Who Do We Owe and How Do We Pay?

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?" 
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 
Show me the coin that pays the census tax." 


Then they handed him the Roman coin. 
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" 
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that, he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

Jesus faced up to quite a large problem by answering the question posed to him by the Pharisees and the Herodians on this occasion.  He is being set up by these people who would like nothing better than to have Him give an answer, any answer to this question.  To bait the trap they first butter Him up by telling Him that they know that He is afraid of no man and will always tell the truth.  Then they ask if it was legal to pay taxes or not. 

If He says, "Yes" the Jews, his people, will consider Him a traitor and a friend to Rome and would quit following Him. 

If He says, "No" the chances are good that he would be arrested and sent to work in the lead mines or would be decorating a Roman cross in short order. 

He was between a rock and a hard place but being Jesus, He knew how He would frame the answer.  He asked for the coin used to pay the tax.  One of them handed him a Roman coin.  This was odd in itself because the Jews would not normally have a Roman coin in their pockets because it bore the image of a man, Caeser, and that was forbidden.  The Romans, who were experts at keeping the peace, one way or the other, minted special coins for the Jews that did not have the image of Caeser or any other living being on it.   

Jesus took the coin, looked at it and asked them who was it that was shown on the coin.  They licked their chops, the lamb was coming to the slaughter, Jesus was going to answer!  They responded, "Caeser's image is on the coin Teacher."   He looked at them and smiled and told them, "Then pay Caeser what is owed to Caeser and pay God what is owed to God."  He tossed the coin back to the person who provided it and then, realizing that they had been had, turned and walked away, their happiness at finally catching Jesus drained by the wisdom of His answer.

I think that this answer is meant for us too.  We must be ready to use what we have to help where we can.  If we keep everything for ourselves, our physical wealth will remain on this side of the grave to be fought over by our heirs and creditors.  Our mental and spiritual wealth we will carry with us and we will give an account on how we used both types of wealth, our silver and gold and our spiritual gifts helped to spread the Kingdom of God to those that needed to hear about it.  So we have to pay both man and God with the wealth we have been entrusted with each in its own measure. 

Pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. They need your help.