The question was a trap. Luke says so openly: the spies were sent "that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor" (Luke 20:20). Matthew Henry writes, "They hoped to gain their point, if they could but incense the governor against him." Barnes, on the parallel in Matthew, explains the double edge: "If he should say it was not lawful, the Herodians were ready to accuse him," and if He said it was lawful, He could be accused to the people. Gill notes that the stress falls on "for us": could Jews, as Abraham's seed, rightly pay tribute to a heathen emperor?

Jesus "perceived their craftiness" and asked, "Why tempt ye me?" (Luke 20:23). He asked to see a penny and whose image and superscription it bore, and they answered, "Caesar's" (Luke 20:24). Then He gave His answer: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's" (Luke 20:25). The trap failed: "they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace" (Luke 20:26).

Judea was under Roman rule. Luke dates John's ministry to "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea" (Luke 3:1), and "the governor" in Luke 20:20 is the Roman governor. The word for "tribute" is phoros, which Thayer defines as "tribute, especially the annual tax levied upon houses, lands, and persons."

Luke uses the same word again in Luke 23:2, where the leaders bring Jesus to Pilate and accuse Him of "forbidding to give tribute to Caesar." Paul also uses it when he tells believers to give "tribute to whom tribute is due" (Romans 13:7).

The spies tried to force Jesus to choose between God and Caesar. He refused the false choice. He showed that there are things owed to earthly rulers and things owed to God.

Luke's account also shows how determined His enemies were. They could not catch Him in His words before the people (Luke 20:26), yet when they brought Him to Pilate they charged Him with "forbidding to give tribute to Caesar" (Luke 23:2), the very thing He had not said. The trap failed in the temple, so they used a lie at the trial.