Into the looking glass

Let’s start off today with a quick quiz. I’m going to show you a statue of a famous person in Japan. Tell me whose image is it, and what are the words inscribed on his statue. Ready?

All right? Who is it? Talk to each other.

Yes, it is William Clark, a very famous educator who came to Japan from the States. What words are inscribed on his statue? Yes, very famous words, “Boys, be ambitious.” Clark’s idea, though, was not that the boys be ambitious to become rich or famous. His idea was that they become the kind of people they ought to be. Clark was in fact a Christian, and I believe it was his desire that his students become the kind of people God designed them to be.

Jesus wants the same for you. And the interesting thing is, when you look in the mirror, he asks you the same questions I asked in today’s quiz. Jesus asks you, “Whose image do you see? What inscription do you see there?”

You know, as I look in the mirror and see my reflection, I can to some extent see the image of my dad. Not just my looks, but also my character. And yet, I wouldn’t say the inscription on me says, “My father’s son.” In other words, the person my dad was doesn’t define who I am. Because while I loved my dad and there are ways I’m like him, I am a definitely not him.

What does define me then? My job? Well, I suppose to some extent, yes. I suppose you could see the words, “teacher” or “missionary” inscribed on me.

But those things don’t really define me either. For me, there are two things that define who I am and how I see myself. And really, they’ve defined who I am for a very long time. What are those two things?

Before I answer that question, I want to ask you: ‘What defines you? When you look in the mirror, how do you see yourself?” You see, it is really important for us to be able look in the mirror and know who we are. Because how we see ourselves will have a huge impact on how we relate to God. So, let’s take a look into the looking glass of God’s word.

Last week, we saw the Jewish leaders getting really upset with Jesus because he was exposing their hearts. Jesus told them the parable of the vineyard which Pastor Fumi talked about in the last message. If you missed it, I really encourage you to watch it on Youtube later. But in this parable Jesus showed these leaders that they were just like their Jewish ancestors who throughout their history had rebelled against God. Time and again, God had sent prophets to his people, seeking the fruit of faith, love, and righteousness from them, but instead of giving God the fruit he deserved, they killed his servants. Now God had sent his Son Jesus to seek fruit from his people, but just like their ancestors, these religious leaders wanted to kill him too.

But as we saw last week, they couldn’t do it right then, because Jesus was still too popular with the people. So somehow, they had to find a way to discredit him with the people, and if they couldn’t do that, they had to find some sneaky, indirect way of destroying him. That was their goal in the confrontation we see in today’s passage. Let’s take a look. Mark 12, verse 13.

Then they (the chief priests and other leaders) sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Jesus to trap him in his words. (13)

We’ve seen the Pharisees before. These were people that at least outwardly seemed serious about following God. But while they looked really religious on the outside, on the inside, their hearts were corrupt. And Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy so often that they had come to really hate him. Now these Pharisees joined up with another group called the Herodians to try to trap Jesus into saying something they could accuse him for.

But this team-up with the Herodians was a very strange one. You see, the Pharisees were very anti-Rome. The Herodians, on the other hand, supported Herod as their ruler and as a result, supported Rome, because Herod was Rome’s vassal. Why would an anti-Roman group join together with a pro-Roman group. We see the answer in their question.

When they came, they said to him, “Teacher, we know you are truthful and don’t care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality but teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” (14)

Now in those days, this was a real hot-button topic, it was very controversial. You see, while taxes are unpopular now, it was really unpopular with the Jews. Why? Because they were conquered territory. And they were having to pay taxes to their conquerors. Some Jews called the Zealots flat out refused to pay it, because to them, it would be admitting that Rome had a right to rule over them. Actually, one of Jesus’ disciples, a guy named Simon, probably once belonged to this group. The Pharisees, on the other hand, disliked paying the tax, but did so anyway. And of course, the Herodians were all for paying those taxes.

So what was the trap? Well, if Jesus said yes, a lot of the people would get upset with him. He would probably lose a lot of his support especially from the great crowd of people that had followed him from Galilee. Not too long before, another guy from Galilee named Judas (not Jesus’ disciple, but another Judas), had led a rebellion over this very issue. If on the other hand, Jesus said they shouldn’t pay, the Herodians would go straight to the Roman government and say, “Hey, there’s another guy from Galilee trying to stir up trouble.” Rebellion against Rome was a capital offense, and so the Romans would do the Jewish leaders’ dirty work by killing Jesus for them. (Luke 20:20)

So these guys thought they had Jesus in this deliciously, impossible situation. But look at Jesus’ response. Verse 15.

But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius , to look at.” They brought a coin. “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them.

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him. (15-17)

Jesus’ response is very interesting on a lot of levels. First, he asked them to hand him a denarius, which was the coin that people had to use to pay their taxes to Caesar. And he asked them, “Whose image and inscription is on this coin?” And they answered, “Caesar’s.”

This was actually a big deal to the Jews. You see, having Caesar’s image on the coin offended them because they said that it violated the second of God’s ten commandments not to make any images. But what was worse was that the inscription on the coin called Augustus Caesar god, making his son, the current Caesar, Tiberius, the “son of god.” That really offended the Jews who of course believed there was only one God. For that reason, most Jews tried to avoid using the denarius in daily life and instead used copper coins that had no such image or inscription.

But there’s something else interesting about Jesus’ answer, which unfortunately we don’t see so clearly in the English translation, but can see more clearly in the Japanese. What’s interesting is that while the Pharisees and Herodians asked Jesus about paying, or more literally in the Greek, “giving” to Caesar, Jesus talks about “giving back,” or “returning” to Caesar what is his. Essentially, he said, “This is Caesar’s image and inscription right? That shows this coin is really his, right? You’re talking as if you’re being forced to give what is yours to Caesar. But that’s Caesar’s coin you’re using. And now he wants it back? Well then, give it back to him.” Very logical, and hard to argue with. I can even imagine some of the Jews hearing Jesus’ words and saying, “Yeah, I don’t want that coin. If Caesar wants it, let him keep it. I want nothing to do with that blasphemous coin, anyway.”

But then Jesus brings them back to the story of the vineyard he had just told them. And he said, “Yes, give back to Caesar what is his. But make sure to give back to God what is rightfully his. Don’t be like the tenants in the vineyard that refused to give the owner the fruit he was owed. And stop trying to destroy his Son he has sent to collect that fruit. I know what you’re trying to do by asking me this question. Stop trying to trap me. Stop trying to destroy me. Instead, listen to me, obey me, the Son God has sent, and give back to God what belongs to him.”

But what is it exactly that rightfully belongs to God? What do we owe him? Think for a minute about that denarius Jesus held in his hand. The denarius belonged to Caesar because his image and his inscription were on it. And that brings us back to the question I asked at the beginning: “Whose image, whose inscription is on you?” In Genesis 1:26-27, God tells us that when he first created us, we were created in his image. God engraved his image on us. Not only that, his inscription is on us as well. What does the inscription say?

I find it very interesting that on the back of the denarius, the words “High priest” were inscribed on it, describing Caesar as the high priest of the Roman state religion. It’s interesting because in the Old Testament, there was a plate put on the turban of God’s high priest. And on that plate over the high priest’s forehead were inscribed these words: Holy to the Lord (Exodus 28:36).

The words “Holy to the Lord” mean “set apart for God.” In other words, God was saying to the high priest, “You are mine.” In fact, all the priests were considered holy, set apart for God (Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 26:19, Ezra 8:28). And now God calls every Christian, not just the pastors, but every Christian, his priests (1 Peter 2:9). In the books of Ezekiel and Revelation, God talks about his people having his seal on their foreheads (Ezekiel 9:4-6; Revelation 7:3; 9:4; 14:1). It doesn’t say exactly what’s on that seal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if on it were the same exact words found on the high priest: “Holy to the Lord.” God’s image and inscription are on each and every one of us. We belong to him. And we owe him us.

And so it’s time for us to look into the looking glass. Jesus is asking you the same question he asked the Pharisees and Herodians. He’s asking you, “Whose image do you see? Whose inscription?” How do you answer? What do you see?

Do you see a person who worked hard for everything you’ve got? Who was given nothing by nobody? Who deserves everything you have? Is the inscription on you, “Self-made man” or “self-made woman”?

Do you see someone who has been treated unfairly by God? By the world? By the people around you? Do you see someone who “deserves” more? Is the inscription on you, “Victim”?

Do you see someone who has no value? Who’s not so attractive? Not so talented? Not so loved? Is the inscription on you, “Worthless”?

Do you see someone who is not the Christian you should be? Who doesn’t know enough as a Christian? Who still struggles with sin? Who doesn’t read your Bible enough or pray enough? Who simply isn’t good enough as a Christian? Is the inscription on you, “Doesn’t measure up?”

The “self-made person” says, “Give back to God what is his? I earned this. I deserve this. This is mine. I’m my own man. I’m my own woman. I don’t owe God anything!”

The “victim” says, “Give back to God what is his? He hasn’t given me anything. He should give me what I deserve.”

The “worthless person” says, “Give back to God what is his? I’m a nobody. I have no special gifts or abilities. Why would God want me or anything that I have to give?

The one who doesn’t “measure up” as a Christian says, “Give back to God? I have to clean myself up first. I have to grow more before I could give anything to God that he would want.”

Are these the images and inscriptions you see? Or when you look in the mirror, do you see what you really are? You are made in God’s image. God has imprinted his image on you. You have value. You have worth. Not because of your status in society or the things you’ve accomplished. You’re worth something because God has put his image on you. And he says of you, “You are holy to me. You are mine. My priest. And more importantly, my beloved child.”

Is that what you see? Because those kinds of people rejoice in how God sees them, and gladly give back to God what is his. God is coming into his vineyard to find fruit. Are you like the Pharisees and Herodians that are loathe to give him what is his? Or are you people who love him because he first loved you, joyfully giving back to him all you have and all you are.

Take our money, for example. Sometimes, like the Pharisees asking about paying taxes to Caesar, Christians ask Jesus, “Do I really need to tithe? Should I give or shouldn’t I?” I’ll be honest, sometimes I look at my finances at the end of the month and think, “How much money could I save if I didn’t tithe? What could I have bought with this money?” Have you ever thought that way?

But Jesus says to us, “Give back to God what is God’s. His image is on you. All your talents and gifts reflect the things your heavenly Father is able to do. Not only that, your creativity, your ability to think, your ability to problem-solve all reflect him. More than that, each day your Father gives you breath and the energy you need in order to earn money. So every yen you have in your wallet or your bank account, ultimately comes from him. It’s not your money. It’s his.” That’s why every time I give my tithes to God, I say to him, “Father, thank you for all you’ve given me. I’m just giving you back what is yours. This was never mine to begin with.”

The thing we need to remember, though, is that it’s not just that ten percent that belongs to God. All our money belongs to him. Now am I saying that we should be giving all money to the church? Of course not. But we are to hold our money very loosely. Because sometimes, during the week, God comes into his vineyard, looking for fruit. You might run into a friend who’s having financial difficulties. Or you might hear about a natural disaster like what happened in Hawaii recently. And suddenly, you feel God tugging at your heart to help financially. What do you do? Do you say, “No, this is my money?” Do you say, “God, I have so little that even if I give, it won’t make a difference”? Or do you say, “Yes, Father. I gladly give you what is yours”?

The same is true of our time. And I’m not just talking about going to church on Sunday. Of course, if it’s at all possible we should give our time to God on Sunday and spend time with him and his people. But as with your tithes, it’s not just Sunday that rightfully belongs to God, Your life, your every breath is holy to him. It’s to be set apart for him. Now again, this doesn’t mean that you have to be at church 24-7. It doesn’t mean that you have to quit your job and become a full-time pastor or a missionary. What it does mean is that you hold on to your time very loosely. Because sometimes God will come into his vineyard looking for fruit. And he’ll say, “I want to touch this person. Call them. Invite them to your house. Or take them out for coffee.” What do you say when God asks for your time? “I’m too busy”? “I’m too tired”? “God, I have nothing worth giving to that person”? Or do you say yes?

Now all this can be very burdensome if it becomes legalistic. If it becomes, “I have to do this,” instead of, “I want to do this.” How does it become legalistic? It becomes legalistic when we feel we don’t owe God anything. Or when we feel God owes us something and we’re not getting it. Or when we feel like we’re no good. That God doesn’t truly value, love, or care for us. Or when we feel God is constantly criticizing us for never measuring up as a Christian.

So how are you feeling as you’re hearing all this? Are you feeling burdened, weighed down at the thought of giving back to God what is his? Or are you saying, “Yes, this is what I want to do! My God is a good Father. He loves me! And he deserves everything I can give to him”?

Again, your attitude will come down to what you see in the looking glass. What do you see? A self-made person? A victim? A worthless person? Someone who God is always disappointed in? Or do you see someone God has lovingly stamped with his own image? Someone who has inscribed on your forehead, “Holy to me. My priest to touch a hurting and dying world. My beloved child.”

My life changed the day I started seeing myself that way. I’ve never been the same since. Now I’ll be honest. I still don’t fully realize these truths as well as I should. I still struggle with comparing myself with others. I still struggle with seeking approval from others. I still struggle at times giving God access to my time and money.

But I’ll tell you this. I don’t struggle with the question of God’s goodness. I don’t struggle with wondering if he’s truly accepted or loves me. So when I sin, or fall short as a Christian, I don’t get down on myself for very long. I just get up, and keep on following after God. This Christian life is not a burden to me. It’s a joy. Why? Because when I see myself, I see God’s image there. And I see his inscription on me, “Holy to the Lord.” And that is awesome to me. What do you see in the looking glass?