How to Pay Our Debts. (Genesis, 17: 14-27)

I.        A Boy Is Healed. 

14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “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. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 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.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 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. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

(Matthew 17: 14-21)

No sooner had Jesus come down from the place of revealed heavenly glory than he was confronted with an earthly problem and a very  practical demand is made of him. A man had brought what most translations describe as his epileptic son to the disciples. They probably appeared with the lad when Jesus was absent because he was up on the mountainside.

Our modern translation described the boy as epileptic but the Greek word used literally means to be moonstruck. Whatever it was the father attributed the boy's condition to the malign influence of evil spirits, on this case the moon as was common in those days. So serious was his condition that he was a danger to himself and to everyone else, which is why modern experts think this might be a case of epilepsy. The reason they have gone with this translation is because if it was a case of him being permanently displaying erratic behaviour but the moonstruck description, suggests periods of incoherence more aligned with what we today would call epilepsy.

We can almost feel the relief among the disciples when Jesus returns and at once takes a grip of a situation which had got completely out of hand. With one strong word he tells the malevolent force to be gone and the boy was cured. 

We also cannot help but notice the faith of the boy's father. Even though the disciples had been given power to cast out devils, here was a case in which they had signally and publicly failed. And yet in spite of the failure of the disciples, it seems the father never doubted the power of Jesus and waited for His return. There is something very poignant about that; and there is something which is very universal and very contemporary about how the disciples felt. There are many who feel even today that the Church, the professed disciples of Jesus in our own day and in this generation, has failed and  our powerless to deal with the ills of the human condition. Yet at the back of our minds many know that if we could only get beyond our human frailties, or for some behind the facade of the religious organisation, if we could only get behind the facade of religion and the failure of the modern Church, we can still access Jesus. If only people could get to Jesus himself, then they could receive the things they need. It is at one and the same time our failure and our challenge that, even yet, though many have lost their faith in the Church, many have never lost a desire for the authentic for God and the authentic Christ and the power of his Spirit to still available to help people in their time of need.

However, on that day, we just see here the ever-present demands made upon Jesus. Straight from the glory of the mountain top, he is met by human suffering. Straight from hearing the voice of God, he came to hear--the demands of human suffering and need. 

The most Christ-like person in the world today is still the one who never finds his fellow human beings in need to be a nuisance. It is easy to feel religious in the moment of prayer or Bible study or meditation; it is easy to feel close to God when the world is shut out. But there is a danger of retreating aways to those places and stay there, they can become a place not of faith, but escapism. Real faith reminds us that we must soon get up off our knees and go out and meet the world and its problems face on. To bring the ministry and the power of Christ into the human situation. Real Christianity draws strength from God, but only in order to give it to others. Real Christianity involves both meeting God in the quite places but also meeting people at their point of needs in the streets and the workplaces of life. Real Christianity means taking our own needs to God, not that we just find peace and quiet and undisturbed comfort, but that we may be enabled, effectively and powerfully to meet the needs of others. The power of the Holy Spirit is given as a gift to every believer for going out and doing good and following his will. There is nothing more Christlike than compassion twinned with action. 

We see in this story the central need of faith, without which nothing can happen. Faith in God is the instrument which enables men to remove the mountains of difficulty which block our path to God.

II.        Jesus Again Predicts His Death and Resurrection

22 Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful.

(Matthew 17: 22-23)

Again, here we see Jesus predicts His death and resurrection

III.        Paying the Temple Tax.

24 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?” 25 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?” 26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.

(Matthew 17: 24-26)

The Temple at Jerusalem was a costly place to run. There were the daily morning and evening sacrifices which each involved the offering of a year-old lamb. Along with the lamb were offering were made of  wine and flour and oil and grain. The incense which was burned every day had to be bought and prepared. The costly hangings and the robes of the priests constantly wore out; and the robe of the High Priest was itself worth a huge amount of money. All this required an income. So, on the basis of the law of Moses, which said. 

Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord.

(Exodus 30: 13)

It was laid down that every male Jew over twenty years of age must pay an annual Temple tax of one half-shekel. One half-shekel was equal to two Greek drachmae, and the tax was commonly called the ‘Temple Tax’ as it is called in this passage. The value of the tax must be evaluated in the light of the fact that a working man's daily wage in Palestine in the time of Jesus was much less than the temple tax. The tax was in fact the equivalent of two days' pay. Theoretically the tax was obligatory, and the Temple authorities had power to obtain someone’s goods, if they failed to pay. The method of collection was carefully organized. On the first month of the year, which is March of our year, an announcement was made in all the towns and villages of Palestine that the time to pay the tax had come. On the fifteenth of the month, booths were set up in each town and village, and at the booths the tax was paid. If the tax was not paid by the twenty-fifth of Adar, it could only be paid direct to the Temple in Jerusalem.

In this passage we see Jesus paying this Temple tax. The tax authorities here have come to Peter and asked him if his Master paid his taxes. There is little doubt that the question was asked with malicious intent and that the hope was that Jesus would refuse to pay; for, if he refused, the religious authorities would have grounds for an accusation against him. Peter's immediate answer was that Jesus did pay. Then he went and told Jesus of the situation, and Jesus responds using a sort of Parable.

The picture drawn has two interpretations but in either case the meaning is the same.

In the ancient world conquering and colonizing nations had little or no idea of governing for the benefit of subject peoples. Rather, they considered that the people of that conquered nation existed to make things easier for them. The result was that a king's own nation never paid tribute, it was the subject nations who bore the burden and who paid the tax. So, Jesus may be saying, "God is the King of Israel; but we are the true Israel, and we are the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; outsiders may have to pay; but we are free."

However, the image he draws upon here is more likely a much simpler one in that if any king-imposed taxes on a nation, he certainly did not impose them on his own family.  It was indeed for the support of his own household that the taxes were imposed. The tax in question here was for the Temple, which was the house of God. Jesus was the Son of God. Did he not say when his parents sought him in Jerusalem: "Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?" (Luke 2: 49). How could the son be under obligation to pay the tax which was for his own house? None the less Jesus said that they must pay, not because of the compulsion of the law, but because of a higher duty. 

He said they must pay "lest we should offend them." Matthew uses the verb to offend here in a special way.  The verb ‘offend’ never meant to insult or to annoy or to injure the pride of someone. It always means to put a stumbling-block in someone's way, to cause someone to trip up and to fall. Therefore, Jesus is saying: "We must pay so as not to set a bad example to others. We must not only do our duty, but we must also go beyond duty, in order that we may show others what they ought to do." 

In the Christian life there may exemptions we could claim because of God’s grace but we must claim nothing and allow ourselves nothing which might possibly be a bad example to someone else. In church history some have asked why this little odd story was ever included in the gospel account. Why choose this story? Matthew's gospel was written between A.D. 80 and 90. Now just a little before that time Jews and Jewish Christians had been faced with a very real and a very disturbing problem. 

We saw that every male Jew over twenty had to pay the Temple tax; but the Temple was totally destroyed in A.D. 70, never to be rebuilt. After the destruction of the Temple, Vespasian, the Roman emperor, enacted that the half-shekel Temple tax should now be paid to the treasury of the Temple of Jupiter in Rome.

Here indeed was a problem. Many of the Jews and of the Jewish Christians were violently inclined to rebel against this enactment of such a rule. Any such widespread rebellion would have had disastrous consequences, for it would have been utterly crushed at once, and would have gained the Jews and the Christians the reputation of being bad and disloyal and disaffected citizens.

Many Bible experts believe this story was put into the gospels to tell the Christians, especially the Jewish Christians, that, however unpleasant they might be, the duties of a citizen must not be overlooked. It tells us that Christianity and good citizenship go hand in hand. The Christian who exempts themselves from the duties of good citizenship is not only failing in citizenship, they are also failing in Christianity.

IV.        How To Pay Our Debts.

 27 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: 27)

Now we come to the story itself, If we take it with plain literal view it means that Jesus told Peter to go and catch a fish, and that he would find a coin in the fish's mouth which would be sufficient to pay the tax for both of them. It’s worth noting that the gospel never tells us that Peter did so, and we don’t see the story played out. The story ends with Jesus' saying take it and give it to them for Me and you.

For many the miraculous aspect of this story if we were to take it literally creates some difficulties. This miracle is difficult on several grounds.

Firstly, God does not send a miracle to help us to do something we could quite easily do out of our own abilities or resources. That would be more likely to cause us spiritual harm than it would help us.  However poor the disciples were, it seems unlikely that any of the disciple would need a miracle to enable them to earn two half-shekels. This miracle also breaks the great decision of Jesus that he would never use his miraculous power for his own ends.  He could have easily turned stones into bread to satisfy his own hunger, but he refused. He could have used his power to boost his own prestige as a miracle worker, but he refused. In the wilderness Jesus decided once and for all that he would not and could not selfishly use his power. If this story is taken with a plain literalism, it would have seemed to suggest that Jesus would use his divine power to satisfy his own personal needs, and that is what Jesus would never do. If all this is so, how should we approach this passage then. Are we to say that this is a mere legendary story, an act imaginative fiction, with no truth behind it at all? Far from it, beyond doubt something is going on here.

Bible experts who have picked this passage apart have in the main settles on an interpretation that makes sense to the majority.

What happened was this. Jesus said to Peter: "Yes, Peter. You're right. We, too, must pay our just and lawful debts. Well, you know how to do it. If you haven’t any money today, go back to fishing for a day. You'll get plenty of money through the fishes to pay our dues! A day of fishing will soon produce all we need." Jesus was saying, "Back to work, Peter; that's the way to pay your debts." When Jesus said here was probably said with an ironic smile and the use of dramatic language. I don’t believe he is telling Peter literally to get coins in fishes' mouths, although I am open to other opinions . He was telling him that in our day's work we can get everything we need to pay any legitimate financial obligations we face, and we can trust God for the rest.