22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
The Temple Tax
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax[a]?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes —from their own sons or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
Somehow, even though I have read through the whole book of Matthew at least twice, the coin in the mouth of the fish has never stood out to me before. You'd think it would, wouldn't you? I mean, it's not every day that someone catches a fish with a coin in its mouth, nevermind that it happened exactly the way Jesus said that it would. Even though Simon Peter knew who Jesus was, and even though he'd seen miracles and healings, and the calming of the storm, etc, I think I would still have been a little sceptical about the coin until I saw it. How did Jesus know Peter would catch the right fish? How did he know the coin would be there? How did he know what amount the coin would be? How did I never notice this story???
It seems quite obvious that this passage indicates that in spite of the fact that we are the children of God, in spite of the fact that our home is really in heaven and we are merely temporary residents of earth, in spite of the fact that these reasons COULD give us the impression that we needn't pay taxes or submit to the authority of this earth, Jesus clearly shows us that we are to obey the authorities over us and pay the taxes and dues as required. John MacArthur has a fairly lengthy sermon showing how this story is an example of what Peter is writing about in 1 Peter 2, where he talks about submitting to authority. Here is an exerpt:
Now let me give you little note here. Taxation in those days was not like it is today. The countries were run by one individual, an emperor, a king, there was not democracy as we know it. And so the one who is at the top of the pile, at the top of the pyramid, is the one who called all the shots. And he basically taxed the whole society under his control for two reasons: to support his kingdom and to support his family. And he collected it all and used it for the support of his family and the support of his kingdom.
Now He asks a very simple question, "Now when the king sets out to take his taxes, who does he take it from? Does he take it from his sons or strangers?" Well, you don't have to be Phi Beta Kappa to know the answer to that. He doesn't take it from his own family, he's taking it for his family. What point would there be to tax his own family, he's collecting it for them. So it's obvious and Peter would know the answer and he says, "Of strangers," in verse 26, of course. You see, they didn't have a democracy where everyone paid taxes like we do on a structured basis, equally everyone responsible to pay. In those days, if you ran the place, you did all the collecting and none of the paying. And so it was very very obvious that kings did not take their taxes from their own sons.
So Jesus then draws a conclusion. "Then are the sons free." That's right. And if this passage ended there, oh boy. You say, "What is this saying?" We're free. Why? Because God is the King of the earth and God rules everything and we're the sons of God, so we get all the benefits and we don't have to pay our taxes. It's a really good illustration because it was a temple tax being collected and who was the king of the temple? God was. And who was His Son? Jesus Christ. So if there was any tax that Jesus Christ shouldn't have paid, it was the temple tax. He was the Son of God who was the king of His dwelling place, the temple. So it would have been a perfect time for Jesus to say I'm not paying My tax, after all, God is the head of the temple and I'm His Son and He doesn't tax Me. And further than that, we're all the children of God and the world is God's and He's our King, and we don't need to respond to the world. They were giving their money to support us and God.
But look at verse 27. This is really clear, notwithstanding, in spite of all of that fact, in spite of the fact that that's true, "Lest we should...what?...offend them...lest we should offend them." Now wait a minute. We...you mean we don't want to offend the lost, the tax collectors, the IRS, the government? We don't want to offend them? That's right, we don't want to offend them. No, no, we don't want to offend them.
Oh, I think there are some evangelical Christians who must offend them a lot, don't you? I mean, they must be sick of them. They must be saying to themselves, "I don't know what kind of religion Christianity is, the kind they've got, but I sure wouldn't want anything to do with it." You see, you know, when Christians attack and attack against the government, I'm not talking about moral issues, I'm talking about just general policy, I think we need to speak against sin and evil and we need to even say "Thou art the man" when there's a sinner and an evil doer. But when you...we just continually attack, I think we offend. We do offend.
He says we don't want to offend them. We don't have to pay that. We don't have to...we're free. But we don't want to offend them, see. Why? Well, because we don't want them to throw out our message. Isn't that right? Because they won't accept us. So the Lord paid His taxes.
Does anyone else wince a little when they read headlines or articles, or hear news stories about some of the behaviour by people who, as representatives of Christians or Christian values, do things that make us all as a whole look like a bunch of jack asses? Pardon my French. It seems, all too often, that it's only those types of stories that get media attention and give our whole society a terrible impression of Christians.
Have you ever wondered why Christianity didn't start a slave insurrection in Rome? Because the Roman government was ordained by God. Do you know that? We can see that now. It was the Roman government that provided one world language which it facilitated the preaching of the gospel...the Greek language. It was the Roman government that provided the Pax Romana which brought peace to that whole part of the world which allowed intercourse between countries and nations all over the place so the gospel could spread so freely. It was the Romans who established the Roman roads and highways and trade routes and ship routes so that the gospel with its missionaries could be carried all over the place.
You see, God put the Roman government there to facilitate the gospel even though they didn't believe it. And so it's not our role to second guess God but to accept what the Bible says that the powers that be ordained of God, if you resist the powers that be, you resist God. And if you do that, verse 2 says you bring judgment on yourself. For rulers, and here is a general principle, are not a terror to good works but to the evil. And that's true in almost every society. There may be some very isolated exceptions to that, but every society sets up laws and the people who conform to those laws find they can survive and the people who don't, fall under punishment. And that's the way it is in human society. "Will you then not be afraid of the power?" You don't want to be afraid of your government? Then do what is good then you'll have praise of the same.
It would be so easy, you see, for Christians even in the Roman society as in the society to which Peter wrote, to look at themselves and say, "Hey, and we're subjects of a heavenly kingdom, and we belong to a King who is not of this world, and we live for His return, and after all, this world hates us and they persecute us and look what they're doing to us, and we're superior spiritually. We have no obligation to them." And then you get to the idea where you think you're so superior and you've got everything going for you, you just start one wholesale blast of the society in which you live. You'll never find that in the New Testament. And that society had a lot about it that ought to have been changed. But God knew the way you changed the society is not by blasting away at the people in authority in it, the way you change the society is by winning the people who are in that society to Jesus Christ and it changes from the inside out. So Paul makes it clear that we are to be good citizens.
Additionally, I think this story is also an example of provision. Jesus and the disciples didn't earn money from an occupation or trade, there was a tax that needed to be paid, and God provided exactly the amount needed for Jesus and Peter. It doesn't say how the other disciples paid their taxes, but I think we can assume that if God provided for Jesus and Peter, he provided for the rest of them as well. This story makes it unreasonable to say "I have to cheat on my taxes because otherwise I won't have enough for the other things I need." God will provide for our needs.
2 comments:
Excellent, excellent post! I love all the deeper truth we're finding this year.
One note - in the Follow the Rabbi lectures, RVL says that the fact that in this passage Jesus and Peter are the only taxpayers of the disciples would actually likely be corroboration for the fact that more than likely the other disciples were all too young to be required to pay taxes. I thought that was neat.
Oh, that is interesting! It makes sense that young men would be chosen as Jesus' disciples. Not only would they be less set in their ways and more likely to accept a new way of thinking, but they would have many more years to spread the gospel after Jesus' return to heaven.
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