Whose Image?

And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Matthew 22:20-21

In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus is asked a trick question.  Often times the “trick” of a trick question is that it is based on a false premise.  A very famous trick question took place in one of the seven debates between young Abraham Lincoln and his opponent, Stephen A. Douglas during the Fall of 1858.  Douglas asked Lincoln a pointed question, and Lincoln had offered a very lengthy and very evasive answer.  Finally, Douglas got angry and said he didn’t want a long answer, but just a simple “yes” or “no.”  Douglas then challenged Lincoln, “Ask me any question and I can answer it with a simple “yes” or “no.”  And Lincoln replied, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”  Douglas could only offer silence.

In a similar way, the trick question presented to Jesus set up a trap: Answering the question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” with a “no” answer, Jesus would have been reported to the Roman Empire and accused of an act of revolution against Rome and the Emperor.  But answering with a “yes,” would have offended the nationalistic fervor of the Jews who were convinced that the Messiah would be sent by God to overthrow the Romans and restore the state of Israel.  For such people to pay taxes with a coin that had Caesar’s image on one side as a divine god and on the other side had Caesar depicted as the high priest - was considered an act of religious disobedience.  The trap was set.

The trick question asked of Jesus was based on a false premise:  Where does God belong?  Where does God fit in?  The assumption is that life can be divided into neat little categories, with everything nicely filed into its own slot, including God.  Take money, for example.  What do you do when you get your income check?  Divide it up, of course; it’s called budgeting - so much for housing, so much for food, so much for utilities, so much for fuel and car expenses, so much for God.  Our priorities are sorted out by where our money gets filed.  We can do the same with time, since time, like money, is given to us in limited quantities and so it must also be budgeted - so much for work or school, so much for travel, so much for eating and sleeping, so much for recreation and entertainment, so much for God.  You have to prioritize it or you run out of it. 

In both examples, there is a basic mistake - a false premise.  Did you catch it?  You may have noticed that with both money and time, I put God at the end of the list.  How do we correct that?  We may say, “In light of the First Commandment, we should probably say that God is first rather than last, right?”  But that is the REAL mistake: The assumption that God belongs as ONE of our priorities or ONE area of our lives as if God is somehow on par with everything else that claims our attention and our allegiance in life.  Would we ever say to God: You, my God and Savior, the One who has given me eternal life - You are on an equal par with my family, my job, my sports teams, my recreation, my house and car?  And yet, in our sinful lives, that’s how we treat God in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Jesus could pick up each one of us, like he held the coin in Matthew 22, and ask the same question, “Whose image and likeness is on this?”  The answer, we know, goes all the way back to creation: “Let Us make man in OUR likeness, in OUR image” and it goes all the way back to our Baptism: “Receive the sign of the cross of Christ Crucified upon your forehead and heart to mark you as His redeemed.”

Of course, someone might have argued with Jesus that day as well as today:  “But no matter whose picture is on that coin, it’s mine.  I earned it.”  Today we hear things like, “It’s my life - I’ll do with it as I please.”  “It’s my body - I’ll make the choices I want to make.”  And to that argument, Jesus has this answer: “If that’s so, then let’s take another look at you - because I earned YOU.  I created YOU.  I gave My life, I left heaven to take on human flesh to live, to die, and to rise from the dead to buy YOU back - to redeem YOU.  I suffered YOUR punishment, the punishment YOU deserve because of YOUR sin and I paid YOUR debt in full in order that YOU might be forgiven and restored to the image of God.  The inscription on YOU is unmistakable - YOU belong to Me.”

           

Our life, because of the perfect life, atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, is not a matter of flipping a coin to see where God belongs in our life, or to see where God fits in to our daily priorities: but instead, render to God what is His - We belong to Him from head to toe; heart, mind, soul and strength - we belong to God alone!