Someone handed him a piece of Roman money. There was a man's picture stamped on one side of it. Jesus said, "Whose picture is that?"
"Why," they answered, "that is a picture of Caesar, the emperor of Rome."
"All right," said Jesus, "do whatever your duty is to Caesar and his government. You will have to decide about that for yourselves. And also do your duty to God!"
It was such a clever answer that no one had a word to say. And Jesus still had not said anything that he could be punished for.
But he said a great deal to make his enemies angry. About the Pharisees he spoke the hardest words he ever said.
"Watch out for the scribes and the Pharisees," he told the people, "and don't be like them. They love to walk around in their long white robes, and to have everybody bow to them in the street, and to sit in the best seats in the synagogues and at dinners. All the time they are taking money from poor widows and they try to cover it up by making long prayers."
Turning to the Pharisees themselves, he went on:
"Woe to you Pharisees! You are like graves with rotting bodies in them, which people walk over without knowing what is underneath. Nobody knows how bad you are. You snakes! How can you escape the punishment which God is bringing upon you?"
He left the Pharisees and went into the Temple, where people were making their gifts to God. Many rich men came in, and put large sums of money in the money box. Then came a poor widow who put two small coins into the box.