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     This wonderful scene is often used in our democratic political culture to justify our particular notions of the separation of Church and state.  That distinction did not exist in Jesus' day.  Jesus' adversaries in this scene are Pharisees and Herodians.  The latter were allies of the puppet kings that the Romans appointed as rulers of various portions of Israel.  The former were strict practitioners of the Mosaic Law, which would see Caesar as a pagan deity.  There is an amusing moment when Jesus asks for the coin used to pay the census tax because it had an image of Caesar on it.  The Pharisees would consider it unclean to touch!  The coin probably was produced by the Herodians in the audience.  

     As far as Jesus is concerned in this scene, the question is a false one.  Paying a tax to a ruling political power is not a religious act.  What belongs to God is the human person and it is our faith that is the "coin" to repay to God.  In our own country, occasionally one hears of someone trying to withhold a portion of their income tax from the IRS that might represent a contribution to a particular action on the part of the government.  This is understandable as long as the withholder is willing to take the consequences, but it is not required by God.  There are a lot of "what-ifs" in this.  For example, if taxpayer money was used to fund aborttions or some other action on a national or state level that appears to contradict Church teaching, would Catholics be obliged to refuse to pay whatever portion of their taxes that could be calculated as supporting the offensive action?  

     Faith enters into everything.  But it does not provide the answer to every moral/political question.  What Jesus tells us is that we first "pay to God" what belongs to God and then decide what that commitment inspires us to do.  AMEN