Reading Scripture: Matthew 17.24–27

 

Augustin Tünger: "Peter Paying the Temple Tax" (1486)

Many who are delighted by the miracle of the coin in the fishes mouth might not be so sanguine about this sign if they understood the ramifications.

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma 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 sons or from others?” “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not offend them, 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.” (Matthew 17.24–27)

Jesus balks at paying the half-shekel temple tax as this would be counter to his claimed status as the Son of God. Christ thus has Peter contribute a tetradrachm of miraculous origin, which amounts to God demonstrating their exemption by paying himself on their behalf. The counter-intuitive implication is that those who are in Christ are exempt from the tithe for the simple reason that they belong to God, and therefor everything in their possession belongs to God. Hence we should follow the example of the shrewd manager who squanders on others what does not belong to him to prepare a future for himself:

There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures1 of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:1-9)

We are to 'squander' the time and money allotted to us for the benefit of others so that we do not enter the world to come empty handed.