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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
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?”
“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?”
“From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said
to Him. “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.”
Matthew 17:24-27
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
It’s been jokingly said for some time now that
the only two things that are sure in life is death and paying taxes, a take on
words spoken by Benjamin Franklin in the later 1700’s.
Indeed, it seems that at the start of every
new year, we no more get finished putting away our Christmas decorations and
recovering from New Year’s festivities that we turn our attention to the
reality that once again tax returns will soon be due in early spring.
Speaking of taxes, it’s something that has
been in the news of late as reforms were passed at the end of 2017. Some of
those reforms had to do with exemptions people can take on their returns, amounts
to reduce the amount of tax owed, sometimes even to the place where no tax is
owed at all. Of interest, we find this matter of tax exemptions coming to the
forefront as we continue our study of the Gospel of Matthew in today’s
devotion.
You see, paying taxes is not just a modern
day conundrum. It happened back in the days of Jesus as well. Look at today’s
scripture passage from Chapter 17:
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?”
“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?”
“From
others,” Peter answered.
“Then
the children are exempt,” Jesus said to Him. “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.” Matthew 17:24-27
As some background for this passage, let’s
look at a couple of Old Testament verses:
Then
the Lord said to Moses,...”Each one who crosses over to those already counted
is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs
twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord.” Exodus 30:13
At
the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the
temple of the Lord. A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that
they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had
required of Israel in the wilderness. All the officials and all the people
brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was
full. 2 Chronicles 24:9
“We
assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands to give a third of a
shekel each year for the service of the house of our God: for the bread set out
on the table; for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings; for the
offerings on the Sabbaths, at the New Moon feasts and at the appointed
festivals; for the holy offerings; for sin offerings to make atonement for
Israel; and for all the duties of the house of our God.” Nehemiah 10:32-33
There was no doubting that an annual
offering was expected to be made to the temple in order to cover the cost of
the offerings required to be offered for atonement, the mandated feasts and
festivals, and the duties carried out in the very house of God. This had not changed
as we move to the New Testament times of Jesus as we see the very matter raised
to Peter in regard to Jesus by tax collectors in Capernaum as Jesus arrived
with His disciples in tow. Eager to collect the two-drachma levy, they asked in
reference to Jesus:
“Doesn’t
your teacher pay the temple tax?”
Peter, seeing Jesus as a man just like him,
quickly replied, “Yes, he does.”
And that’s where that exchange ended, with
the collectors expecting that Jesus as well as His followers would be adding
two-drachmas each to the temple coffers but as we see, this wouldn’t happen
until Jesus took a moment to have a word with Peter. For there was a slight
issue with what Peter said to the tax collectors, something Jesus wanted to
bring to light. Look again at His words here:
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?”
“From
others,” Peter answered.
“Then
the children are exempt,” Jesus said to Him. “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.”
At the heart of this exchange is the matter
of exemption, primarily Jesus’ exemption but I believe secondarily this
addresses an exemption every Christian receives through their association with
Him. More on that in a moment.
First, we find Jesus asking Peter a very
fundamental question, one based on the ways of the world and the way rulers
addressed the matter of taxation between their own and others.
“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?”
To which Peter replied, as quickly as he
did to the tax collectors earlier, “From others.”
Jesus then stated the obvious based on what
Peter had said:
“Then
the children are exempt.”
In other words, those who were children of
the king would not be charged the same as others. There would be an exemption
for them.
Now think about that point as it applied to
Jesus, the only Son of God, the One who was over all kings. The temple tax was
collected largely to support sacrifices needed for the people’s atonement
before God. Jesus needed no such atonement. In fact, He was the final atoning
sacrifice God was providing for all His people. Given all this, if anyone was
exempt from paying the temple tax, it was Jesus.
But Peter had already spoken up and
obligated Jesus to pay. To go back on that word would have certainly caused
offense to be taken and so Jesus provided Peter a way out of it commanding him
to:
“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.”
We know Peter was a fisherman by trade and
Jesus had promised to make him a fisher of men but in this instance, Jesus
called His disciple to return to his roots and catch a fish who would rather
miraculously yield not just a two-drachma coin but one worth four-drachmas, an
amount that would cover them both. Jesus covered the cost for Peter, a
foreshadowing for what He would do for Him and all mankind later.
This brings me back to the earlier point of
exemption for Christians, those who are considered children of the King of
kings and Lord of lords. The price levied against every person on earth is
destruction, the death penalty for sin. Everyone will pay that charge unless
they have an exemption and the only way to gain that is through belief and
trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, the One who has already paid the charge
through His death on Calvary’s cross. He is the only way anyone gets to God the
Father (John 14:6). The only way.
As I close today, just one simple question
for you:
Are you in line for an exemption?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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