The Currency of Heaven

The religious leaders were continually trying to outwit and entrap Jesus.

One day they approached Jesus asking whether they should pay taxes to the Caesar.  

They were hoping to entrap him by admitting duplicitous allegiances where He would either get in trouble with the Romans for espousing anti-Roman sentiments, or get in trouble with the religious zealots who hated Rome.

Did you know Jesus was the king of gotchas? This time Jesus told a riddle.

"Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a roman coin...  Who's image is on the coin?"

Caesar

"Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belong's to God."

It was probably a head-scratcher at first. How does the image on the coin relate to God?  What may not be apparent is the fact that Jesus was covertly telling a riddle! So clever, so God!

The answer to the riddle is found in the unasked question that Jesus left for the honest seekers of truth to discover themselves.

If Caesar's image is engraved on a Roman coin, what is God's image engraved upon?

It's you and me! We are God's image bearers. We are His currency.

So the application of Jesus' message was, "Give to Caesar your money when required, but give yourselves to God."

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Scripture to Pray About

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 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? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 

They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

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.

Mark 12:13-17 (New International Version)