Whose Face Is on Your Life?

Rev. Bobby Musengwa

Transitional General Presbyter

Matthew 22:15-22 gets quoted to settle arguments, usually by people who want Jesus on their side. But look at what’s actually happening. This is a trap, and Jesus sees it coming.

The Pharisees and the Herodians normally can’t stand each other. The Pharisees resent Roman occupation. The Herodians benefit from it. 

Yet here they are, working together, because they share a bigger goal: getting rid of Jesus. 

If he says “pay the tax,” he loses the crowds who hate Rome. If he says “don’t,” he can be arrested for sedition. Either answer sinks him.

Jesus doesn’t answer. He asks for a coin. And here’s the detail that’s easy to miss: he doesn’t have one. His opponents do. 

They pull a denarius out of their own pockets, a coin stamped with the emperor’s image. 

The people claiming to guard faithfulness are carrying the very thing they say they oppose. The coin does the talking.

Then comes the famous line. It’s tempting to hear it as a tidy split, with Caesar getting the public part of your life and God getting the spiritual part. 

But think about what Jesus’ listeners knew from Genesis: humanity bears God’s image. The coin has Caesar’s face on it. You have God’s. 

So the real question under the question is this: if Caesar gets his coin, what’s left that Caesar can’t have? Everything that matters most.

There’s a trap on the other side, too. If we decide faith and public life live in separate rooms, we can end up silent when silence is the worst possible response. 

History shows what happens when churches decide that public policy isn’t their business. It’s a false dichotomy, or simply a cop-out. 

Jesus isn’t splitting your life into two accounts. He’s asking who has the final claim on all of it. 

That also means the church stays free to speak plainly, because we belong to no party and no power.

For Mission Presbytery, this gets practical fast. Our congregations are juggling budgets, buildings, and shrinking attendance, and the pressure to survive can quietly shape every decision. 

Our members also hold a wide range of political views, which is totally acceptable, and we are better together than divided. 

The coin question gives us a shared place to stand: Are we making this choice because of what we fear, or because of whose we are?

Notice that the crowd was amazed and the trappers walked away. 

Faithfulness doesn’t always win the argument. Sometimes it just leaves people thinking.

A question to carry this week: What in your life or ministry carries someone else’s image, and what would it look like to give it back?

Always remember, you bear the image of God, and you are a beloved child of God, and so is everyone around you and in the whole world. 

Grace and peace,

Rev. Bobby Musengwa

Transitional General Presbyter

Mission Presbytery