Deuteronomy 31: 30, Deuteronomy 32, Luke 19: 45-48, Luke 20: 1-26
Luke 20: 22-25 (ESV)
“Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” But
he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose
likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” He said to them,
“Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that
are God's.”
In verses 22 through 25 from Luke 20, we have the famous verses
about the Pharisees trying to entrap Jesus by having him denounce Caesar and Rome.
The Pharisees knew that the Jewish people hating paying taxes to the Romans, so
they asked Jesus about it. Jesus knew they were trying to entrap him, so he
asked them whose likeness was on the coins that people use to pay taxes. They
told him that Caesar’s likeness was on the coin, so Jesus told them to give the
things to Caesar that belong to Caesar. Jesus knew that we all have the image
of God impressed upon them like a coin, so we do not belong to Caesar but to
God. The things of the world belong to the world like how money belongs to
Caesar. But we belong to God, so we need to give ourselves to God.
I love this answer from Jesus. We are “imago dei”, which in
Latin means we are made in the image of God. It has taken me many years to
figure out what the phrase “imago dei” meant for my life. Was I really made in
the image of God? I couldn’t see God inside of me. It has taken me many years
to figure out that my sins have built a wall so I couldn’t see the God inside
of me. But not only my sins, but the thousands of things that I had blamed God for
in my long life. The Holy Spirit has been asking me for two years to ask God to
forgive me for my sins and for the blame I attributed to him. When I was
finally able to let go of all the things I blamed God for, I saw the wall
between myself and God slowly crumbling and I was finally able to see the image
of God inside of me. So I am “imago dei” and I can see and feel it every day. I
belong only to God, not to the world and not even to myself.
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