Matthew 17:22-27
Matthew 17:22-27
As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed
over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be
raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed
with grief.
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the
temple tax approached Peter and said, “Does not your
teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said. When he
came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion Simon? From
whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census
tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When
he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then
the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend
them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the
first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you
will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give
that to them for me and for you.”
“But that we may not offend them…”
The meaning of this passage is very difficult to
know - especially if we place it in the context of
the entire ministry of Jesus. But if we look at
this from the angle of Jesus as Teacher, then we
may see some light as to what this passage is
trying to convey. Jesus as our Teacher helps us
to see a value He wanted His apostles to know: even
if they are part of the Kingdom of God, they are
still to be good citizens of the empire and to
respect all of the institutions that are linked
with it - especially in relation to taxes. Though
Jesus was an itinerant preacher teaching a new
way of life, He also wanted to teach the value of
respect - of not offending those in authority and
those who are connected with the institutions of
their time.
As Christians living in a secular world, we have to
deal with many institutions - some of which have
values we may not be in agreement with. However,
so as not to “offend them”, we give what is due to
them as their right as an institution demands it of
us. It takes some amount of tact, a sense of peace,
diplomacy and best of all respect, that would be
necessary to balance our being Christian and our
being citizens of this world.
