Mark 12:13-17
Whose Face Is on the Coin
13Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words.
14“Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one. Indeed, You are impartial and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?”
15But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.”
16So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered.
17Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they marveled at Him.
Berean Standard Bible
The delegation that arrives has two sorts of men in it, and Mark makes a point of naming both. Some Pharisees, who cared about the law and resented being occupied by Rome. Some Herodians, who were tied to the family that held power under Rome. Those two groups did not work together. Mark had put them in one sentence at 3:6, where the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
The flattery comes first and it is laid on thick. Teacher, they say, we know you are honest, you seek favor from nobody, you are impartial and you teach the way of God truthfully. Every word of that is true and every word of it is bait. What they are telling him is that he is the sort of man who says what he thinks whatever it costs him, so let him go ahead and say it.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?
There is no safe answer, and each half of the delegation is waiting for a different one. Say yes, and the crowd hears a man endorsing the occupation. Say no, and the Herodians have a charge Rome puts people to death for. Mark tells us Jesus saw through their hypocrisy, which is his way of saying that the question was never a question.
So he asks them to bring him a denarius to look at rather than producing one of his own, and somebody in the group has one on him straight away. Then he asks whose image is on it and whose inscription, and they answer him: Caesar's.
Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.
That gets heard as a tidy division of life into two departments, one for the government and one for God. It is not tidy. The coin carries Caesar's image, so the coin goes back to Caesar, and that half of it takes a moment. The other half leaves a question standing in the room without ever asking it, which is what carries God's image.
The first chapter of the Bible answers that one. God made people in his own image. Jesus does not say so. He hands the coin back, stops talking, and leaves a courtyard full of men who knew Genesis to finish the sentence themselves. Mark says they marveled at him. Not repented, marveled.
How We Know
The coin in this scene can be held. Silver denarii of Tiberius survive in large numbers in museum collections, and they carry what verse 16 asks about: the emperor's portrait on one face and an inscription naming him.
That corroborates the object at the center of the trap.
Mark also records the request in verse 15 without explaining it. Jesus asks them to bring one to him, and the text says nothing about why he did not produce one himself.
- American Numismatic Society, RIC I Tiberius 30. A Judean paying the tax handled a coin bearing the likeness and titles of a man his own law had strong views about representing.
Questions
1 Who came to ask the question, and why is that pairing an odd one?
AnswerPharisees and Herodians. One group resented Roman rule and the other was tied to the family that held power under Rome, and they agreed on almost nothing except that Jesus had to go.
2 Why can he not answer the question with a plain yes or no?
AnswerBecause both answers are fatal. Say yes and the crowd hears him backing the occupation. Say no and there is a charge Rome would execute him for. Each half of the delegation came for a different answer.
3 How do you usually tell who something belongs to? Jesus settles the coin with one question of that kind: what does he ask?
AnswerNames on lunch boxes, labels, a receipt, whose room it is in. Jesus uses a version of that test: he asks whose picture is stamped on the coin, and when they say Caesar's, he tells them to give it back to the man whose face is on it.
4 He answers about the coin and then stops. What question has he left standing in the room?
AnswerWhat it is that carries God's image. He never asks it out loud. The first chapter of the Bible says people are made in God's image, and he leaves a courtyard of men who knew that to finish the thought.
What This Means for Us
The coin had Caesar's face on it, so it went back to Caesar. Then the sentence turns, and what it turns on is who you belong to. If a coin goes back to whoever is stamped on it, a person made in God's image goes back to God, not in part and not just the religious hours, because the image is on all of it. That is a bigger claim than a ruling about taxes, and Jesus made it without raising his voice and without finishing the sentence.
So name one part of your life you have been treating as yours rather than his: work, money, a plan, an hour of the day. Whose face is on it.
Prayer
Father, we hand you the parts we think of as religious and keep the rest. Thank you for making us in your image, all the way through. Take back what belongs to you, which is everything, and teach us to give it gladly. Amen.