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.