This week’s Gospel passage focuses on submission to civil authority. Jesus declares that we are to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. In this lesson, students will reflect on how they are called to obey God first and above everything else but are also called to obey civil authorities and practice the virtue of faithful citizenship.
Interactive Faith Journal
Paying Taxes to the Emperor – Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Year A
Lesson Overview
Upper Elementary Lesson Materials
Download all PDFsDirections
- Have your students read the Gospel passage, or read it aloud to your students, and then answer the focus questions.
- Review and discuss the answers when they have completed the focus questions.
- Have students reread the Gospel along with the Catechism paragraphs on The Church’s Teaching on Virtuous Citizens, and then respond to the prompt in a 1-3 paragraph essay.
Answer Key
Focus Questions
- The Pharisees are plotting to entrap Jesus in speech.
- They ask if it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not.
- He calls them hypocrites because He knows their malice.
- He asks the Pharisees to show Him the coin they use to pay the census tax.
- The coin bears the image and inscription of Caesar.
- Jesus tells them to “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Lower Elementary Lesson Materials
Download all PDFsDirections
- Read the Gospel passage aloud to your students as they follow along. Then discuss the focus and reflection questions with them as a class.
- Have students complete the Repay to Caesar Search-and-Find activity.
- When they are done, have students list the things they owe to God, and the things they owe to their parents, teachers, and leaders.
Answer Key
Focus Questions
- The Pharisees were plotting to entrap Jesus in speech.
- They asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.
- He asked the Pharisees to show Him a coin they would use to pay the census tax.
- Jesus told them to, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
