Look closely. The image proves the ownership.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is March 6, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called The Face on the Coin. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Exodus 17, Luke 20, and Job 35.
Please open your Bibles to Luke 20.
Did I ever tell you about the time I put my Bible on the roof of my car and drove off? While it was raining? Well, that’s what I did. It was when I was in college. I was leaving a Bible study at my friend’s house and just got careless, I guess. I realized what had happened the next day and I was so disappointed because it was a nice study Bible and I had underlined all my favorite verses and written notes in the margins and the cover was nice and broken in so it would lay flat but still smelled like leather.
Imagine my surprise and delight the next Sunday when a friend from the Bible study showed up at church with my Bible. You could tell it had skidded down the road a little bit, but too much the worse for wear. How did he know it was mine? J–S–W. It had my initials on it. John Stephen Whitacre. That inscription indicated who the Bible belonged to and led my friend right to me.
In today’s Scripture for Students, Jesus has yet another run in with the scribes and chief priests in Jerusalem and—kind of like my Bible—an inscription is going to be the deciding factor in proving ownership. But maybe not in the way you think.
Please follow along with me as I read Luke 20:19–26,
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them,
24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.”
25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
By this point in the story, you are probably starting to get the idea that the scribes and chief priests, as well as the Pharisees and the Sadducees and other elders of the Jews, really don’t like Jesus. In verse 19 it says they wanted to lay hands on him, which probably means they hoped to beat him up. In verse 20, they sent spies to try to catch Jesus in something he said. These guys are devious.
And we don’t have to wonder what kind of games they were playing to catch him. Look at verses 21–22. They ask him this question, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
At first glance, this doesn’t seem so tricky. If you’re trying to play a game of Stump-the-Messiah, I don’t know that this would be my lead off question. But it is good to remember that we live in a very different world and a very different time than the setting of 1st century Jerusalem. Most people I know think, yeah, I don’t really like paying taxes but I do like having paved roads and 911 dispatchers and other nice things.
But remember that at the time, the Romans were invaders, an enemy force occupying Jewish lands. They were there by force and the “tribute” the Romans demanded was a heavy tax that was sent back to Roman to pay for massive building projects and far flung Roman armies. Not a penny of those taxes were going to benefit the people living in Jerusalem. This is why our boy Zacchaeus, whom we read about yesterday, was disliked so much.
In fact, at the time there was a Jewish political party called the Zealots who thought that the Jews should rebel and rise up to fight against the Romans. You might remember that one of Jesus’ disciples was named Simon the Zealot. He had been one of those guys.
So you can see why everyone is listening very carefully to Jesus’ answer. He gives a very shrewd answer, he flanks their attack and very deftly sidesteps the trap that they have set for him. But it might not be quite what you think.
Jesus asks for a coin called a denarius and asks whose face is on it. This would be a little bit like asking whose face is on an American quarter. I hope you know that the answer is George Washington.
What Jesus says next is quite famous: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. The image on the coin proves the ownership. It proves that the coin belongs to Caesar, so sure: pay your taxes. But most people stop there and don’t think enough about what comes next.
Next, Jesus finishes the sentence: “and render to God the things that are God’s.” I think it is easy to wonder what Jesus meant by this. It seems like a strange thing to say.
The key is in verse 24, when Jesus asks, “Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” What has God’s likeness on it that we should give back to God? It certainly wasn’t coins; in fact the Jewish people would have been really careful to not put God’s likeness on anything because they didn’t want to break the 2nd commandment. So what could Jesus be talking about, that would have God’s likeness on it?
Well, at our church we are preaching through Genesis and we recently read this in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Now there is the English word likeness again, but when Jesus used the word likeness, it’s actually referring to the word “image” in Genesis 1:26. The image of God. So Jesus is saying, Men and women are made in the image of God and so they belong to God and so you should give them—or give yourselves—to God.
This is a brilliant move by Jesus. The scribes thought, “haha, we got him!” And Jesus turns it around on them and says, you should be serving God but you’re not. Give yourselves to him.
For all of us, this means that Jesus wants all of us, and all that we are, for himself. You are made in the image of God, too, which means you belong to him. The image proves the ownership. If you belong to Jeus, what are a couple ways you can live deliberately today to prove that you belong to him? That would be a great conversation to have with your parents or at the dinner table.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!