Question #349

Please explain Matthew 17:24-27.

I have seen already you have answered someone that Jesus did keep kosher, he kept the Law of Moses. That makes sense to me, he said no jot or tittle of the law is abolished until all is finished, which I believe happened when he died. But I am confused about Matt. 17:24-27. Why did Jesus say, if I understand him correctly, that sons of God don’t have to pay the temple tax, but only the others? Wasn’t it commanded in Ex. 30:11-16? He paid the tax only not to offend the tax collectors. Could you clarify this

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.