Fishing for Fish

Do you ever wonder why Jesus does thing the way he does things? I mean, are you ever reading scripture, and do you ever stop and ask the question “why did it happen this way rather than any other possible way?”

In Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus and the disciples’ travels once again bring them back to Capernaum, that fishing village on the Sea of Gellelie which is the hometown of the disciple Matthew and close to another fishing village of Bethsaida, hometown to Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  Early in the Book of Matthew, Jesus began his public ministry here preaching and performing miracles.

Now that Jesus is back in town he again draws the attention of tax collectors:

²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” ²⁵ “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” ²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.  “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

These guys seem really preoccupied with money in this passage, but it should be noted that the tax wasn’t too steep, only about two days wages.  Yet, for Peter and the rest of the disciples, who had quit their regular jobs to wander from town-to-town following a would-be-messiah, any amount of money was a lot of money.

When these religious tax collectors sought them out and accused Jesus of not paying-up, they essentially accused all of them of being irreligious, of having no faith, of dishonoring God.  That probably didn’t sit well with Peter, but he stands resolute insisting that Jesus does pay the Temple tax (although, hadn’t yet?).

Once Jesus comes back from wherever he was, he begins to ask Peter questions. We can gather from the conversation that Jesus does not believe that either himself or the rest of his disciples need pay this temple tax. This rag-tag group has been wanding from around for months living off of the good graces of God and others.  For Jesus, the Son of God, to pay a tax to God does indeed seem ludicrous for those who understand.

However, the real teachable moment comes when Jesus says  “but so that we might not cause offense…” Jesus understands that two-drachma is not something to get worked up over.  Jesus does not actually want to get into an argument over principle. The Son of God exercises wisdom and illustrates to his disciples the importance of choosing which battles to fight. Even though the money should not need to be paid, the money is still going to a good cause  The situation is foolish but harmless.

Moreover, Jesus crafts this whimsical miracle for a specific purpose as well! Peter is a poor out of work fisherman who cannot himself pay the temple tax, and he cannot pay the fee because he has spent all of his working days following Jesus in discipleship.  If Jesus had never called him away from his nets, then Peter would likely not be in this situation.  He would have been able to pay.

Now, Jesus could have conjured up the necessary coins from behind Peter’s ear to pay the tax.  I’ve seen people do this all the time today, and it would have been much more straightforward.

But Jesus, exercising even greater wisdom, sends Peter fishing.  He sends him to make money using the skills Peter knows best. He sends him back, just for a moment, to be a fisher of fish.

In this way,  Peter’s dignity is fortified  He provides for both Jesus and himself using the skills he’d practiced his whole life.  For months, Jesus had been teaching Peter how to fish for people, but for one afternoon, Peter served God’s Kingdom another time by merely fishing for fish.

I pray these two friends enjoyed this silly but wise moment together, and I hope Peter cherished Jesus’s request for him to again fish for fish.  Maybe someday, each of us may use our expertise in just such a humorous way.