22 Now while they were staying[a] 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.

Peter and His Master Pay Their Taxes

24 When they had come to Capernaum,[b] 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. 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;[c] take that and give it to them for Me and you."

Footnotes:

Matthew 17:22 NU-Text reads gathering together.
Matthew 17:24 NU-Text reads Capharnaum (here and elsewhere).
Matthew 17:27 Greek stater, the exact amount to pay the temple tax (didrachma) for two

11 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. 12 Therefore He said: "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas,[a] and said to them, 'Do business till I come.' 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'

15 "And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.' 17 And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.' 18 And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.' 19 Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'

20 "Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. 21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' 22 And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'

24 "And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.' 25 (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.') 26 'For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

Footnotes:

Luke 19:13 The mina (Greek mna, Hebrew minah) was worth about three months' salary.

19 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"

4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made[a] them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'[b] 5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?[c] 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"

8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, [d] and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

10 His disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry."

Jesus Teaches on Celibacy

11 But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: 12 For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it."

Footnotes:

Matthew 19:4 NU-Text reads created.
Matthew 19:4 Genesis 1:27; 5:2
Matthew 19:5 Genesis 2:24
Matthew 19:9 Or fornication

The Temple tax was one that all Jews were supposed to pay once a year for the upkeep and maintenance of the Temple in Jerusalem. It wasn't a large tax, but it wasn't a small one either, equivalent to about two days' wages for a working man. Because the Temple tax, like most taxes, was unpopular, special tax collectors were assigned to certain areas, and were responsible to see that as many people as possible paid. Perhaps knowing how influential Jesus had become in Galilee, several tax collectors approached Peter to find out if Jesus endorsed and personally paid the tax. Confident that Jesus was a very upright person (to say the least), Peter assured his questioners that Jesus did pay the tax, but then went to talk to Jesus about it. He was perhaps fearful that he had misrepresented Jesus, or he may have been planning on asking Jesus for the money to pay the tax while the tax collectors waited outside.

In a small way, Peter had misrepresented Jesus, and this becomes clear as we read Jesus' and Peter's conversation. As Peter entered the house where Jesus was, before he could ask Him about the Temple tax, Jesus asked Peter a question about who kings normally tax. Unfortunately, if you've been reading the New Living Translation as I suggested, you missed something significant that Jesus said. In the New American Standard Bible, Jesus' question to Peter is recorded as, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?" Peter responded, "From strangers," to which Jesus replied, "Consequently the sons are exempt" (Matthew 17:25-26). Jesus did not, as the New Living Translation says, contrast citizens of a kingdom and foreigners, but as kings's sons and his subjects.

What difference does this make? A lot. Jesus was not implying that He, being a citizen rather than a foreigner, was exempt from paying the Temple tax. Rather, He was implying that He, the Son of the King of all creation, was exempt from paying a tax on a house that belonged to that King! He was, once again, claiming to be God's Son!

Although He really didn't have a responsibility to pay the Temple tax, Jesus didn't want to offend the tax collectors, indicating that they probably were waiting outside for His money. So He gave Peter instructions for getting enough money to pay the tax for both of them. All Peter had to do was walk to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, throw in a line, and the first fish he caught would have a coin in its mouth that would exactly pay their tax!

Let's use our imaginations to picture what happened next. Peter walks out of the house and says to the waiting tax collectors, "I'll have the money for Jesus' and my tax in just a minute---I just need to go pick it up. Please follow me." Together they walk to the shore where Peter picks up his fishing rod and casts a line into the water. In a second or two, he has a fish on his line and reels it in. He takes the fish off the hook, opens its mouth, reaches in to pull out a coin, and hands it to the astonished tax collectors! I wonder if they had any more questions for Peter after that! I wonder if they became followers of Jesus themselves!

Q. What is it that made this story so miraculous?

A. God may have created a coin for a fish to pick up, but I think that's unlikely because it would make Him a counterfeiter. Therefore, He must have directed a fish to a coin that had accidentally fallen into the water from someone's purse, hand or pocket. So God had to know the exact whereabouts of a lost coin under the water, direct a fish to put it in its mouth, and have that same fish bite Peter's bait at a precise time! On top of all this, God had to let Jesus know in advance what was going to happen so He, in turn, could instruct Peter about getting their tax money!

Application: Although God rarely supplies our needs through coins in the mouths of fish, He often surprises us by using unexpected sources. That way, we are more likely to realize that He is the supplier. He cares about His children, and He loves to provide for them as they trust and obey.

The Answer:

The event involved here, recorded in Matthew 17:24-27, is the occasion on which Jesus sent Peter to fetch from the mouth of a fish a shekel for the payment of temple tax, one-half shekel for each of them. While Exodus 30:11-16 was the basis upon which the tax was levied annually, it had not always been so. The Sadducees and Pharisees argued about it as they did almost everything else. As far as we can tell, it was some time after the time of Nehemiah (10:32) that the half-shekel became a compulsory annual tax on all Jews; see Matt. 17:24. After the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, it was continued as a special tax by the Romans under the name of Fiscus Judaicus. To add insult to injury it was paid into the treasury of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. (Ellison, H. L., Daily Study Bible Series: Exodus, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press) 2001, c1982.) The fact is, however, that it was a recognized tax at the time of Jesus; thus, the argument of some that Jesus resisted because it was not a legal tax cannot be correct. In fact, Jesus did not resist the payment of the tax at all. The only question that he raised was whether it was properly imposed upon him.

Keep in mind that which had occurred in Matthew 16. Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the Living God. The tax had become known as a temple tax by the time of Christ. Since the temple was the house of his Father he raised a question with Peter as to the propriety of taxing his Father's son. Peter, as did all, recognized that kings of the earth who levied taxes levied them against those who were not members of their family. Thus, Jesus would be exempt from the tax because, as Peter had recognized, he was the Son of God. Having established his exemption, Jesus proceeded to address the issue from another perspective – the tax should be paid so that his exercising his right would not be a stumbling block to the revenue officers and others. He sent Peter fishing in a manner that demonstrated that he was in fact the Lord over creation – he had the power to know about a fish with a shekel in its mouth, just enough to pay the tax for the two of them.

The Lord's willingness to pay the tax was another demonstration of his submission to the law of God. He told Peter to take the shekel and "give it unto them for me and thee." Note that he made a distinction between himself as the exempted son and Peter as the non-exempted subject.