Just Paying Taxes

Ezra 7- 8; Luke 20

“…’Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. He said to them, ‘Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’”

Luke 20:24, 25

Just as a denarius reflected the image of Caesar, people are created in the image of God. Jesus wisely redirected the question of the spies sent to entrap him by reminding them that the more important question was, ‘Are we offering ourselves to God, our creator?’

Taxes are a necessary function of a society with shared services, but money does not define us. The taxes paid by the Jews to Caesar were a constant humiliating reminder that they lived under occupation. Jesus, however, refocused their attention, and our attention, on whose we are. As those created in the image of God, we were created for relationship with him. Offering our bodies to him as living sacrifices is our reasonable act of worship.’

Are we giving God our best, or are we ‘just paying our taxes’?

“Lord Jesus, I give you my body and choose today to live for your glory.”