Whose Image, Whose Coin? Text: Mark 12:13-17
Introduction: An Unholy Alliance
We are in the final week of our Lord's earthly ministry. He has entered Jerusalem, cleansed the Temple, and is now teaching there daily. As He does, the hostility of the Jewish authorities, which has been simmering for three years, is now boiling over. They see their authority, their traditions, and their entire system being threatened by this Nazarene carpenter. And so, they resolve to eliminate Him. But they are cowards, and they fear the crowds who are hanging on His every word. So they resort to what cowards always resort to: treachery and traps.
What we have in our text today is not a sincere theological inquiry. It is a public ambush. It is a carefully constructed, high-stakes political trap, designed to be inescapable. And to set this trap, we see the formation of a truly grotesque and unholy alliance. The Pharisees send some of their disciples along with the Herodians. Now, you must understand how remarkable this is. The Pharisees and the Herodians were at opposite ends of the political and religious spectrum. They despised one another.
The Pharisees were the religious purists, the separatists. They were the arch-nationalists who chafed under Roman occupation and viewed the Herodian dynasty as illegitimate, half-breed, Roman-bootlicking usurpers. They meticulously tithed their mint and dill and cumin, and they considered paying taxes to a pagan emperor to be a deep spiritual compromise, if not outright treason against Jehovah.
The Herodians, on the other hand, were the secularists, the political pragmatists. They were the party of King Herod, a client king of Rome. They were compromisers and collaborators. They saw Roman power as the only game in town and believed the best way for Jews to get along was to go along. They were happy to render unto Caesar whatever Caesar wanted, so long as their own positions of comfort and influence were maintained.
These two groups had nothing in common, except for one thing: they both hated Jesus with a white-hot passion. And so, the fastidious religious legalist and the cynical political sell-out join forces. This is what the world always does when confronted with the absolute claims of Jesus Christ. The bitterest of enemies will suddenly find common ground in their shared rebellion against God. They set aside their differences to unite against their common foe. Their hatred for Christ was greater than their hatred for each other. And so they come to Him, with honey on their tongues and murder in their hearts, to spring their trap.
The Text
Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. And they came and said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." And they brought one. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar's." And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him.
(Mark 12:13-17 LSB)
The Greasy Compliment and the Perfect Trap (vv. 13-15a)
The attack begins with a layer of thick, greasy flattery.
"Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth." (Mark 12:14)
Now, the diabolical thing about this flattery is that every word of it is true. Jesus is truthful. He does not defer to men. He is not partial. He does teach the way of God in truth. This is how the most effective temptations work. The devil does not always show up with horns and a pitchfork; often he comes quoting Scripture. He will use God's own truth to try and bait his hook. They are praising Jesus for His courage and integrity, hoping to appeal to His pride and corner Him into making a bold, uncompromising, and politically suicidal statement. They are saying, in effect, "You are a man of principle who is not afraid of the consequences. So give us a straight answer."
And then comes the question, a masterpiece of malicious ingenuity.
"Is it lawful to pay a tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" (Mark 12:14b-15a)
This was not a general question about taxes. This refers to a specific and deeply offensive tax: the poll tax, or tribute, paid by every adult directly to the Roman emperor. To pay it was a constant, humiliating reminder of their subjugation to a foreign, pagan power. The very coin used to pay it, the denarius, was considered blasphemous. It bore the image of the reigning emperor, Tiberius, with an inscription that declared him to be the "son of the divine Augustus." It was an idolatrous piece of metal.
The question was a perfect trap. There appeared to be only two possible answers, and both led to ruin. If Jesus says, "Yes, pay the tax," He would be siding with the Herodians and with Rome. The crowds, filled with patriotic zealots, would immediately brand Him a traitor, a Roman sympathizer. His credibility as the Messiah, the one who would deliver Israel, would be shattered. The Pharisees would have won.
But if Jesus says, "No, do not pay the tax," He would be guilty of sedition. He would be advocating for insurrection against the Roman Empire. The Herodians, the friends of Caesar, would have all they needed. They would run straight to the governor, Pontius Pilate, and have Jesus arrested and executed as a revolutionary. It was a brilliant, seemingly inescapable dilemma.
The Counter-Trap (vv. 15b-16)
But Jesus is not a mere man to be cornered by the cheap sophistry of hypocrites. He sees their hearts, and He refuses to play their game by their rules.
"But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, 'Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.'" (Mark 12:15b)
First, He exposes their motive. He rips off their mask of sincerity and calls this what it is: a test, a temptation born of hypocrisy. He is not being evasive; He is identifying the sin behind the question. Then He does something masterful. He turns the tables on them. "Bring Me a denarius." He makes them produce the evidence. By this simple command, He shifts the entire dynamic. He is no longer the one in the hot seat; they are.
Think about what this means. In the Temple precincts, they were carrying a coin that bore a blasphemous, graven image and a claim to divinity by a pagan ruler. By producing the coin, one of them admits that he is carrying this idolatrous piece of currency. They, the supposed purists, are already using Caesar's money. They are participating in the very economic system they are pretending to question. Their outrage is selective and fraudulent. They are happy to use Caesar's money for their own profit, but they want to trap Jesus with the question of whether it is lawful to give it back to him.
"And they brought one. And He said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' And they said to Him, 'Caesar's.'" (Mark 12:16)
Jesus holds up the coin. The question is simple and direct. "Whose likeness and inscription?" The word for likeness here is eikon, which means image. This is a crucial word. It is the same word used in the Greek translation of Genesis 1, where it says that man was made in the eikon, the image, of God. This is not a coincidence. Jesus is already setting up His ultimate point.
The Divine Pivot (v. 17)
Having sprung His own counter-trap, Jesus now delivers an answer of such profound wisdom that it leaves His enemies stunned and silenced.
"And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'" (Mark 12:17)
This is not, as many have supposed, a neat division of life into two separate, equal kingdoms, the secular and the sacred. It is not Jesus saying, "Politics and religion don't mix. Give Caesar the state, and you keep your private little religious sphere." That is a modern, secularist reading of the text, and it is the exact opposite of what Jesus is teaching.
First, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." What belongs to Caesar? The coin. Why? Because it bears his image, his eikon. It is stamped with his authority. It is part of his economic system. By using his money, you acknowledge a certain obligation to his government. Jesus affirms that the civil magistrate has a legitimate, though limited, sphere of authority. We are to pay our taxes, obey just laws, and honor the governing authorities, because that authority has been instituted by God (Romans 13:1-7). So give the man his metal back. It's his.
But then comes the thunderclap, the part of the answer that turns a political question into a question of ultimate allegiance: "...and to God the things that are God's." This is the pivot. Jesus takes their small-minded question about a coin and explodes it into a question about everything. What, then, belongs to God? If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears Caesar's image, what is it that bears God's image? The answer is devastatingly simple: You are.
You were made in the eikon of God. You are stamped with His likeness. You are His property. Caesar can lay claim to your pocket change, but God lays claim to your very soul. He owns your heart, your mind, your strength, your allegiance, your worship, your family, your future, your everything. This is not a division of territory between God and Caesar. It is a declaration of God's absolute sovereignty over all things, including Caesar. Caesar's authority is delegated, temporary, and limited. God's authority is ultimate, eternal, and absolute. You give Caesar his coin because God, your ultimate king, commands it for a time. But you give God yourself, because you bear His image.
The trap was this: will you serve God or Caesar? Jesus' answer is that you serve God by giving Caesar what he is due, and you also serve God by refusing to give Caesar what he is not due. And what is Caesar not due? He is not due worship. He is not due ultimate allegiance. He is not due the authority to redefine what God has defined. When Caesar's law contradicts God's law, the Christian's duty is plain: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
The result? "And they were amazed at Him." They were utterly dumbfounded. They came with a clever binary trap, and He refused both options, answering on a level they could not have anticipated. He answered their question perfectly while simultaneously rebuking their hypocrisy and calling them to render their entire lives to God. They could not accuse Him of sedition, nor could they accuse Him of compromise. They could only stand there in stunned silence.
The Defaced Coin and the True Image
This brings us to the heart of the gospel. The command is to render to God the things that are God's. We are the things that are God's, for we bear His image. But there is a problem. We are like a coin that has been dropped in the mud. We are defaced currency. The image of God in us has been marred, tarnished, and scraped by our sin and rebellion. We have taken this being that was created for God's glory and we have rendered it unto ourselves, unto our idols, unto sin. We are not fit to be given back to a holy God.
So what is to be done? God, in His mercy, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the perfect coin. He is the "exact imprint of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3), the "image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). He alone rendered to God the perfect obedience that is due. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we deserved to die.
And through faith in Him, God does not simply polish us up. He does something far more radical. He melts us down and re-mints us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He stamps the image of His Son onto our hearts. The goal of our salvation is that we might be "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29). He is restoring the defaced currency.
Therefore, our lives are not our own. We were bought with a price. We belong to God. So give Caesar his taxes. But give God your worship. Give Caesar your respect. But give God your allegiance. Give Caesar the coin in your pocket. But render to God the totality of your being, your body as a living sacrifice, for this is your reasonable service. Because you are not your own. You bear the image of the King.