Pay Taxes or Go Fishing

Pay Taxes-Go Fishing Pay taxes-go fishing? Go fishing-pay taxes? I don’t know. Why not do both?

And so begins one of the most extraordinary stories of the Bible. It is in Matthew 17:24-27:

When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”

He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”

When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.”

However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea, and throw in 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 you and for me.”

Now the two drachma-tax was used for temple up-keep. The people who were collecting it were religious Jews.

Now Jesus had much to say about the temple. At one point he told the woman at the well that eventually people would worship neither on the mountain or at the temple in Jerusalem Later he threw the merchants out of the temple because they had make His Father’s house a den of thieves instead of a place of prayer. On another occasion, he compared his body to the temple and said if it were tore down, it would be raised up in three days. (This was one of the charges made against Jesus when he was taken by the Jews.)

Well HarelyDad has a few comments and questions about this very strange account.

If the tax collectors had a problem about the tax why they not take it to Jesus personally?

Note that Peter just winged his answer. “Ugh, sure. Jesus paid the tax.”

Why did the tax collectors not ask Peter whether Peter had paid the tax?

What was Peter doing outside the house anyway?

How did Jesus know what Peter had said, anyway. (Jesus had a way of doing that from time to time.)

How did Jesus know where the shekel was?

I love this story. It is a real fishing story.
The tax collectors were fishing to see if they could trap Jesus-that is why they not ask Peter about himself.

Peter was fishing to come up with an answer to the tax collectors.

Everyone is fishing about except Jesus. He knows what is going on. He knows what the questions are getting at. He even knows where the shekel is—It is in the mouth of a fish in the sea.

We have a lot of questions in our lives. Sometimes, like Peter, we try to fake it. But Jesus knows the truth. He knows what we say and what we do. He knows when we are trying to hide the ball. And we do like to hide the ball.

He is also the God of supply. He can take the loaves and fishes and feed the multitudes. And if there is a pesky little tax, he can supply that need as well.

Oh yeah. Peter had gotten into the mess by shooting his mouth off about something he knew nothing about. So Peter for your punishment-“Go fishing!” Go drop a hook into the sea. And yes, those people that you told about the fact that Jesus had paid a tax that he hadn’t you take the shekel from the mouth of the fish and pay them and let them know the truth that neither you nor Jesus had paid this tax.

And oh, by the way, the tax was not rightly collected from us any way-but don’t bother telling them, the whole world will know it shortly.

Well, if I were a preacher, I don’t think I would preach on this topic. People might get to thinkin’ that they are “children of God” too and not bring all the money into the store house and pay my salary and help maintain our church building. These are dangerous topics that Jesus was dealing with.

Maybe my sermon topic had better be: “The workman is worth of his hire.”

I think I will just go fishing. Who knows maybe I will find a shekel or two.