Luke 20:1-26

20:24,25 " 'Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?' They said, 'Caesar's.' And He said to them, 'Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's' "

Jesus deftly answer's the question of those trying to trip Him up.

The thing that stood out to me that I hadn't noticed before was the word "likeness." I'm in a theology class and last week we talked about it a lot as the lesson that week was "The Image Bearers of God" and what it means to be made in the likeness of God. God said in speaking of our invention:

"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Gen. 1:26a)

So when I read the verse in Luke, the thought occurred to me that Jesus is saying that the denarii belong to Caesar, evidenced by the fact that his likeness is on the coin, thus his listeners shouldn't be too broken up when he wants them back. In the same way, God wants what is His. And what bears His likeness? All mankind!

I'm not sure what I really thought "render to God what is God's" before I thought about it, but this never occurred to me. I think maybe I assumed it was good works or something. But it makes more sense that Jesus is saying God wants our lives, our souls, our hearts. We should not be astonished when God wants to reclaim what was always His in the first place. This helps me to remember just who I really belong to.

Lord, help me to remember I am Your possession. Let me surrender all of myself to Your holy will. Help squash my pride from convincing me I am my own man.