Matthew 17:24-27–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 17:24-27 wherein we see the Son of the King paying tax to His subjects.

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”  He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”  And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.  However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel.  Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

It’s not a normal occurrence for animals to produce money, but it does happen.  My parents have a chocolate lab that one day began…”producing” bills in the backyard.  There’s something that’s a bit more unpleasant about that than finding a coin in the mouth of a fish, but I suppose it fits extra well with what we are told about money–it’s about the dirtiest thing we handle on a daily basis.  Now, my folks did end up finding out that their ATM pooch had managed to get to some loose cash that was laying out in the open and, in typical Labrador fashion, made a meal of it.  But like I said, however you want to look at it, animals do occasionally produce money; some might even say that what comes from them is the perfect kind for paying those beloved taxes–OK, yeah, that’s just wrong.

But there’s more to this account than miraculous, extra valuable animals.  Jesus was giving Peter and us an example to follow, a great lesson to learn from.  You can picture Him maybe listening to Peter and the tax collector outside the house, a grin on His face as he waited for the disciple to come inside.  Before Peter could even approach the subject, Jesus gives him a question to answer about who is responsible for paying taxes.  Do sons of kings have to pay?  Of course not.  Now Israel had in many ways long ago forgotten God as their true King, but neither Jesus nor His Father had forgotten.  As THE Son then, if anyone was going to be exempt from paying taxes, it would be Him (and perhaps Peter also through association with Him).  However, even Jesus submitted Himself to this law so that nobody would be offended.  If then the Son of God put Himself under such a rule, how much more should Peter or any of us today.  Yes, we should pray for our tax influencing leaders, that they would use these monies for good and not evil, and we can get involved in the decision-making processes where possible.  What we need to be careful of though is taking an attitude of exemption when we are directed otherwise.

Now, this might be a stretch from the passage at hand, but we should also have confidence that the Lord will provide for us even in unexpected ways as we seek to be obedient to Him through our submission to men in authority.  Jesus and His disciples were probably far from “rolling in it” but the Master made the way to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s (though in this case to the priests of the temple).  Let us trust in His care and follow in His footsteps today.

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