“So, what’s His point?”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Matthew 17:22-27 (Forward, p. 24) CEV p. 1005
Today’s short passage about paying the temple tax, a half shekel, which was required of every Jewish male above the age of nineteen, is pretty straight forward. Simon Peter is asked by the collectors of that tax whether his master, that is, Jesus, pays the tax. (Some commentators have surmised that the temple tax collectors didn’t know Jesus’ status in this regard because He’d been out of the district for some time). When asked by Peter about this, Jesus responds with a question, namely whether earthly kings expect their own children to pay taxes. The answer is, according to the understanding of those times, an emphatic ‘no’, thereby inferring that He and Peter, by virtue of belonging to a different king, a heavenly King, are exempt. However, regardless of this, Jesus tells Peter to go ahead and pay the tax for the two of them and provides a miraculous way of doing so. Okay, so far, so good.
But what is the point of all this? And, more importantly, what is the point of this to us? Here two suggestions might be made. The first is, of course, that Jesus is obligated to do so by the Law of Moses, by Scripture (see Exodus 30:11-16). It is part of being a Jew, part of belonging to that faith community. And so, Jesus, born under the Law, born of Jewish parents (see Galatians 4:4), was obligated to follow the dictates of Scripture. And He does that, even though He would soon fulfill that Law and render some of it, like Temple sacrifices and observance, obsolete.
And secondly, as Jesus plainly says, He advises Peter to pay the tax in order ‘not to cause trouble’, not to cause offence or make waves. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians (see 1 Corinthians 14:33), has this to say about the gatherings of God’s people, which certainly applies here: “God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people.” That is, living in an orderly way, fitting in, living in harmony with others of our faith community. helps us to be in line with God. That means that we try to fit in with the culture, the practices, the worship styles, the expectations, of whatever Christian body we are part of. Of course, if there are things that are not consistent with Holy Scripture, that is entirely a different matter, but most of the things in which we vary are not of that character.
All of this then fits in entirely with one of the working principles of the English Church at the Reformation: as for the essentials laid out in the Holy Scriptures, unity and conformity, but as to everything else, the non-essentials, then flexibility and charity. This is a good rule for each of us even today. Amen.
Forward notes. “Go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me” (verse 27).
“One of the best things about spending a decade teaching at a Christian university was that, with a single mass email soliciting babysitters, I would be flooded with offers within a few hours. One student, an avid reader and extremely talented writer, listed, among her qualifications, that she was ‘extremely good at finding ways into Narnia.’ (She was, too.) I’d love to think that if C.S. Lewis, whom we remember today, and who began writing about anthropomorphized animals as a child, had written a version of today’s gospel reading, the fish would have spoken back to Peter! What do you suppose it would have said—about the coin, about Peter, about Jesus!
“Space doesn’t permit as much speculation as I’d like, but I imagine something along these lines: ‘Strange folks, you humans. In the lake, our whole lives are an act of worship, the whole of the depths our temple. Now throw me back, you poor creature!”
Moving Forward: “What do you imagine the fish might say?”