DEVOTION BY NATHAN HOLDEN
Some religious teachers came to ask Jesus a question about taxes, but they weren’t just trying to get free tax advice. They were trying to trap him. They were setting him up with a controversial question loaded with social, moral, political, and theological implications. They hoped that his response would give them what they needed to have him arrested by the Roman government. Jesus replied to their question in a surprising way by asking whose image was on the Roman coin they were holding – Caesar’s face. So Jesus said to give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that belong to God.
Jesus’ completely unexpected response left them stunned, because (as religious teachers) they knew what he was saying. They knew that God created all people in his image, so they fully belonged to God. They were to give themselves to God.
What they did not recognize, however, was how Jesus was applying this same principle to himself. Jesus, God the Son, took upon himself the image of Man. Like the coin with Caesar’s image that belonged to Caesar, and like the creature with God’s image that belongs to God, so Jesus—through his entire life on earth—declared himself to be given completely for mankind. What an unexpected answer to the question they posed.