Verse: Matthew 17:24-27
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

“From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Devotion
This devotion is a dream come true: I get to talk about how the kings of earth and governments are tyrants who tax those they believe to be beneath them!

In this passage, Jesus is confronted about paying a tax to the temple. It’s a gotcha moment: to see if he will abide by the government and submit to their authority. But if you’re a child of God (or God Himself) then you’re not under the dominion of any earthly rules. You don’t owe them what they claim, and the government is not your master and any obligations are secondary at best.

Elsewhere in Matthew Jesus says to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.

There are a few lessons to pull from this.

Your Allegiance is to God, Not the State.
If Jesus is your King, then Caesar (or the USA) is not. You may have to navigate the world’s systems, but your identity is not tied to them. Your duty is to Christ before any law, any tax, or any government demand. You can be proud to be an American (or not) but that can’t be anywhere close to the pride you feel in being a child of God.

Government and Earthly Systems are Lesser
I’m probably reading far too much into this passage, but to me it seems like Jesus is juxtaposing his kingdom with earthly kingdoms, pointing out with some contempt that kings consider themselves to be rulers over their people while making themselves exempt from laws, including taxation that they don’t want to abide by, yet in God’s Kingdom he comes as a servant and expects us to humble ourselves as well.

He comes to take care of us even though he has all the power in the universe, even to the point of dying a human death in order to help humanity. Can you imagine an earthly government doing that?

All of the earthly kingdoms are temporary, flawed, and maybe even silly compared with God’s eternal kingdom, so keep perspective about how much time, attention, and resources you give to politics.

Don’t Win the Battle and Lose the War
Jesus points out in this passage, like in others, that it’s not prudent to go against the government at the cost of missing out on a more significant spiritual war because you’re detained by some local tyrant. What if Jesus had refused to pay the tax? Perhaps he would have made an appropriate statement, but he would have been thrown in jail or perhaps discredited.

While it is right to speak up against tyranny, we do need to choose our battles wisely. Governments will always come to steal and destroy, letting them bog you down is not worth the time.

Tax Payments Should Be Scorned and then Paid Miraculously
Is this not the most ridiculous miracle in the Bible? You can’t tell me Jesus isn’t at the very least having a laugh at the idea that he needs to pay a tax. He is obviously just playing a little game and miraculously comes up with payment for the imposed tax in the silliest way ever.

With tax day coming up, maybe we should go fishing?

Author: Jordan Ambra