Luke: Exploring the Life of JesusSample

DAY VIII // WHOSE IMAGE?

Have you ever played chess? If you have, you’ll know that there may come a point in the game where your king is being directly attacked by one or more of your opponent's pieces. If this happens and there’s no move you can make, you’re trapped. As your opponent says “checkmate,” your fate is sealed!

By this point in the book of Luke, many of the religious leaders were very unhappy with Jesus and the things he was doing and saying. They wanted to arrest him, so they decided the thing to do would be to trick him into saying something that would get him in trouble. So they asked him if they should pay taxes to the Roman emperor. They knew that if Jesus said yes, then the Jewish people would be disappointed with him because it would appear he was siding with the Romans. Or, if he said not to pay the tax, then he would have to answer to the Roman officials for treason. Checkmate! Finally, they had him trapped. 

Or so they thought . . .

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Q1 //  What are the main points you think Jesus is trying to make in this passage?

Q2 //  What do you think this passage says about how we should respond to authority?

Q3 //  What do you think Jesus means by saying we should give back to God what is God’s (v25)?

Q4 //  The coin that Jesus was given had the image of Caesar on it, but the Bible says all people have been made in God’s image (see Genesis 1:26-27). How might this affect the way we read this passage?

For Next Time: Read Luke Chapter 22-23.