Of all the wise words spoken by Jesus this story from the Gospel of Mark is one of my favourites.

“Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”

A little background before going back to the quote. In the time of Jesus, Israel was occupied by the Romans. It was a very loaded question the Pharisees put to Jesus. If he said it was right to pay taxes to the Romans he would lose credibility with many of the Jews who hated the Romans. If he said, Don’t pay, then he could be denounced to the Romans as a dangerous rebel and arrested.

Let’s pick up the quote again.

“Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I’ll tell you.” When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” His reply completely amazed them.” Mark 12:13-17 (NLT)

The photo shows a Roman coin from the time of Jesus. The Roman emperor who reigned at that time was Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. It is his image on the coin. I find it fascinating to look at this photo and think that Jesus may well have held an identical coin in the incident described in the story.

This incident and so many more are there to read in God’s bible. And there’s so much more to read about Jesus and the effect he can have on you.