“Show Me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it?” (Luke 20:24).
The Lord’s words should have gone right to the consciences of the Pharisees and Herodians. In their unbelief their eyes were blinded to the glory of the “Image and Superscription” that stood before them. He, the very “image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4), bore the divine superscription as the “Word” made flesh. But His Godhead glory was hidden to their eyes, for only faith could comprehend Him.
The image and superscription on the denarius (the penny) should also have been a rebuke to their hearts, for they well knew that their nation was not enjoying the blessing and favor of God. The image and superscription on that coin, a public testimony to the Roman yoke under which they lived and by which they were ruled, ought to have caused them sorrow as they considered the sad fruit which their sin and disobedience against Jehovah had born.
Now Jehovah-Jesus stands among them. What it must have meant to His heart as He looked at that coin! He, the Messiah, the rightful King of Israel, was standing in their presence, “despised and rejected of men.” He had come in lowliness and grace to His own, but they had “received Him not,” saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” His image and superscription ought to have been “stamped” on something of far greater value than the Roman denarius; it ought to have been impressed on their hearts. But the cold, stony condition of those hearts would not receive the impress of the divine Person and Word who stood in their presence. What sorrow that little silver coin must have been to His blessed heart! “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37).
Does not this have an application to our lives? God has reached out in divine, sovereign grace to us who are Gentiles. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” The blessed Lord Jesus bore on the cross, before the mocking world, the superscription of a despised, outcast criminal, “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews,” in order that we might forever bear His blessed “image and superscription” before the Father. The lost coin of Luke 15 has been found. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over the sinner that has repented.
Now, may we not hear our Lord Jesus, as He looks at each one of us a found coin asking, “Whose image and superscription do you bear in the place that rejected Me?” May God grant that our lives plainly show before this world the “image and superscription” of that blessed One who has loved us and redeemed us with His own precious blood. We shall “be like Him” in a coming day when we see Him. May we, then, seek to be like Him now, bearing His image and His Word while we pass through this world.
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).
Ed.