Bulletin Column: Jesus Turns the Tables

There are some passages of Scripture where, if we only knew the context, we would see them in an altogether different light. I think this weekend’s Gospel about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus regarding taxes is just one example. As such, it’s worth simply walking through an explaining what’s going on.

The Pharisees are indeed trying to trap Jesus by asking Him if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. If he says “Yes,” then the Jewish crowds who were conquered by and subjected to Roman taxation would turn against Him. If He says “No,” then they could bring Jesus before the Romans and charge Him with insurrection. So He is in a pretty tight bind? How does He respond? He asks for a coin. Then He asks them a question: “Whose image is this, and whose inscription?”

It is at this point that the Pharisees should start feeling very uncomfortable. Why? We have copies of these coins, these Roman leptons, which have survived to this day. On these coins is an engraved image of Tiberius Caesar, the reigning emperor at the time. To the modern mind, this is an entirely unremarkable fact, but to an ardent follower of the Jewish Law, it is actually a serious problem. In chapter 20 of the book of Exodus, we hear a recounting of the 10 Commandments. Within those commandments is the following line: “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4). Such images were common objects of idolatry and false veneration, which is why they were forbidden. These Pharisees are carrying around a graven image of something that is on earth, namely a human ruler, thus violating a precept of the 10 Commandments.

It gets worse. On these coins is an abbreviated description, which when fully fleshed out says “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” Not only do they have a graven image, but that image bears an inscription which claims Caesar Augustus, not the God of Israel, to be divine. They have thus violated the command “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). These Pharisees thus open themselves up to the charge of violating the two parts of the very first commandment: God, and God alone, is to be worshipped and recognized as divine.

The Pharisees think they have the perfect plan to discredit or incriminate Jesus. Instead, they end up toeing the line of violating the single most foundational commandment in the Jewish religion. The coin bears an image of a ruler who is not actually divine. Jesus, meanwhile, bears the image of the invisible God Who is divine (Colossians 1:15). So Who is it to whom the Pharisees owe something? At the end of the day, and most importantly, it is Jesus, the one standing before them.