICE – including children – to countries with documented records of human rights abuse.

Christians must be clear: God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all the species therein. God has created land and water and given human beings responsibility to ensure its safety and protection. It is God who fashioned human beings—including our minds, our creativity, and our autonomy—in God’s own image. No human being can plausibly lay claim to this kind of power. When they do, it causes unthinkable damage to people and the planet. What’s more, from a theological perspective, it is blasphemy, full stop.

The Alternative: God’s Beloved Community

The Herodians and their religious cronies tried to ensnare Jesus. But who is really trapped here? Certainly not Jesus, whose pockets contained no coins.

No, “render unto Caesar,” was not just a way to thread the needle between a rock and a hard place. Nor is it a way to justify paying taxes. Instead, Jesus’s response signaled to his followers that his whole mission was to establish an alternative economy based on grace, forgiveness of debts, sharing of resources, and communal flourishing.

Because when people don’t need Caesar’s coin, the regime loses its power. When people refuse to participate in an idolatrous economy by building one based on reciprocity and mutual aid, they liberate themselves. This is why Jesus’s response was both surprising and ingenious. It challenges Christians to reorient their worldview, decisions, actions—and, yes, votes—toward the One in whose image they are created.

Whose Image Do We Bear?

Granted, no single election will liberate us from this idolatrous economy.

And, let’s be clear: both parties collude to gild their own palms with Caesar’s coin. (Witness both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders making $635 million in stock trades in 2025.)

Likewise, both parties also demonstrated willingness to kowtow to the ones who control the economy. (This includes Democrats in California who recently allowed foreign governments with oppressive regimes to purchase nearly 50% of a corporate media conglomerate.)

So, this is not a call to vote for one party, candidate, or slate over another. It is a call for Christians to look very carefully at every candidate seeking election or reelection this fall.

Which ones bear the stamp of Caesar? Which ones bear the stamp of God? And I don’t mean the God of Christian nationalists. I mean the God of Jesus who called for leaders to have these key qualities:

Integrity (Luke 16:10-12)
Honesty (Matthew 5:37)
Servant leadership (Matthew 20:25-28)
Humility (John 13:12-15)
Independence from imperial power (Luke 4:5-8)

“They Were Amazed”

More importantly, this is a call to find ways to empty our pockets of the idolatrous coin and build alternative communities in whatever ways we can. (Books like The Abundant Community – John McKnight & Peter Block and Becoming the Beloved Community – Diana Butler Bass are great places to start. Also: How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer.)

When we do this, we render the exploitative powers speechless. “When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.”

It was not the end of their treachery, for sure. But in that moment, Jesus exposed the empire’s claim that Caesar’s ownership of everything is inevitable. He opened a crack in that logic—a crack that, for Christians, leads to the empty tomb and the defeat of every power that claims ultimate authority.

So, look for the cracks in the system. Speak the truth about corruption and collusion. Insist on servant leaders of the highest integrity whose values—and actions—allow every member of the community to flourish.

In your words and deeds, bear the image of the One who created you in love and for love: love of God, one other, and all Creation.

Voting, Elections, All Saints Sunday: Preaching John 11

What Clergy Can Say (and Not Say) During the Election Season

*Source: Ulrich Luz. Matthew 21–28. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.)

Special thanks to Bishop Kevin Shock and the pastors of the ELCA’s Allegheny Synod in Pennsylvania for a thoughtful discussion about this passage that helped shape this article.

Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade