Matthew 17:24-27 - "And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter..."

Matthew 17:24-27

I honestly forgot this story was even in the Gospels, it's talked about so little. Maybe the weird way Jesus obtained money to pay the temple tax makes modern day people feel uncomfortable. Asking Peter to fetch a coin from a fish's mouth is a bit too hocus pocus for us. We're fine if Jesus has his disciples get their breakfast in miraculous ways--dropping their net to one side of the boat and pulling up a haul of 153 fish (John 21:5-14). But when it comes to obtaining cold hard cash we're uncomfortable unless it's being earned by a day's work.

I'll come back to why I think Jesus chose to pay the tax in this unusual way. As for the rest of the passage, you might have noticed the footnotes in Bible Gateway tell us that the two-drachma tax is the temple tax. That's pretty important. Because from the exchange Jesus had with Peter, it's clear that he regarded himself and his disciples as sons--not strangers--who should have been exempt from this tax, but he consented to pay it anyhow so as not to give offense. The reason Jesus said they were sons was that the temple was his Father's house and the disciples were also a part of God's household. So actually Jesus, as the Son of God, should have been the one receiving the tax money, not paying it out.

Jesus' sufferings on earth were both great and small. One of his lesser sufferings was knowing he was a son but being treated like a stranger. The little indignities that he absorbed every day largely go unmentioned in the Gospel accounts, but you can imagine it was probably a daily occurrence. Even as a boy his parents scolded him for simply doing what a son ought to: hanging around his Father's house. I imagine twelve-year-old Jesus was mystified at Joseph's and Mary's distress. He probably thought, "Isn't that the whole reason you brought me to Jerusalem? Why else am I here?"

Humility is bending to these indignities and aiming instead not to give offense. "Give [the tax money] to them for you and for Me." Jesus paid taxes to his own Father's house. And perhaps the reason the stater was provided through the fish's mouth was to show that the Father was the one providing it for Jesus. Do you invite guests into your home then pay them rent to allow you to sleep in your own bedroom? Well, God the Father chose to pay taxes to his own house.

This shouldn't be a surprise. The humility of God is such that he also paid a ransom to buy back the very people he created. He had to purchase back what belonged to him from the start. And the price he paid for them was prohibitively high, even though the debt they incurred was owed to him. The one who should have been paid was the one who paid out the price.

Matthew 17:14-23 - "When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus..."

Matthew 17:14-23

Jesus' rebuke to this man with the demon-possessed son, and to the townspeople in general, sounds harsh until you consider that there were some unbelieving towns where Jesus refused to do any miracles at all. At least this crowd got off with a scolding, and the father received the cure he wanted for his son. For further insight into why Jesus had such a prickly attitude toward them, check the parallel passage in Mark 9:14-29 where it says Jesus reprimanded this father for saying "if you can do anything." The father was treating Jesus like a shot in the dark, a crapshoot, instead of the Son of God sent from heaven. Then after Jesus healed the boy and he lay still, the townspeople immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was dead. It was like they were waiting for Jesus to fail.

What distressed Jesus most about people's unbelief was that he was right there, in the flesh, doing miracle after miracle in the sight of all. If they didn't believe now, when would they? What would it take? So he says,"How long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?"

The disciples came to Jesus privately, recognizing their own part in the failed exorcism, but notice how Jesus was more gentle and fatherly with them. He told them the problem was the littleness of their faith, but he didn't treat them as if they lacked faith altogether. Now why did Jesus say the littleness of their faith was the problem, then go on to exhort them to have mustard-seed-sized faith? A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds around. Was Jesus saying small faith was the problem, or was it the solution?

I'm not sure what the answer is. To me it sounds as if he's saying not only did they have little faith, but they lacked faith in their little faith. They failed to see that even small faith can do the impossible if you understood that it was not the quantity but quality of your faith that mattered. As the saying goes, it's not about the greatness of your faith, but the greatness of the God in whom you put your faith that counts.

But you don't want to make the mistake of thinking faith is all about sending concentrated brain waves toward getting what you want, like the power of positive thinking, or Luke Skywalker dislodging his lightsaber from the snow. Jesus could heal sickness and exorcise demons because the sin that brought those conditions upon people would be paid for in his blood. He asked people to believe in him because his power to do miracles was rooted in his curse-reversing death. So this story concludes with Jesus telling his disciples that he must be handed over, killed, and raised on the third day. They grieved. They didn't understand that these miracles they rejoiced in were inseparable from the cup Jesus had to drink.