I suppose it is fitting that today’s passage comes as many of us are preparing our income taxes. On the surface, this appears to be a quite simple teaching. If you owe your taxes to the government, then you should pay them. It’s that simple. However, if we dig a little deeper, there is a profound spiritual truth here.
Whereas we have an image of presidents on our coins, the Romans would have had an image of Caesar on theirs. This is important, because Caesar would have been viewed as a god in Roman culture. This obviously conflicted greatly with the Jews. So Jesus sets up this picture beautifully in his teaching. He teaches them that if something has Caesar’s image on it, then they should be willing to give that to Caesar. However, if something has God’s image on it, then they should give that to God.
Genesis tells us that we are created in the image of God. Jesus reminds us that since we bear God’s image, we ought to give ourselves back to him for his purpose. I know that nobody likes to pay taxes back to those whose images are on our coins, but let me challenge you with this thought: Just as we all try to keep from paying any more taxes than we have to, do you also try to keep from giving any more to God than what you feel like you have to? God has not held back his image from any part of us. Don’t hold back any of yourself from him either.
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