(Text and Audio)
Title: Lest We Offend Them
As we close down chapter 17 in Matthew this morning, this will be the last sermon in our Matthew series for a few weeks. Next week I’ll be speaking a one-off sermon and the following Sunday, December 8th, Calvin Houser, will be delivering the morning sermon.
Calvin and his family are members at Calvary Baptist and they are missionaries to the Philippines who are in the midst of raising support with the hope to leave next spring with their three children for ministry work there.
We will be taking a love offering for Calvin’s family and also he will be asking if any of you would consider individually supporting his ministry overseas.
But before we get to all that, we have the second half of our sermon from this passage concerning the Temple Tax. Let’s get started
(read/pray)
- Review
- The Temple tax was from Exodus 30:13 where it states that all able-bodied Jewish men, age 20 and older, would pay 1/2 shekel annually for the upkeep of the Temple in Jerusalem.
- There were 2 ways to pay this tax. You could pay in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, or there were collections all over Judea and Galilee in the local synagogues that took the offering to Jerusalem if the person was not able to make the journey for the Passover festival. This offering took place about 1 month before the festival.
So Jesus and the Apostles have come into Capernaum about a month before the Passover festival and the men of the local synagogue inquire of Peter whether or not Jesus pays the Temple Tax, and whether or not he teaches his followers to do the same.
- “The Sons Are Free”
Now there is something interesting here that we didn’t look at last week: Peter responds to the men that, yes, indeed, Jesus has historically paid the Temple Tax. (That fact is a bit confusing in some translations, but in the NIV and NASB it’s very clear that Peter is saying that yes, Jesus has always paid the Temple Tax.)
Question: How many years was Jesus ministry with the apostles?
Answer: About 3
So this is most likely the 3rd time that the Temple Tax is being collected since Peter started following Jesus. The reason Peter is able to answer the question the priests ask him is because he knows the answer, he’s seen Jesus pay the tax before.
But it is not until now, just a month before Jesus will be crucified, that Jesus explains to Peter and the disciples WHY he chooses to pay the temple tax.
Last week we looked at why Jesus was not obligated to pay the tax. It had to do with Jesus’s question: Who pays taxes? The sons of the King, or strangers. Jesus is in no uncertain terms sharing that he is under no obligation according to the Law to pay the taxes, and that is because of his relationship with the Father.
And Jesus makes that clear when he tells them that the sons of the King are free from this tax.
III. Nevertheless…
And now we arrive at the conclusion of the matter: Jesus says, “Nevertheless, lest we offend them…”
And he gives Peter some rather interesting means by which to raise the money. Now, Peter is a fisherman, so the task that Jesus gives Peter is something he’s familiar with. Peter probably isn’t arguing with Jesus about this task. He’s thinking: I get to go fishing!
I’m sure there are few men in this congregation, Jim Fox and Andy Mills come to mind, that would love it if fishing were the answer to all our financial concerns!
In all seriousness, there are few things I want us to take note of here:
- Though Jesus is under no obligation to pay this tax, he chooses to in order to not offend another party. Paul goes into great detail on this same topic in Romans 14 which is one of my favorite chapters in all of Scripture. There, Paul reminds us that just because we have the right to do something, doesn’t make it right. He reminds us that if the expression of our liberty in Christ causes a weaker brother or sister to stumble than we are not acting in love. In other words, we are not to rub our freedom in other people’s faces. This is most important in dealing with convictional issues.
- Jesus chooses to pay the Temple Tax out of love. We need to follow that same example.
- The amount of money that comes out of the fish is enough for Jesus AND Peter. Most likely it is much more than what was required for both men. The abundance of Jesus’s resources knows no limits. Jesus just used a fish as an ATM, therefore, we ought not be so worried about money as we often are.
Our Christian life will be full of choices where we will conclude: I don’t have to do that.
But the mature Christian will think upon this passage and say: I may not have to do this, but the better question is, should I?