Mc 12,13-17 – Friday of the VIII Week of Ordinary Time
The Herodians on today’s Gospel page, together with the Pharisees, want to catch Jesus out. They know well that the only way to put him in serious trouble is to pit him against the Romans. For this reason they ask him whether or not it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. Those interlocutors knew very well that, whatever answer he gave, Jesus would have ended up in a trap. If he had answered yes, he would have lost the favor of the people. If he had answered no, it would have offered the Romans a pretext to accuse him.
But Jesus, as always, he doesn’t let himself be trapped. He asks for a coin and, starting from that apparently simple gesture, offers an immense lesson. «Whose image and inscription is this?». When they answer him: “Caesar’s”, Jesus concludes: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Very often these words are interpreted only as a distinction between the religious and civil spheres. But their meaning is even deeper. The coin bears the image of Caesar, and for this reason it can be returned to Caesar. But man bears the image of God. And that which bears the image of God belongs to God.
In essence, Jesus is saying that power, money, and the structures of this world can exert some influence on things, but they can never truly possess a person. Human beings are free precisely because they belong to God. It is a lesson of extraordinary relevance. We always run the risk of evaluating people according to economic, social or utilitarian criteria. Jesus instead reminds us that a person’s value does not come from what they ownby what it produces or by the role it occupies.
Every man and every woman they have a dignity that no power can buy and no authority can confiscatebecause they were created in the image and likeness of God. Today’s Gospel therefore invites us to never confuse money with people, value with price, having with being. The coins may belong to Caesar. But you belong only to God and therefore you are free.
Tuesday 2 June 2026 – (Tuesday of the IX Week of Ordinary Time – Even Year)
