Scripture Daily

Context No. 1984 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 12:17-23: in context

17Jesus answered them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They marveled greatly at him. 18Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, saying, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 20There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. 21The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; 22and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.”

Asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus calls for a coin and asks whose image it bears. Caesar's, they answer. Then, he says, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. They marvel at him. Then the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, come with a contrived puzzle about a woman married in turn to seven brothers, asking whose wife she will be in the resurrection, trying to make the whole idea seem absurd.

Jesus' answer about the coin holds a truth deeper than the question of taxes. The coin bore Caesar's image, and so, Jesus said, it belonged to Caesar; give it back to him. But the implied second half is the deeper point: give to God the things that are God's. And what bears God's image? We do. God created man in his own image; we are stamped with his likeness. If the coin, bearing Caesar's image, is to be given to Caesar, then we, bearing God's image, are to be given to God. The deeper claim is that we owe God not merely a portion of our money but our very selves, stamped as we are with his image. This reframes the question of what we owe God. We may think of our obligation to God in terms of certain things we give him, a portion of our money, some of our time, particular acts of worship or service, as though we could satisfy him with a part while keeping the rest for ourselves. But Jesus' principle reaches further: give to God what bears his image, and what bears his image is our whole selves. We belong to God not in part but in whole, stamped with his likeness, his by creation and, for those redeemed, his doubly by redemption. The coin was Caesar's because it bore his image; and we are God's because we bear his. This is a call to give God not merely a portion but ourselves. Present your bodies, Paul says, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; this is your reasonable service. We owe God not just some things but ourselves, our whole selves, because we bear his image and belong to him. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, Jesus said, and to God what is God's; and what is God's is the self stamped with his image, given not in part but in whole to the God whose likeness we bear. The question this puts to us is whether we give God merely a portion, a slice of money or time, or whether we give him what truly bears his image, ourselves, wholly his.

Do I think of what I owe God in terms of certain things I give him, a portion of my money, some of my time, while keeping the rest of myself for myself, or can I take hold of the deeper claim in Jesus' words, that as the coin bearing Caesar's image was Caesar's, so I, bearing God's image, am God's, and give him not merely a portion but my whole self?

Sources