Whose Image?

“Why are you trying to trap me… Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?’”
Mark 12:15b-16 (NIV)

In Mark’s Gospel, the scene where Jesus asks this week’s questions takes place after Jesus’ Parable of the Tenants or as some translations say the Parable of the Evil Farmers. By the end of that parable the religious leaders who had heard the story recognized their own images looked like the evil farmers. In Mark 12:12 it says: “Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them…” Imagine being convicted of your sinfulness and rather than repent and follow Jesus, you decide it would just be better to get rid of Him. So, it became all about trapping Jesus, so they could get Him out of the way.

That brings us to this particular attempt to trap Him. Some Pharisees and Herodians turn up to try and catch him saying something against the current Roman government. The Pharisee were Jewish teachers who didn’t like how Jesus was always giving them a hard time and the Herodians where Jewish political leaders who supported the Roman government. Generally speaking, the Pharisees (they bore the image of the law and all the extra rules they imposed on the people) and the Herodians (they bore the image of the Greco-Roman empire) didn’t get along but they formed an alliance around getting rid of Jesus. I like how they try to smooth talk him with compliments – oh Jesus we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the truth and on and on. So, tell us “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we” (Mark 12:14-15a)?

Jesus, let’s them know up front that He knows what they are up to – “Why are you trying to trap me?” If I were those guys I probably would have just left in order to avoid further humiliation. Jesus asks them to bring Him a denarius – that was a coin used to pay taxes. They give him a coin and Jesus brilliantly answers their questions with a couple of questions of His own and a charge of what to do. Jesus, after looking at the coin asks: “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” In other words, whose picture and name are on this coin? The only right answer is Caesar’s, so Jesus tells them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17). Cue, the blank stares and mouths hanging open. The coin belonged to Caesar because it bore his image.

As humans, we bear the image of the creator of everything. Jesus made a way for that image to be properly restored as we accept His gift and follow him by faith, doing the things He taught. Do you look like Jesus, or do you look like some aspect of the world?

Let me know your thoughts. Know someone who might be encouraged by this – please share. I will be praying for you. Until next week – think about what image or images you are trying bear.