Whose Image Is This?

Genesis 1:26 (NIV) —

‘Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…'

There must have been plenty of raised eyebrows in the temple that day. It was exciting enough that Jesus, the great teacher, was preaching there, but now he was being surrounded by the most unlikely group of people: Pharisees and Herodians working together, ganging up on Jesus! A surprising sight indeed – because Pharisees and Herodians were sworn enemies. Pharisees were bitterly opposed to the Roman occupation as an offence against God; the Herodians, on the other hand, supported Herod and approved of Roman governance.

So together they devised a killer question for Jesus – is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? It’s a cunning trap – if Jesus says it is lawful, the Pharisees will accuse him of being against God. If he says it isn’t, the Herodians will report him to the authorities to be tried for preaching treason!

Jesus’ response – show me the coin used to pay the tax – would probably have caused some embarassment. Who would admit to bringing such a coin into the sacred Temple, a coin with its graven image of the emperor (a clear breach of the second Commandment), and its blasphemous claim that Tiberius was the 'son of god', the son of the deified-by-Rome Emperor Augustus? Well, eventually someone produced one, and Jesus then made his perfect response. Whose image is this? Caesar’s? Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s – and to God what is God’s!

Whose image do we bear? We are made 'in the image of God'! So today, let us give back to our Creator, and our Saviour, what we owe him – our worship, expressed in all our words and all our deeds.

Prayer - Lord Jesus, please let your image show through me in all I say and all I do today.