Following the Way of Jesus!
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Jesus talks Tax - When not to cause Offense?
Matthew 17:24-27 “When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”
1. THE QUESTION OF TEMPLE TAXES - TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY?:
This is the last visit to Capernaum, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. We know that Jesus and His disciples tend to stay at Peter’s home (v. 25; see on Matt 4:13; 8:14–15), so that the collectors naturally approach Peter, as head of the house and a well-known local to the area, even though Jesus is recognized to be the teacher, the leader of the group.
The question about temple taxes emerged from a requirement laid down in Exodus 30:11–16 (ESV) “The Lord said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.” This helped pay for the upkeep of worship in the tabernacle first of all but later, the Temple and it was paid by all male Jews who reached the age of twenty, whether resident in Palestine or not.
Everyone paid the same amount whether rich or poor, to show that status did not qualify or disqualify you before God. The only time there is a recorded exception to a reduced payment was when it was temporarily reduced to “a third part of a shekel” by Nehemiah because the former exiles in Babylon were so poor when they returned to Judah (Neh. 10:32).
The “two-drachma” tax referred to by those who spoke with Peter was the equivalent to the required “half shekel”, which amounted to about two days’ wages for the average worker
Payment could be made in person at the Passover festival in Jerusalem (hence the money-changers’ stalls in Matt 21:12, as only the special Tyrian coinage, which was not in common circulation, was acceptable), but collections were made in other areas of Palestine and abroad a month earlier. This incident therefore takes place about a month before Passover and those who approached Peter, are likely the temple tax collectors, making an innocent enquiry! However, unlike the Roman taxes, to be discussed later, as mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 22:15–22, it was not simply a matter of patriotic pride but inevitably it was also a matter of controversy,
The Sadducees disapproved of the tax, and the men of Qumran paid it only once in a lifetime. So although “the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” it could be ou can bet that it’s not an innocent enquiry, but another one of these designed to trap Jesus in His words as the Pharisees do in Matthew 22:15.
It’s also worth noting at this point also that after AD 70, when the temple was destroyed, the Jewish historian Josephus reported that, after Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70, the emperor Vespasian decreed that Jews throughout the Roman Empire would continue to be assessed the two-drachma tax in order to maintain the pagan temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The tax was imposed as a calculated, vindictive reminder both to Jews and to the rest of the world of the high cost of opposing Rome. A symbol of their subjection to a pagan power and idolatry. (This indicates that Matthew’s Gospel should be dated before AD 70, because nothing of this is recorded in the Gospel).
So, what was Jesus’ attitude? Would He side with the Sadducees or the men of Qumran or would he like everyone else pay the tax?
It’s also important to note that Rabbis were exempt from paying this tax, as were the priests in Jerusalem; so the question is, would Jesus claim an exemption, given that many held Him to be a Rabbi?
It is also worth noting that Peter did not have to ask his teacher for the answer, because he knew Jesus had always paid taxes, whether assessed by Rome or by the Jewish leaders. He therefore simply said, “Yes.”
2. THE PRINCIPLE AT STAKE - WHEN TO AVOID UNECESSARY OFFENSE?
In verses 25-26 Jesus indicates that he had either overheard the question and Peter’s from the earlier discussion or else became aware supernaturally of the question that had been raised in Peter’s mind and so he asks Peter: “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”
In the time of Christ, most Governments were autocratic by nature, with power centered in one individual, the King, the Pharaoh or the Emperor, who passed on the royal legacy to there heirs, usually princes, but sometimes princesses. In order to maintain their power and dignity and to guarantee the safety and wellbeing of the people, these supreme rulers taxed people, as a means to support their families as well as their governments and especially their armies! Two basic types of taxes were imposed - customs (levied on goods) and the poll-tax, levied on individuals.
Very few were exempt from such taxes, but if you were a close family member of the supreme power, you were exempt! Why? Because to collect money from his sons who were dependent on him, would be an act of self-assessment and make himself liable, as they derive their wealth from him in the first place!
Jesus, used the analogy and applies a simple logic to the question. He has previously called the Temple His “Father’s house” (Luke 2:49; John 2:16) and declared Himself to be greater than the Temple (Matt. 12:6). Therefore, logically Jesus had every right to refuse to pay the Temple tax. The Temple is God’s House, therefore God’s Son does not need to pay it!
It’s also important to see the underlying principle hinted at in Matthew 12:5–6, that the temple ritual points forward to ‘something greater’
John clarifies this when he tells us of Jesus being asked for a sign of His “authority” to do and to teach what He was saying and doing and in reply He said that He would, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”(Jn 2:19-22).
Jesus was the “something greater than the Temple” and access to God would come not via Temple sacrifice or Priestly intercession but “through a new and living way”, described in Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Once the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD70, it became even more apparent to the Jewish-Christian Church, that the old way of worship had been superseeded and the message given to all the World is that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” and that "since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”(Heb 4:14-16).
However, Jesus, though He makes clear that He has no obligation to pay the tax, pays it anyway to avoid giving offence - skandalizo - See above on Matt 11:6; 13:57; 15:12. Why?
Was His main aim in life to create an impression of general niceness and inoffensiveness; acceptance at all costs - “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”?
No! This is where we need to avoid misinterpreting what is being said here! Jesus, as we know from elsewhere in the Gospel was quite prepared to ‘give offence’ where the issue was central to his mission.
He gave offence to the Pharisees(Matt 15:12), and the people of Nazareth were offended by Him, so that they rejected any possibility that He could be Messiah(Matt 13:57).
Indeed, Jesus reminds us “blessed is the one who is not offended by me”(Matt 11:6). and He warned in Luke 6:26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Sometimes truth hurts but it is kinder than a lie that harms! Sometimes speaking the truth leads you into social and spiritual isolation, as it did with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It can turn the anger and resentment of the masses against you as it did with Moses and John the Baptist, but sometimes that must be so in defence of truth.
However, there are times when it is sometimes better to be silent; to go along with the status quo, even when there is no necessity for us to do so, in order not to cause unecessary offence, where a bigger principle is at stake, as it was here!
So, let’s try and understand what Jesus is avoiding doing by not getting embroiled here!
For Jesus, a premature assertion of independence from Jewish ritual would have served no useful purpose. Going to the Temple to worship and paying temple taxes was not a sinful compromise on the part of Jesus or any disciple of Jesus.
indeed, the disciples continued to do this after Jesus had ascended into Heaven, as Acts of the Apostles makes clear. They were not required to but it was among other things a really fruitful place to evangelise and it is far better and easier to evangelise when you have freedom to do so, than it might have been had Jesus and His disciples refused to go along any longer! By not causing offence needlessly, the Gospel had an open-door opportunity.
But there are limits to this principle!
when the disciples were commanded by the Sanhedrin to no longer preach in the name of Jesus they replied in Acts 4:18-20 “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
The distinction is this! The place WHERE you worship God is of little consequence but the God whom you worship, really is and the WAY to get to know the God whom we should WORSHIP is through Christ and Christ alone for “no one can come to the Father except throgh Him!”(Jn 14:6).
Jesus said to the Woman of Samaria in John 4:20-24, in answer to her question, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
It’s not a matter of WHERE you worship, its WHOM you worship and you only get to know Him through Jesus! No other way; no other truth; no other life! That’s a hill on which countless Christians were willing to lay down their lives.
So Peter is told to go and find the money in a fish’s mouth for Jesus and his own tax! Unusual yes, and not the normal way in which we would expect to find money to pay our taxes, Indeed, there is no evidence elsewhere that Jesus provided tax money through a miracle. Why then on this occasion? Probably to confirm the claim that Jesus made here, that He is the Son of God, and has the right to not pay the tax, but in choosing to do so, God provides for His Son, the necesary means because He is “well pleased” with Him and his desire to keep the peace and fulfil His obligations.
APPLICATION FOR US TODAY:
So at this point I venture two important, relevant considerations:
1. Jesus’ willingness to comply with the customs of society, rather than cause unnecessary offence that might prevent the Gospel being heard, encourages us to be cautious when engaging in controversy.
This is a principle which clearly has wider application than the specific issue of the temple-tax.
Jesus conformed to the normative customs of His society; accepted and submitted to the political and religious establishment by attending the Temple and the Synagogue; observing the Sabbath and religious festivals in Jerusalem and paying His taxes. He was are of the political disputes between zealots and the theological disputes between Pharisees and Sadducees and avoided any partisan behaviour which would enable people to identify Him as being on their side! Indeed, on more than one occasion with the hot-button issues of His day, Jesus refused to be “ a judge or an arbiter between”(Lk 12:14) disputing parties. Jesus knew His mission as sent from the Father and avoided anything that would take Him off task! He would speak the truth and leave the controversy for others. He was seeking to save lost sinners, not win arguments! - John 9:4;Luke 19:10
Paul likewise warns Timothy to stick to his calling of “correctly handling the word of truth” by not having “anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”(2 Tim 2:14-16). Notice, the command is not - avoid all controversy, so as to avoid giving offence, it is rather, avoid foolish controversy, that has little or no benefit to it and devote yourself instead to teaching the Word of God and protecting errors that prevent people from being saved and/or productive in their Christian lives!
So this is a call to all of us who want to win souls for Jesus:
learn to stick to the main thing! Stick to the Gospel that saves! Tell the truth, understand that it is “foolishness to the world”(1 Cor 2:19) but don’t apologise for it; accept that there is an offence to the gospel, because it condems all of us in sin, but know as well that it offers hope like nothing else, because it offers salvation and new life to all who wold be saved!
Be wise in preaching the Gospel - Folow the instruction of Jesus - “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”(Matt 10:16). We are not to be moal cowards and avoid the truth for the sake of peace, but we are to be wise in keeping to the core issues of the Gospel, to avoid being dragged off track by some of the political and cultural rows of our day!
This leads us to a second important principle here...
2. Jesus’ willingness to cause offence, when the Gospel is at stake reminds us of the importance of distinguishing “between the differences that make a difference, and the differences that don’t make a difference.”(Tom Wright).
The Gospel, to put it bluntly, makes the difference between receving “eternal life” and perishing(John 3:16)
BUT, its not always easy to distinguish between those things which are not fundamentally important to the Christian life and therefore non-negotiables, and those things upon which we can legitimately differ, the negotiables!
Now this is too big a subject for just one sermon but to help us understand the issue lets consider how Paul dealt with this in 1 Corinthians:
He was speaking to a Gentile Church whose culture was steeped in pagan idolatry, who were struggling to distinguish between the things in their culture that were approved of by many in the general population, but were unacceptable for God’s people and those things which were sometimes acceptable in society and even accepted in Church, and were legitimate for Christians to keep on doing, even if they were disputable matters!
(i). The negotiables in the Corinthian Church - things that make no difference!
It does not matter who baptises you(1 Cor 7:6-11, 25-38);
whether or not you get married(1 Cor 7:17-24);
whether or not you have been circumcised(1 Cor 9:3-18);
whether or not you receive full, part or no support from the church as a travelling evangelist(1 Cor 9:19-23);
whether or not you are Jew or Gentiles with your distinctive kinds of practices and customs, even including whether the meat you eat has been first sacrificed to an idol(1 Cor 10:23-33),
these are all matters that Christians may differ on that have no bearing on whether or not a person will be saved!
This is truly an “inclusive” approach that recognises difference and actively approves of toleration, inviting acceptance, where no doctrinal or moral fundamental is at stake.
So when Jesus declares all foods clean (Mark 7:14–23), or heals the bleeding woman (Mark 5:25–34), or teaches the inclusion of Gentiles into the kingdom, he ends boundaries that place people in categories of clean and unclean; morally superior and inferior - there can be no exclusion on the grounds of race; gender; social status; age - this is radically inclusive!
Jesus offers hope to the marginalised and oppressed, proclaiming that social divisions are obliterated in Christ (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 11).
(ii). The non-negotiables in the Corinthian Church - things that make a difference!
These are things which really make a difference either because they are fundamental to Christian beliefs or indicative of true Christian conversion. So he says that,
destroying God’s church through pride and divisiveness leads to destruction(1 Cor 3:5-17);
living a life which perpetually involves sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness or swindling, without true repentance, requires church discipline that may require an individual be removed from the church(1 Cor 5:9-13) because as he makes clear in 1 Cor 6:9-11 “do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (see also 1 Cor 10:10-12).
And don’t just focus on the BIG SINS for as C.S. Lewis reminds us in the coversation between the Devils in Screwtape Letters: “You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” ― C.S. Lewis
there is only one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, and worshipping him is incompatible with participating in idolatrous worship.- 1 Cor 8:1-6; 10:14-22. So, causing a brother or sister to stumble through idolatry could lead to their destruction(1 Cor 8:7-13).
taking communion in an unworthy manner incurs guilt before the Lord(1 Cor 11)
the defining mark of a Christian is that they acclaim Jesus as Lord, by the Holy Spirit(1 Cor 12:3).
love is non-negotiable(1 Cor 13) and an absence of it, as defined in that chapter, suggests a lack of real christian conversion because - 1 Cor 16:22 “if anyone has no love for the Lord, Let him be accursed.”
It is of first importance that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures”(1 Cor 15:3-4 cf. also 2:1-4).
Now, it is important not to think of these "sins” in isolation, as if to conclude that any violation of these rules that leads us to sin in this way immediately renders us unfit for Heaven:
Everyone of us falls “short of the glory of God” and exclude ourselves from friendship with God (Rom. 3:23; 6:23), and so we all need Jesus to remake and reconcile us through the power of his blood.
However, this leads to the transformation of lifestyle, so choosing a lifestyle and behaving in ways contrary to the will of God for our lives which causes us to repent of such sins outlined by Paul, indicates that the Spirit of God does not live in us and that we are not a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
A persistent refusal to obey the Lord, reveals the true nature of the heart! (so Rom 6:1-4). It is not the Lord who excludes you because of your sinful behaviour, you exclude yourself by refusing to live in the way that God requires for your good and His glory!
So, while it’s true some of Jesus’ work included transgressing “social boundaries that excluded the outcasts, demonstrating that these boundaries themselves were evil, sinful, and outside of God’s will” writes Rudolf Volf, “It would be a mistake . . . to conclude from Jesus’s compassion toward those who transgressed social boundaries that his mission was merely to demask the mechanisms that created “sinners” by falsely ascribing sinfulness to those who were considered socially unacceptable. He was no prophet of “inclusion” . . . for whom the chief virtue was acceptance and the cardinal vice intolerance. Instead, he was a bringer of “grace,” who not only scandalously included “anyone” in the fellowship of “open commensality,” but made the “intolerant” demand of repentance and the “condescending” offer of forgiveness (Mark 1:15; 2:15–17). The mission of Jesus consisted not simply of renaming the behavior that was falsely labeled “sinful” but also in remaking the people who have actually sinned and suffered distortion. The double strategy of renaming and remaking, rooted in the commitment to both the outcast and the sinner, to the victim and the perpetrator, is the proper background against which an adequate notion of sin as exclusion can emerge.” (Miroslav Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon, 1996).p72–73).
What Jesus is doing, in remaking and recreating people who are “born again” of the Spirit of God is changing and cleansing people from things that truly destroy and damage them and society.
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ― C.S. Lewis
Making unclean things, clean; casting out unclean spirits that torment and destroy people; releasing those whose sinful habits and behaviours, captivate them in wrongdoing and addiction; delivering people who exploit others for selfish gain; cheat on their spouses to satisfy lust; or literally or figuratively prostitute themselves to prosper or just survive. Jesus offers hope to those who are preard to “lose their own soul” just to have a bit of the world.
We are being remade and reborn, by the Spirit of God to be “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”(Eph 4:24).
Now Paul gets that the world will not accept these principles, for as he says: "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”(1 Cor 1:18) - He gets that it is distinguishing and even offensive to the unbeleiver and nothing but the powerful work of teh Spirit of God will change the hearts and midns of unbelievers.
But we Christians are called to be discerning; to focus on what is important and to be generous in things unimportant!
In the world we are to avoid unecessary offence by avoiding getting embrioled in those things which distract from true Gospel preaching, whilst accepting that our message is offensive to the natural man and we can;t apologise for the truth.
But in the Church we equally avoid uncessary offence by refusing to force people to conform to things not required by God, that are a matter of culture or personal preference, but being discerning enough to know the difference and obey those things which are required of us by our Heavenly Father as sons of His Kingdom!
“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”― St. Augustine
God will judge the world and those who refuse to accept the Gospel’s inclusiveness on God’s terms will choose to exclude themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven, but equally we know that if people submit to God and the gospel and the Spirit of God works within them then they will submit to His will for their lives and repent of those sins that damage their relationship with God and with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!