Whose Image Do You See?

No doubt most readers of Scripture have had this kind of experience. You've read the same passage many times in your lifetime. In fact, your familiarity with the passage keeps you from gaining new insights. When it happens, that's when you slap your forehead with an "Oh yeah! Of course! Why didn't I see that?"

It happened to me the other day. Jesus is being asked a trick question. Here is the passage:

15Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

18But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, 20and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

21"Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

22When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

The question, "Whose portrait is this?" is key. Of course, it was a likeness of Caesar.
It was on the basis of the image that Jesus then said the following words:

"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

The question I never asked was, "What is God's?"

Well, I did ask it, but then answered all too quickly due to my 'familiarity' with the story. I would normally answer, "Everything is God's."
But Jesus' answer points to something far more focused and specific.

What (or who) else was present in this incident with a stamped image of its maker? The very Pharisees, who sought to entrap Jesus were now trapped.

They themselves bore the marks of their Maker in their very being. Humans are made in the image of God, just as the coin was made in the image of Caesar. Jewish religious leades would have instantly recognized the trap they themselves had fallen into.

Jesus had turned tables on them, and left them sputtering. Of course! Their loyalty to God was to take priority over every other loyalty. Thus, pay to God what is God's due. You belong to Him by way of creation. Give Him your all and be doubly His by way of redemption. This is precisely why Christianity is such a boon for democracies (inner restraint) and a threat to totalitarian regimes.

(With thanks to Vishal Mangalwadi for this insight)
Werner