I. The questioners here, we are told, were the Pharisees and the Herodians. With the Pharisees we are well acquainted. Of the Herodians we know nothing, except what this incident reveals. Whether they were a religious sect or a political party, we are not informed. Their name only shows that they were favourable to the ascendancy of Herod, and Herod's family. The Pharisees and the Herodians alike must have had a genuine interest in the question which they asked, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not." It was not a mere speculative question; it was a direct, pressing, personal, practical matter. It was a question which a perfectly sincere but somewhat bigoted Pharisee might have asked. But these men were not sincere. The evangelist speaks of their craftiness their hypocrisy. Our Lord addresses them as hypocrites. Their object was not to solve their own difficulties, but to involve Christ in difficulties.
II. Our Lord's reply is not direct, not "Yes," nor "No." He asks for a penny, a denarius, the common silver coin of the day. What do they see there? The broad brow, the laurel crown, the stern, cruel, impenetrable visage of Tiberius, the reigning emperor, or perhaps the singularly handsome regular features of his predecessor, the now deified Augustus. And this portraiture, this name thus stamped on the coin, is, in some sense, a mark of ownership. It comes from Cæsar's mint and must be restored to Cæsar's exchequer. Our Lord declares, not, indeed, the divine right of Augustus or Tiberius, not the divine right of kings or emperors, nor yet the divine right of democracies, but the divine right of established governments, the divine right of law and order. The argument would have been just as valid, if, instead of Augustus or Tiberius, the head of the Roman republic had been stamped upon that coin.
III. When, having first asked, "Whose image is this?" Our Lord closes with the injunction, "Render to God the things that are God's," is it too much to infer that the connecting link between the symbol and the application was the familiar text at the beginning of Genesis, "In the image of God created He him." In the second creation the same image was restamped upon us. The blessed lines were resharpened as we passed once again through the mint of God. The obverse is still the face of God, while the reverse is the cross of Christ! "Render to God the things that are God's."
Bishop Lightfoot, Penny Pulpit(New Series), No. 971.
References: Mark 12:17. J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., pp. 392, 402; vol. vii., pp. 24, 36; G. W. Shalders, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 199. Mark 12:18-27. H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 269; W. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth,p. 394.Mark 12:24; Mark 12:25. W. Gresley, Parochial Sermons,p. 381.Mark 12:24-27. J. J. Murphy, Expositor,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 102.Mark 12:26; Mark 12:27. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 116.