No one enjoys paying taxes, even in Jesus’ day. Jesus’ enemies hoped to put Jesus in an awkward situation regarding taxes, but Jesus used it to give us revelation about who man is and how God expects him to live. The trick question regarded paying taxes to Caesar (Luke 20:22). The trick involved putting Jesus in an apparent no win situation, because if he said they should pay taxes to Caesar it would diminish Jesus’ standing among the people, who hated paying taxes to Caesar. On the other hand, if Jesus denied that they should pay taxes to Caesar, they could condemn him to the Roman governor as a rebel and trouble maker. Considering their duplicity, Jesus asked them a question, whose image and inscription was upon a coin. Their response was that it was Caesar’s, who had minted the coins of that day. Therefore Jesus told them to give back to Caesar what is his, the money he had created, but more importantly, they were to give back to God what is God’s. The question is, what did Jesus mean by giving back to God what is his? In response we should ask ourselves where is God’s image and where is his inscription? The creation account in Genesis 1, declares that God created man in his image, male and female he created them. That means, every man, woman and child, bears God’s image in their body and being. Furthermore, we know from Scripture, that God has written eternity in man’s heart. Every time we look at a human being, we get a glimpse of the image of God. Every time we see someone sacrificially loving someone else, we are reading God’s inscription. So how do we give back to God? What Jesus identified as the greatest commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is how we give back to God. Ironically, the resistance we display to paying taxes indicates a rival to loving God, humans tends to love money and possessions more than they love God, which is why it can irritate us to pay taxes to the state and federal government. We don’t like to be separated from that which we love anymore than the people of Jesus day hated paying taxes to Caesar. That resistance should cause us to take a moment to pause to ask ourselves where our devotion lies, to money or to God.
“When describing the temple, Jesus declared it to be a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). The temple was and is to be a place in which we meet and converse with God. Prior to the coming of the Spirit, the temple was a building, but after his coming, the temple became a people indwelt with the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:20). Since we are the people of God, we are to reflect that identity by prayer and communion with God.” (Outrageous Prayer, page 8).
https://www.amazon.com/Outrageous-Prayer-Praying-Jesus-Prayed- ebook/dp/B09RW88FZC
David Freitag 