Getting coins out of fish...
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
Let's break this passage down.
Verse 24: The tax collector approached the soft target, asking Simon Peter if Jesus paid taxes.
Verse 25: Peter said, "yes". But "Jesus
prevented" Peter from paying the tax. Why did Jesus
prevent Peter from paying taxes?
Verse 26: Jesus said "Then are the children
free" from paying taxes. This is why, because we are now free. But we must not use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.
Verse 27: However, to avoid "offending" this tax collector (since, as was the habit of Peter, he opened his mouth too soon without really thinking and obligated Jesus by his statement that Jesus did pay taxes), Jesus told Peter to cast a hook into the sea, and catch a fish, and take out money from its mouth and pay it.
Even though Jesus provided a coin to Simon for this tax, it was to avoid "offending" the collector, and because Peter rashly agreed to pay it, not because we are bound to pay taxes by Law. Jesus made the point to stress that the children are free from taxes. But notice, Simon Peter and Jesus did not give him any of their own money, but that which came from the fish! It is interesting to note that Peter was a
commercial fisherman (a fisher of fish) before being called to be an apostle of Christ (a fisher of men), and when Peter opened his mouth before thinking (as he often did), Christ basically chastised him by having Peter
return to his
old life to pay his
debt! He had to be a fisher of fish to catch that fish with the coin in its mouth. Thus, the lesson for us is:
When you join yourself to the world, and make obligations to the world, you must become part of the world again to meet those obligations.
Additionally, Jesus could not have fulfilled prophecy if he was to go to prison, which might have happened if he didn't pay that tax after Peter "volunteered" for him. It was not his time to go to prison yet. Likewise, Jesus could have called twelve legions of angels to his rescue, but because the scriptures would not have been fulfilled if he did, he refrained from doing that act (
Matthew 26:53-54). Jesus taught that we are
free from paying taxes if we are
children of the king (
Matthew 17:24-26), meaning the children of King Jesus (
Acts 17:7,
1 Timothy 1:17).
Now, for clarification, if a government is acting strictly as a minister of God, then it
is lawful to pay taxes to that government (
Romans 13:6), because that "silver coin" which belongs to God
also belongs to God's ministers, as they are acting in his name and doing his will. However, if a government is not a minister of God, then there is no duty to give taxes to it.
So now we know that Jesus did not ‘pay taxes.’ Rather,
Jesus cleverly provided a coin to
Simon Peter with which to satisfy Simon’s foolishly incurred legal obligation and thus teach him (and us) a lesson.
