OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS OWN SON TO ISRAEL

The Lord and His disciples, returning from the mountain of the transfiguration, arrived back in their main operating base of the town of Capernaum, a  contingency of tax collectors approached Peter and asked him if Jesus his rabbi paid the temple tax of two drachmas to which Peter replied answered in the affirmative. Matthew chapter 17 verses 24 - 27 capture this interaction.

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

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 children or from others?”

When Peter entered the house, Jesus, knowing about Peterˋs  conversation with the tax collectors, asked Peter a question regarding whom the rulers of the kingdoms of the earth collected taxes from.  The question was whether the administrators collected taxes from their own children or from other people.

26 “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, 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.”

This question, treated as a parable, has these elements and what they correspond to;

• Revenue collections as taxes  -   Financial obligations to support the temple 
• Kings of the earth  -   The God of Israel
• The kingˋs children  -  The Lord Jesus the Son of God
• Others (subjects of the king)  - Regular parishoners of the religious system

When Peter replied that kings did not collect taxes from their own chidren, the Lord Jesus made the point to Peter that as the Son of the God of the temple, He was rightfully exempt from paying the taxes for the temple.

However, to avoid offending the administrators of the jurisdiction they were in, Jesus instructed Peter to go to the lake and throw out his fishing line and in the mouth of the first fish he caught, he would find a four drachma coin which would exactly pay Jesusˋ tax bill as well as Peterˋs.

This event gives us a view into the position that Jesus held in the spirit but shows us the accomodations that He made to allow His ministry to continue to the fullness of time.

Amen.

4