No better time than tax season to have a story on taxes from Mark 12. And it’s always a great question in our culture. Just bring up TAXES and see what kind of response we get!

¹³ They sent some of the Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap him in his words. ¹⁴They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you’re genuine and you don’t worry about what people think. You don’t show favoritism but teach God’s way as it really is. Does the Law allow people to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay taxes or not?”

¹⁵ Since Jesus recognized their deceit, he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a coin. Show it to me.” ¹⁶ And they brought one. He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” His reply left them overcome with wonder. (Mark 12:13-17, CEB)

So… who do we owe?

The key may be what Jesus says about “Whose image?”

Of course, his response on giving Caesar’s what is Caesar’s never sits well with those who like lower taxes.

But what in the world does he refer to when he says, “Give to God what is God’s?”

If we can see the use of “image” in Jesus’ question, it may be that Jesus is saying, “The coin has the image of Caesar, so give him his due. YOU have the image of God, so give him HIS due.”

Jesus turns the question from how little we can get away with to what we really need to do, which is live in the image of God. We are so concerned with what we can get away with we forget to live in full surrender to him.

Whatever is Caesar’s, well Caesar is going to take. We can yelp all we want, but that is life.

The question is more to our own walk with God. Are we giving to God what is HIS due?