Who Is Jesus? Part 4Sýnishorn

What Makes You, You?

You’ve made it to Part 4 of Matthew’s Gospel. And man, following in the footsteps of Jesus for the last 21 chapters has allowed us to discover so much about who Jesus is and who we’re called to be as a result. If you haven’t read Parts 1,  2,  and 3  yet, go back and check them out  because they really set the stage for all that is about to take place in the final week of Jesus’ life. 

In the last chapter, we watched Jesus enter the city of Jerusalem. We clearly saw that everything Jesus stood for was so different than what the Roman culture valued. They were all about pride, position, and power. Whereas Jesus modeled service, humility, and self-sacrifice. Now, the religious leaders, concerned by Jesus’ influence, are actively looking for ways to take Him out. 

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words ...“Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” Matthew 22:15, 17 NIV

Jesus, knowing exactly what’s going on, answers brilliantly. 

“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Matthew 22:19-21 NIV

The people sent to trap Jesus walked away absolutely amazed. They were being called out in the most eloquent way. What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that the image stamped on us is God’s. We belong to Him. So what defines you is not your feelings in a particular moment, it’s not your past, your plans, or your great intentions—it’s not what’s happened to you. It’s the image of God inside you. And Jesus is calling us to live in a way that’s consistent with the image of God in us.

How do we even begin to do that? Thankfully, we have an example, a guide. Because Jesus is the perfect image of our invisible God. He is God and He is holy. In other words, for Jesus, the image He bore was never distorted by sin in any way. So you can confidently look to Jesus as your perfect example and guide when it comes to being true to what really makes you, you—the image of God inside you. 

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 NIV

This is how we walk it out, how we live consistently with the image of God in us: We love God with all that we are, and we love others the same way that we would want to be loved, the way Jesus loved us. All of the Old Testament was pointing us to this, inviting us to live the kind of life that reflects our God to the world. And Jesus showed us how.