Transcript

A man was driving along a road when all of a sudden, he had to swerve to avoid a box falling off a truck in front of him. A few seconds later, a policeman pulled out and pulled him over for reckless driving.

As the policeman started writing the ticket, the driver pointed out the box and that the road was full of nails and tacks. The driver protested, “I had to swerve or I would have run over those and blown my tires!”

The officer replied, “Ok, I won’t take you in, but I’m still writing you a ticket.” The man asked, “What for?!” The policeman answered, “Tacks evasion.”

The account we’ll look at in this episode from Matthew 17 is about paying taxes, and not evading them.

Matthew 17:22-23: “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”

In this account, our Lord and His disciples were in the region of Galilee in northern Israel. They are on their way to the village of Capernaum, as we see in verse 24.

Here in verses 22-23, the Lord, without drama or fanfare, forewarned His disciples that He would be put to death. This is the third prediction of His death that He gave them.

The first one was in 16:21, the second time was earlier in this chapter in verses 9 and 12, and now comes this third statement regarding His death and resurrection.

Though these plain statements and prophecies of His death and resurrection were repeated, they were disbelieved and forgotten by the disciples until after His resurrection.

The Lord tells them this time that He would be “betrayed into the hands of men.” This is the first allusion to Judas and his treachery. And so the Lord not only prepared His disciples for His death and resurrection but also His betrayal by one in their group.

The “men” to whom He was handed over were the Jewish religious leaders and then the Romans, and they, the Lord says, would kill Him.

Following His betrayal and death, the Lord then prophesied that the third day He would rise again. Even after all these repetitions about His death AND resurrection, when He did rise again, they didn’t believe that He did or the testimony of those who saw Him, and they did not believe until they saw Him with their own eyes.

They had forgotten about these predictions. And Mark 16:14 tells us that when the Lord appeared to them, He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart.

You would think it would have made them glad when Christ said He would rise again, but when the Lord said He was going to die, that’s all they heard, and they didn’t understand and did not really believe He would rise again.

They were distressed that He was going to leave them and be killed, and thus they were grieved at His words. In Mark’s account of this prediction, it says, “But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him.”

Eleven of these men were already saved and had a kingdom hope. But what did they trust that gave them everlasting life? Scripture says that they did not understand Christ’s death and resurrection, and thus obviously they did not place their faith in Christ’s finished work to save them from their sins like we do today.

And they were “exceeding sorry” at this message verse 23 says. Whereas, we are exceedingly glad at this same message!

Because this is the gospel, the good news, that saves us today. By faith alone, believing Christ died for our sins and rose again, we have everlasting life and a heavenly hope.

But not then in the Gospels. They did not believe this to be saved. Ultimately, they were saved by the accomplishments of Christ’s shed blood at the Cross, but not by their faith in it like we are today.

The Gospel of the Kingdom taught them to repent, confess their sins, be water baptized, and believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God in order to be saved. Eleven of these men did all this and by carrying out the terms of the gospel of the kingdom, it gave them an earthly kingdom hope and everlasting life.

The miracle that follows in verses 24-27 reinforce Christ’s words of verses 22-23. It showed beyond a doubt that Christ had absolute, perfect knowledge and foreknowledge as God to know what would happen to Him in the future, such as His death and resurrection.

And the miracle was to encourage the faith of Peter and the disciples, and to challenge them to continue to believe in the impossible with Christ, the impossible which included His prophecy of the greatest miracle of all, His resurrection from the dead.

Matthew 17:24-26: “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

“He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.”

Benjamin Franklin said nothing is certain but death and taxes: but at least death doesn’t get worse every year. After the prediction of His DEATH, we find a lesson taught to the disciples about TAXES.

From their journey around Galilee, they then came to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, the city where Christ had taught and healed many. They came to stay as guests in Peter’s house where they had stayed before.

Shortly after Christ and His disciples arrived at Capernaum, Christ was in Peter’s house, along with the other disciples.

But Peter was out in the village somewhere, perhaps to get some food or items for his home. While Peter was walking in Capernaum, “they that received tribute money” or a tax collector, “came to Peter.”

There were two kinds of tax collectors in Christ’s day. One was called “publicans,” which collected taxes for the Romans. They were Jews who worked for the Roman government to exact taxes from the people of Israel.

They were disliked by the Jews because they were collecting taxes from their own people to give to their oppressors, the Romans.

They were hated for this along with the fact that they were often accused of being thieves and robbers, in overcharging the taxes, so they could give the Romans what the government required, and then pocketing the rest.

The other tax collectors were Jews from the temple in Jerusalem which collected the temple tax that was required under the law of Moses. The man who approached Peter was not a publican, but one collecting the temple tax for the services of the temple.

This temple tax had its origin in the days of Moses. It goes back to Exodus chapter 30 when the tabernacle was established. God gave a law through Moses which said:

“This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary…an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. Every one…from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel…” (30:13-15).

The original tax money was used to support the ministry of the tabernacle and then later it carried over to the temple after it was built.

The Temple at Jerusalem was a costly place to run and operate. There was the need for animals for sacrifice, wine, flour, oil, and firewood.

The incense which was burned every day had to be bought and prepared. Fabric was necessary for the temple’s costly hangings and the robes of the priests.

Temple guards and employees had to be paid. And like any building, the temple needed regular maintenance.

All of this required money and a temple tax met the need. The half shekel temple tax was to be paid by every Jewish male 20 years and up and was expected to be paid annually.

The Greek word for “tribute” here is “di-drachmon.” A half shekel in Jewish money was equivalent to two Greek drachmas which they used under Roman rule. So the tax became known as the “di [or double] drachma” tax. And the Romans permitted the Jews to collect this tax for the operation of the temple in Jerusalem.

A drachma was equal to a normal worker’s wage for one day, so the temple tax was for two days’ wages. This was the tax money that this collector was after from Peter.

A mother once took her young toddler son to the beach. She and her son were having a great time playing, kicking around the sand, splashing in the water, and having a fun time. The little boy then spotted a quarter in the sand.

As toddlers tend to do, he went to the shiny object, picked it up, and put it in his mouth, whereupon he promptly began to choke. She, of course, began to panic, and yelled for someone, anyone to help.

Just then, a man came rushing over. He grabbed the little boy gave him a good solid hit to his back, and out popped the quarter. The woman was understandably relieved.

She thanked the man profusely, and then said, “It’s a miracle! Wouldn’t you know, God placed a doctor here just now so my little boy would be saved?”

He replied, “Oh, I’m not a doctor, ma’am. I’m from the IRS. Getting people to cough up money is what I do!” That’s what this man who approached Peter was trying to do, trying to get him to cough up money.

Interestingly, this miracle is ONLY recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. And since Matthew had previously been a tax collector before He left his occupation to follow the Lord, it’s not surprising to find him interested in this miracle and the one who recorded it.

The tax collector asked Peter, “Doth not your Master pay tribute.” Or “Does your Master pay the didrachma temple tax?” The question is asked in such a way by this tax collector that the answer he expected to get was that Christ did not pay the tax.

And there are lots of people who would like the next verse to say, “He saith, No,” and that He did not pay the tax.

But did Christ pay taxes? Verse 25 says that when Peter replied, “He saith, Yes.” Peter’s Master did pay His taxes. Peter’s answer was “To be sure, He does,” and Peter was eager to remove even the suspicion of the contrary by this man. Our Lord was not a tax evader.

And our Lord kept the Law of Moses perfectly, so He paid that yearly tax for the temple.

The omniscience of the Lord is seen in what followed. When Peter came back home and “was come into the house, Jesus prevented him,” or He had anticipated him.

Before Peter had a chance to say anything or tell what happened, Christ spoke to him first. The Lord knew all about the conversation Peter had with the tax collector in Capernaum, without Peter saying a word about it.

This whole thing about his Master paying taxes got Peter to thinking and wondering. Why would Christ pay taxes? He’s God. “Why would Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, pay taxes to those over whom He was eternally Sovereign?”

Christ knew about these thoughts that were rolling around in Peter’s mind and Christ answered Peter’s unspoken question by asking a question Himself.

Being in his home, the Lord addressed Peter by his family name, and asked, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?”

The Lord mentioned two kinds of taxes in His question, “customs” and “tribute,” which were goods taxes and people taxes.

The question must be understood in the light of countries and kingdoms being run by one individual, an emperor, a sovereign, a king.

The king taxed the whole society under his control for two reasons: to support his kingdom and to support his family. And he didn’t pay taxes himself.

So the Lord asked Peter a very simple question, “When the king sets out to collect his taxes, who does he take it from? Does he take it from his own sons, his own family, or from strangers, or his subjects?”

The answer was an obvious one, the king never took it from his own sons. The kings taxed their subjects for the support of their kingdom and their family; he didn’t tax his own sons. Thus, Peter answered in verse 26, “Of [or from] strangers.”

The Lord then pointed out “Then are the children free.” Peter’s answer was right and the children, the king’s sons were free from having to pay taxes, as the tax was in part collected to support them.

Now the tax being collected was for the temple. And who was over the temple? Who was Ruler and Sovereign over the temple? God was.

When Christ cleansed the temple the first time, He said in John 2:16: “Take these things hence; make not MY FATHER’S HOUSE an house of merchandise.”

The “then are the children free” statement by the Lord inferred that since this taxation was for the support of the temple, which was His Father’s house, and He was God’s Son, He was free, and He did not have to pay taxes to it.

As the sons of kings were exempt from the taxes their fathers imposed, so He was exempt from the temple tax His Father imposed in the Law of Moses.

If there was any tax that Christ was not obligated to pay, it was the temple tax.

In Matthew 12:6, the Lord stated of Himself “That in this place is one greater than the temple.” And for Christ, the Son of God, the One who is greater than the temple, to pay taxes for the support of the temple, it would be equivalent to paying tribute to Himself.

So it would have been a perfect time for Christ to say He was not going to pay this tax since He was the Son of God and Sovereign Lord over the temple and thus, free from this tax. But He did not do that.

Matthew 17:27: “Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.”

“Notwithstanding,” or “nevertheless,” in spite of the truth that He was free from paying the tax, Christ said, “lest we should offend them.”

After illustrating and explaining that He did not have to pay the tax, Christ told Peter, “Nevertheless, we don’t want to offend them…” The Lord did not want to offend the lost, His fellow Jews, or the tax collectors by refusing to pay taxes. So, like everything Christ did, this decision was based in love.

Unfortunately, there are some evangelical Christians who offend others and the lost by their refusal to pay taxes. This can keep unbelievers from wanting to have anything to do with Christ or Christianity.

Warren Wiersbe said this, “As Christians, we must never use our freedom in Christ to hurt or destroy others. Technically, Jesus did not have to pay the tax; but for practical reasons, He paid it.”

“Lest we offend them,” means to cause them to stumble. To not be a stumblingblock was our Lord’s explanation for paying the tax. He did not want the people of Israel to be offended because He did not support the temple ministry.

Christ did not want to offend anyone based on taxes. He was willing to pay rather than offend and cause someone to stumble in their faith in Him and reject the truth.

So, for the sake of those who were looking at Him and following His example, and out of His care for them, He paid the tax.

By emphasizing that the children are free, Christ made it clear that He was submitting to the tax willingly and purposefully. He was demonstrating that it is not about personal rights, but instead about doing the right thing.

And likewise, it is right for us to pay our taxes so we’re not a stumblingblock to the world. Our concern should be the same as the Lord’s, that we don’t want to cause other people to be tripped up and to fall by our actions so that it keeps them from trusting Christ.

Paying taxes not only shows our love for others, but also demonstrates a good witness to the world for Christ. However unpleasant it might be, however difficult, however seemingly inequitable it might be, we are to fulfill our duties as citizens.

It’s been said, “Our flag is symbolic of our taxes. We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bills, and blue after we pay them, and then we see stars!”

But the principle here is to not offend. Because Christ paid the tax it said to the people of Israel that He cared about the temple, its service, and the nation.

And this provided Christ the opportunity to share God’s truth with Israel, without a needless controversy or a secondary thing like not paying taxes hindering them from hearing His teachings.

Likewise, when we pay our taxes we demonstrate that we care about this nation, we care about its people, and that we want to do what’s right. And this provides the Church with a platform for the gospel.

And regardless of how unjust a tax is assessed, how irresponsibly it is spent, or what ungodly things it is used for, it is still to be paid.

The Lord paid this tax, and please stop and think for a moment with me about this temple ministry that the Lord paid into.

He paid into the treasury of the very establishment that would have Him put to death! From this fund, Judas received 30 pieces of silver to betray the Lord, for Him to be handed over into the hands of the wicked men who would kill Him as the Lord just predicted.

The Son of God claimed no exemption for Himself in paying taxes to the “den of thieves” in the temple, run by the wicked, corrupt religious leaders of Israel, and so we cannot claim an exemption for ourselves in paying taxes to our government which, as we know, also has issues with corruption and wickedness.

And we also pay our taxes because, under grace, our exalted Lord through the Apostle Paul clearly instructs His Church to do so. Romans 13:7 reads, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs…”

The Lord then said to Peter, “Go to the sea.” He didn’t even tell Peter where to go exactly! He just said, “Peter, go to the Sea of Galilee.” Then He told him to “Cast an hook,” or throw a hook in the water.

Peter was told to do something he really enjoyed: fishing. Peter was a professional fisherman, however, who used nets to draw in many fish at a time, not a hook and a line to catch one fish at a time. So this instruction was different for him.

The Lord told Peter, “Throw in a hook, then pull in the first fish that hits that hook. Then look in its mouth, and you’ll find a piece of money. Take it and give it unto the tax collector for Me and for you.”

That one fish was on a divine mission. Either the Lord knew of that fish in the Sea and that it had swallowed a coin and kept it in its mouth, or the Lord miraculously put one in its mouth. Either way, it was a miracle, and the complexity of all this is incredible.

Christ knew which one of all the thousands of fish in the Sea of Galilee had a coin in its mouth. He knew the location of that one fish. And He knew it would be the first fish Peter would catch.

I think we’d all say, “Hey I’ll pay my taxes, too, when I can fish like that!” And you could say, “That fish put its money where its mouth was.”

This is the only miracle by the Lord using one fish. Christ had multiplied the fish into a massive catch for Peter when He called Peter to follow Him, and He would repeat that miracle with Peter after His resurrection in John 21.

Christ multiplied 5 loaves and 2 FISHES in the feeding of the 5000, and He multiplied “a FEW FISHES” in the feeding of the 4000. But in this case He used only one fish.

The Lord paid His taxes and even put divine power in motion to make sure it got done. Christ exercised His Lordship over nature to provide what was needed.

The miracle again demonstrated to Peter and the other disciples who Christ was as God. As God, He is all-knowing and has supremacy over His creation.

The “piece of money” in the fish’s mouth that the Lord said Peter would find is the Greek word “stater,” which was a double didrachma. Or it was worth 4 drachmas.

The temple tax again was 2 drachmas, and with one coin, the “stater,” a four-drachma coin, Christ provided the exact payment for both His tax payment and Peter’s. And so, as the Lord said, “Give unto them for Me and thee.”

This miracle does not have the results recorded of the actual event taking place.

We would expect another verse that would read: “And Peter went to the sea, cast in a hook, and drew up a fish; and when he had opened its mouth, he found a coin, and he went and found the tax collector and paid the temple tax for himself and for the Lord.” But Matthew 17:28 is not there! The chapter ends at verse 27.

So, how do we know that the miracle took place? Because Christ said it would, and He is always faithful to His Word. As 1 Kings 8:56 says and is true of all Christ said, “There hath not failed one word of all His good promise.”

We can always trust God’s Word, and His promises, rightly divided. God promises and nothing He says fails.

Thus, when Christ told His disciples that “The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again,” that is exactly what happened.

And we know that when the Scriptures teach for us under grace to just believe Christ died for our sins and rose again, that we are saved from our sins and have an eternal home and position in heaven, we know that what the Lord has promised will not fail.