The Coin in Your Pocket
“Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodian’s. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, ‘You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’ They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.”
Matthew 22:15-22 NIVUK
The Coin in Your Pocket
Matthew 22:15–22
They thought they had Him!
Picture the scene, it's the week before Passover. Jerusalem is packed with pilgrims, the air is thick with expectation and tension. Jesus has just ridden into town on a donkey to the roar of the crowds shouting Hosanna. He has overturned tables in the temple. He has silenced the Sadducees, embarrassed the Pharisees, and left the religious establishment scrambling for a response.
And so they come. Not with an honest question, but this time with a baited one.
The Pharisees and the Herodian’s, two groups who can’t stand each other. The Pharisees hated Rome and the Herodian’s worked for Rome. But their hatred of Jesus unites them, and the old adage, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ rings true yet again. And so as strange bedfellows, they link arms and approach Him with smiles.
‘we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are’
Every word true, they dress their question with flattery. Yet every word is a dagger wrapped in silk.
Then their question: ‘Is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not?’
In the silence the crowd leans in, you could hear a pin drop. Because they know, everyone knew, there’s no safe answer.
Say yes, and you betray your own people.
Say no, and Rome will nail you to a cross before sundown.
It's a trap. A perfect one, or so they thought.
But Jesus doesn't flinch. He doesn't debate. He doesn't dodge. He does something far more unsettling, He exposes their guile, telling it like it is, as he asks them for a coin
‘You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’
And in order to hear Jesus’s answer, they have to delve into their pockets and pull one out.
And in that the instant everything shifts, because to answer His question, they have to reveal something of themselves, which is;
They are carrying Caesar's currency! They’re already tangled up in the very system they're pretending to condemn. Their hands are filthy, and they don't even notice that they’ve been had.
Jesus looks at the coin, then He asks, quietly:
"Whose image is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," their eager reply.
And then He speaks the words that have never stopped echoing:
‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’
And in those words it’s Checkmate, game over!
But the sad truth for us is that because we’ve heard this verse so many times, we've stopped hearing it.
We treat it like a tidy little rule about church and state. Pay your taxes. Go to church. Keep the two in their lanes. Neat. Manageable. Safe.
But Jesus isn't handing out a management system. He's asking a question that cuts to the bone.
The coin has Caesar's image on it. Fine. Give it back. It was never really yours anyway.
But what about you; what image do you bear?
We’re not stamped with the face of an emperor. We’re not minted in Rome. We’re made in the image of the Living God. Genesis 1:26 tells us so. Before there was a Caesar, before there was an empire, before there was a coin or a tax; God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image’
And He did. He made you and he made me.
So when Jesus says, "Give to God what is God's," He is not asking for a percentage. He’s not asking for our Sunday mornings and a polite nod. He’s asking for the thing that has His name written all over it. He's asking for you and me!
But here’s the sad thing of our age.
We give everything to ‘Caesar’ and call it wisdom.
We hand over our hours to work, hours that won’t remember us. We hand over our affections to screens and scrolls and endless noise. We hand over our identity to what other people think. We hand over our hope to politics, to money, to a better version of ourselves that never quite arrives.
And then we come to God with the leftovers. A tired prayer before bed. A rushed hour on Sunday. A heart that is mostly somewhere else.
We render to Caesar what is Caesar's. And then we render to God what is Caesar's too.
But Jesus looks at us the way He looked at that coin. And He asks, gently, Whose image is this?
Because the answer matters. The answer is everything.
There's a shadow falling across this whole scene, and we mustn’t miss it.
The coin bore Caesar's image. But there was another image being formed in that very moment; the image of a Servant who would soon be handed over to Caesar's justice. The Roman cross was waiting and the empire would do its worst.
And Jesus, who told them to give Caesar his coin, would give God something far greater: His own life. His own blood. His own obedience, all the way to the end.
He rendered to God what God required. And because He did, you and I can be restored to the image we were made to bear.
That’s the gospel hidden in a coin.
So let me ask you something, and I mean it gently.
What is in your pocket right now?
What are you carrying that has someone else's image on it? What have you handed your heart to that was never worthy of it?
Maybe it's money. Maybe it's approval. Maybe it's control. Maybe it's a grudge you've been feeding for years. Maybe it's the quiet belief that you are only as valuable as your last success.
Whatever it is, it has an image on it. And it’s not God's.
But you have an image, you bear His image. You always have, even when you've forgotten. Even when you've traded it for something shiny and small.
And He’s never stopped wanting you back.
So give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Pay the tax. Be a good citizen. Live faithfully in the world you've been placed in.
But give to God what has always been His.
Give Him your mornings. Give Him your worries. Give Him the parts of you that you've kept locked away. Give Him your future, your fears, your failures, your hopes and dreams.
Give Him your whole heart not because He demands it, but because He made it. And because He loves it. And because there is no safer place for your soul than in the hands of the One whose image you bear.
The coin is small. The question is eternal.
Whose image is this?
Look at your life. Look at your loves. Look at what you reach for when no one is watching.
And then hear the voice of the One who made you, who died for you, who is coming again for you:
Come home. You were always mine.
"So give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
Amen.
Have a super week, and God Bless,
Trev.