Today is the last day of 2008 and it is fitting that we have come to the end of Matthew 17 that talks about how Jesus paid His taxes. The tax collectors asked Peter if Jesus paid taxes. (These were the temple taxes that were for the maintenance of the temple.) It seems that they would have been willing to let Jesus off because they saw Him as a great Prophet. Peter told them that, yes, Jesus did pay taxes. After Jesus came into the house, He told Peter to go fishing. The first fish that he caught would have a piece of money in its mouth that would be sufficient to pay the taxes for Peter and Jesus.
There are a number of lessons that we can learn from this passage. Jesus could have refused to pay tax for several reasons. He was the Son of God and was superior to the temple. He was the object of true temple worship. He also could have refused because of the extreme corruption of the temple system. He called it a den of thieves at one time. He harshly criticized the Scribes and Pharisees. Yet, He humbly paid the tax. We should be doing the same. Our government may be corrupt. Our money may be wasted. Yet, we are commanded to be subject to our government and pay them their dues. So, we should willingly pay just as Christ did.
No comments:
Post a Comment