Mark 12:13-17
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
This passage makes me glad I don’t have to deal with people always trying to trap me… so I always have to be “on guard” waiting to get stabbed in the back.
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”
16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”And they were amazed at him.
I just started reading Genesis again, and just read where God made man in his image. The coin had Caesar’s image stamped on it. We have God’s image stamped on us. Gives this passage a whole different meaning.
This really gave me something to hold onto when my children were teenagers, exploring the world, often in ways that really scared me. It seemed they were fighting me at every turn. But I knew God had them. They had been made in the image of God, and I WOULD NOT give them to Satan or the world.