"Then they [the leaders of the people] sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They came and said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is is lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." They brought one. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar's." And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him." (Mark 12:13-17, NASB)
That last line stands out to me. "And they were amazed at Him".
Let's talk first about what the Pharisees and Herodians are trying to do here. Why would this question be a 'trap'? Don't miss the "is it lawful" part of the question. In asking it that way - the Pharisees are appealing to Torah law, not Roman law. So, ultimately, they are asking a question of morality. "Are we morally obligated, according to Torah, to pay the tax?" I read a fascinating commentary (seriously, check it out - what I am speaking of here is barely scratching the surface compared to the depth of this commentary) of this verse which suggested that by asking "is it lawful", the Pharisees and Herodians were forcing Jesus to answer the question because shortly before this, the people had hailed Jesus as "King" when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. If he doesn't answer the question, he isn't a rabbi, and also isn't King. That is part of the trap. It seems also that they are trying to get Jesus to identify, or align himself in some way, if even seemingly, with the Romans, against the Jews, or with the Jewish people as a revolutionary against the Roman state. If they could get Jesus to simply say, "yes, you should pay your tax", then they could incite the people against him as a Roman-sympathizer (the equivalent of a tax collector). If they could get him to simply say, "no, you should not pay your tax", then they could make the claim he was an anti-Roman revolutionary and could hand him over to be treated as such.
