Matthew 17:24-27 – Discerning and acting at the right moment

In order to understand these few verses, we need to know that every Jew, everywhere, needed to pay a little temple tax of two-drachma (a little coin which is equivalent to half a shekel). In today’s term it would be the amount of half a day’s wage of a person. This amount went toward maintaining the temple in Jerusalem. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why people were irritated with the way the temple was run and wanted to overturn the regime. Jesus Himself could have been annoyed by this demand. There were many things that took place in the temple that Jesus had to deal with, but it was not time. Besides Capernaum was not the place to begin with. The tax collectors were not the key people Jesus needed to deal with. The people that Jesus finally would have to deal with were those who abused the temple system, the authorities and the rulers. And the time has not yet come, so Jesus chose to play along with them.    

For Jews who went to the Passover every year, they would just pay the temple tax there. But the rest of the Jews, tax collectors would be stationed everywhere they were, to collect it from them. Here Jesus came to Capernaum and as usual He would stay in Peter’s house. That’s why the tax collectors approached Peter and asked, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” Peter’s answer tells us that Jesus would abide with the law as a lawful citizen. Although, He felt that whatever they were doing was pure absurdity. The little dialogue between Jesus and Peter tells us that He, as the King and they, as sons of the Kingdom, should have been exempted from paying that tax. But to humor the authority, for it was not yet time to deal with the flaw, Jesus told Peter to go and pay it.

The amount of tax required to be paid was half a shekel per person. So the Lord instructed Peter where to get the money. He was to get it through the mouth of a fish. Peter was told he would find a shekel in the mouth of the first fish he would catch. He was to pick up that shekel to pay for the tax that would be enough for both of them. The key point of this whole account is not to show that Jesus has special knowledge about that fish that has a shekel in its mouth. It’s not about the miracle of supernatural provision although it certainly was. It’s not even about Jesus being submissive to authority although this account also implies that. The whole purpose of this account is to show what a master strategist Jesus was. He would only execute the plan of God at the right moment. He exercised discernment and waited for God’s precise timing. This tells us that as we work with Him in the matters of the Kingdom, we must also learn to be like Him. We need to spend time to pray, plan, discern and learn to schedule and execute each activity at the right moment. Only then can we experience effectiveness and achieve the intended result.