Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?

 

 Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up."  And they were exceedingly sorrowful.  

 

When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, "Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?"  He said, "Yes."  And when he had come into the house, Jesus  anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon?  From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?"  Peter said to Him, "From strangers."  Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.  Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first.  And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you."

 

- Matthew 17:22-27 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus, John, and Peter had returned from the mount of Transfiguration, they came to the multitude, and a man came to Christ, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."  Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him here to Me."  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"  So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

 

 Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up."  And they were exceedingly sorrowful.   My study Bible comments here that Jesus predicts His death and Resurrection a second time (see the first here) in order to show that He is going to His Passion freely, and will not be taken against His will.  

 

 When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, "Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?"  He said, "Yes."  And when he had come into the house, Jesus  anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon?  From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?"  Peter said to Him, "From strangers."  Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.  Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first.  And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you."  My study Bible explains that the temple tax was an annual head tax on all male Jews (except the priests) over twelve years of age.  This tax was for the maintenance of the temple (see Numbers 3:43-51).  Since Jesus is the Son of God, He is both High Priest and also "proprietor" of the temple, therefore He's exempt from the tax.  But nonetheless, Jesus pays it anyway, both to avoid unnecessary offense and to show that He has completely identified Himself with humankind.

 

 Jesus' solution to the payment of the temple tax is really quite ingenious if we think of it in a particular way.  As my study Bible says, He shows He truly is Son of God and Son of Man, human and divine, at the same time.  Just as He will in the future cleanse the temple to the dismay and indignation of the religious leadership (Matthew 21:12-13), so we understand that as "proprietor" of the temple (that is, as Messiah and Son of God) He is exempt from the tax.  He makes this point clear to St. Peter with His questions:  "What do you think, Simon?  From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?"  Peter said to Him, "From strangers."   In His divine identity, and as the Christ, Jesus is a kind of "king" in the temple of God.  But instead of standing on this point in order to "lord it over" others, so to speak, Jesus condescends to pay -- and not only for Himself but also for St. Peter. In this vein, we can see His compassion at work, as for St. Peter, this is a very important point among his community.  Peter has already said to those who questioned him that His Teacher does indeed pay the tax.  From other stories, we know how strongly the impact of shame within a community works upon St. Peter (see this story, for example, in which St. Paul takes him to task for it).  So, in some sense, just as Jesus publicly rebuked the crowds in yesterday's reading, but in private also spoke to the disciples of their lack of faith, here Jesus publicly avoids humiliating St. Peter.  But He does not order the money to be paid from the treasury of His ministry, neither does He produce money from any source of His own, so to speak.  But He does something miraculous, manifests another sign of His divinity in so doing, and instructs Peter (a fisherman by trade) to do what he knows to do:  to go catch a fish, and in the mouth of that fish is the temple tax for both Jesus and St. Peter.  In a type of protective show of humility as human being and the Teacher of St. Peter, Jesus instructs him:  "Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first.  And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you."  This is shown in His explicit remark regarding avoiding giving offense to the temple authorities.  Of course, St. Peter is one of them to whom He remarked, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).  So there is another ray of meaning in today's reading besides the straightforward story of this miraculous sign.  As a kind of symbolic reference, we can see the work that the disciples like St. Peter will do, in being "fishers of men," as that which will build the true temple and feed our worship of God.  In that is the fuel that will feed and provide for our needs a faithful going forward into the future.  It is also an act of pure faith and obedience to Christ by His disciple, and in so doing, produces "wealth" for the Kingdom.  Notice how specific Christ's instructions are, including telling this fisherman to "cast in a hook" (similarly to the specific nature of His instructions for His Triumphal Entry and the Last Supper).  His instructions are definite and deliberate.  So perhaps we should think of all the works we do for God and in our faith in Christ as that which stokes, feeds, and upholds the true temple of God, the Church; that is, the community of the faithful.  When we are called to do something, as St. Peter has been called to be a fisher of men, and we obey, then we produce the things that sustain the Kingdom, we are fulfilling the need we have on earth to sustain the Church.  We should also consider that we are each temples of God, and so our own faith and obedience, and whatever work of faith we are called to do, also sustains and nurtures God's presence within us and close to us, closer than our own heartbeat.  It reminds us that in yesterday's reading (above), Jesus spoke of prayer and fasting as those things which increase, magnify, and make our faith more powerful.  So it is when we are called to do whatever works for God and fulfill them; we make "profit" for our faith, for our Church, for the whole of the communion of saints and the Kingdom which does indeed dwell within us.  Let us consider Christ's compassion, His humility, His condescension for us, His love for His disciples, and above all, the ways in which we are called also to find a way in this world to do the work of our faith, for Him who is also divine and loves us as our faithful Lord Jesus Christ, our Teacher.  For He shows us this wonderful, perfect balance of the Kingdom, fulfilling all that He is here to do -- and He will show us that life for us as well, if we follow Him in faith in the ways we're shown.