When the Pharisees trap Jesus by asking him if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, they are asking him about the limits of the law. Law tells you only what you must do, or face a penalty.  Jesus raises the stakes on their question, by asking an even more important question of them, “To whom do you belong?”

“Show me a coin,” he says, which in and of itself would have embarrassed the Pharisees, as they fumbled in their purses for a denarius. These hated Roman coins were considered objects of blasphemy. “Whose image is on it?” Jesus asks them.  “Caesar’s!” they reply. “Ok,” Jesus says, “if it has Caesar’s image on it, it must belong to Caesar, so give it to him.  But give to God that which belongs to God.”