In the gospels, when Jesus is asked if it is Lawful for a Hebrew to pay taxes to Rome, he doesn’t say yes or no. It’s a trick question.

And yet we want to know. Not as Pharisees trying to trick him, but as faithful people wanting the last word.

This is a bit like a four year-old asking if we’re there yet. When we say “No, it’ll be three more hours,” do they actually comprehend? No. They will assuredly ask the question again in ten minutes.

The question itself is the problem.

These people are asking a fundamentally different question about citizenship. Their nation is occupied by an empire. They aren’t citizens of the empire which is demanding the taxes.

But we also know there is another question here. About citizenship in the Kin-dom of Heaven over the kingdoms of earth.

Later Christians will teach us to go along to get along. But Jesus avoids offering that advice himself. His point seems to say that we can’t truly honor dual citizenship. Everything belongs to God.