And Jesus gave expression to this devaluation in his own life: he broke the Sabbath when he felt that God bade him act; he excused his disciples (
at least) from the custom of fasting; and the burning national
question whether one had really to pay the poli tax to the foreign power of occupation (in Judea and Samaria) he answered in the affirmative, but he viewed it as a secular concern and
pointed his questioners to the
essential duty, «Give to God what belongs to him.»