The Children Are Free Becasue Jesus Paid it All

We are going to see another miracle in our text this morning, but this one is quite different than the others. This is one is only recorded my Matthew, which means he must have taken special interest in it for the lessons it contained about the Kingship of Christ.

Before we get to that, v22 and 23 contain another reminder from Jesus of his predestined mission. He doesn’t want them to be unaware of what this all is leading up to.

“The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Matthew tells us that they were greatly distressed at His words.

They’re human, like we are. Sorrow is a reality in this life, and the news of Christ’s soon death and resurrection was not something that they could fully comprehend yet. They would not get it, truly, until after the resurrection.

In Acts 4 we see that they got it. What was once a distress to them, they would come to understand as part of God’s sovereign plan, and it would catalyze them forward on their mission bring the gospel to the world.

Acts 4:27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Thankfully, as we walk longer with Christ, those things that are once confusing to us, and troubling, he grows us in them, and uses them to strengthen us.

Now, we turn to this very unique miracle and lesson.

Here’s some context:

They’re all back in Capernaum. Peter is in his hometown, and Jesus has apparently settled here too. Many believe that Jesus stayed with Peter when they returned there between trips, as he had no place of His own.

In the book of Exodus, a temple tax was introduced in the time of Moses for the service of the sanctuary in the temple. This was called the drachma tax. Every man over 20 year old was required once a year to pay a half shekel each. So, this was not a Roman tax, but a Jewish tax. The motivation behind those asking for it is not necessarily hostile. It was normal to have people stationed in places to collect this from the citizens.

Peter had just been asked by the collectors of the tax whether his rabbi paid that temple tax or not, and Peter replied, yes of course he does. So, Jesus enters the house knowing about this conversation, and he presses him with a question in order that he might understand the motivation behind why His master and Lord pays this tax.

v25. What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”

At the heart of this question is the issue of obligation and freedom. A stranger in a King’s house does not have the same kind of relationship to the king as his offspring does. This much is obvious.

Jesus is declaring two things here.

Peter, are you a son of the King, or a stranger to the King?

Though once a stranger and exile, Jesus calls Peter and the other disciples a son.

All Jewish men were instructed to pay this tax because of the nature of that old system. The temple was the place of worship, and communion with God. It had to be taken care of and supported, lake anything else, and some really important things were supposed to happen there. This is the place where sins were atoned for yearly, and all the sons and daughters of Israel would to go there to make offerings to the Lord, and to worship, and for the time, this was adequate, and it was good. The temple tax in a very real sense was a tangible way that Israel, was supporting the priests, the artifacts, the upkeep, and most importantly, the lambs and offerings that would die upon the altar.

Do you see what’s happening here with this question. That was not a system of freedom, but law. It was good, but it was not adequate.

Jesus uses this question to help Peter understand the nature of Christ’s relationship to the Father, and how Peter’s relationship to Christ connects him to the Father in a way that the law could not. This resulting in a better motivation to pay the temple tax, a better reason to look at those requiring the tax, and say, here, I’ll do this…not because I have to, but because I’m free to, and there’s a greater thing to be accomplished.

This issue of supporting the temple is not a small thing. Jesus knows more than anyone about the importance of the temple - which is why he would defend its true purpose when he flips over the greedy money changers tables. It’s why He says in John 2:19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up again.” In that passage they had asked him, “what authority do you have, or what sign do you give us that you can do such a thing?” His response about destroying and raising the temple was two fold. That he is the true temple, the true communion place between man and God, and also that though they would destroy his body with crucifixion, he has the power to raise it up again, validating that He is God.

So yes, Jesus pays the drachma tax. But why? Yes Peter, as a good Jewish man has paid the tax also, but this time it’s going to different. So the question Jesus asks Peter about the kings of the earth is incredible. You see what He’s saying? #1 He’s identifying Peter and all who follow Christ as children of the household of God. #2 at the end of v26… he’s saying that those sons are free.

Which means that there are others who are not free. Only in Christ is a person truly free.

What does he mean by free here? He means freedom from a system of obligation. Freedom from a system that cannot save. It’s freedom to call God, Father, as children and heirs together with Jesus Christ.

Listen to how Paul puts it in Romans 8:12 - 17 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Did you see the correlation there? Everyone is a debtor to either to the law or to grace. The law is death, obligation, slavery. The Spirit is life, and adoption, and sonship, and freedom.

In the context of our passage in Matthew, what is clear is that those under the law are not the true sons. Jesus tells Peter, the sons are not obligated to pay the temple tax like the others. And it’s the others, that become the focus of the last part of our text, and the reason why Jesus provides this unique miracle.

v27 Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

So, wait a minute. Jesus just explained that the sons do not have to pay this…because they are free, just as He is free. But then He still pays. Why? Because that’s true freedom in Christ.The life that Christ gives not only frees one from law, dead works, and obligation for righteousness sake, but because Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law on our behalf, and imputes his righteousness to those who trust him, the motivation has changed to love.

Christ is above the law as the divine law-giver, and yet here he willingly and freely places himself under the law so that it might know that the incarnate came to save sinners, and to be an example.

Look at how Paul puts in in Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

So Jesus’s focus here turns to the “others” in the scenario? The phrase, “However, not to give offense to them.” is such a kindness knowing what we know about who Jesus is. Church, in order to not place an unnecessary stumbling block in the way of the Gospel, what thing that you don’t HAVE to do, SHOULD you do nonetheless, because it’s a better witness? I say unnecessary stumbling block, because the gospel itself is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. If someone must be offended by you, let it be for your stance for Christ, your stance on His Word, the truth, biblical convictions, and the preaching of the Gospel. As sons and daughters of God there is not a single thing that we do that is earning us a place in heaven. EVERY thing we do is from a place of response, so that our obedience to Christ is free, having been made free, and given the desire to love and obey Him.

He’s saying, Peter, we will do this for the sake of the others, for those who will believe, for those who have not yet heard. Had Jesus not paid the tax, which would have been within his right to do, he would have been dying on a hill that mattered very little in light of the hill he was about to die on, where he would pay the greatest debt with his life.

And so, this is what we see in the miracle of Christ’s provision isn’t it? He could have asked Peter to go scrounge up the money to cover it, or asked Judas to grab enough from the money bag, or any number of other things, but he didn’t. He goes to the storehouses of heaven, and from His sovereign foreknowledge and power provides enough for both of them to pay.

v27 go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Peter is not used to using hooks, I’m sure. And he’s not generally looking for one fish at a time in the ocean. What are the chances? And you’ll notice that the chapter concludes with the instruction, but never tells the miracle. This is often how provision comes. God says do this, and walk with me, and have faith in me. He’ll use your abilities as a means, but at the end of the day it’s a matter of faith in the riches of His kind provision for our needs.

So, Jesus shows once again that He is the King of the universe. Whether he did this by knowing all the circumstances that one would have to know, so that the timing of Peter’s arrival to the ocean, the fishes discovery of a shiny coin, the fish swallowing it, and the placement of the hook all aligned to make this happen. Or, like the loaves that suddenly appeared from nothing, and like the fish that swallowed Jonah, God commanded all of, because he holds and controls every molecule that exists, we are reminded here that THIS is the kind of God that is our provider.

Picture that temple that was once kept up by the payment of a tax, year after year, to keep it all up, to maintain a system of worship, and sacrifices that could not save. That’s the life of works. All religions outside of true Christianity are operating under that system of trying to pay enough, but we cannot because our sin is too great. The law had two main purposes, to show us our sin nature, and to bring us to Christ, the true temple of God, the one and only meeting place between God and man where our sins could finally be forgiven.

And the reason that system is now passed, and freedom has come to the believer, is because Jesus paid the tax in full on the cross with His life, and though the temple (His body) was destroyed, he took up that temple three days after, because He is God. Now we, in a similar manner, can lay aside the smaller things for the greater things as He did. We are free to love a world of sinners and Christ rejecters, by letting the love of Christ that we have recieved, not obligation, but love, be the primary motivator for all that we do.

There are things you need to lay down for the sake of love. Things you need to do for the sake of love. Ask the Lord to identify those things in your heart, and take action as you trust him today.

It’s safe to assume that Peter did exactly what Jesus instructed him, and that that tax was settled from a coin found in a fish’s mouth. And I’m just as confident that all who trust in Christ today, and the sufficient payment made with his own blood on the cross, will have their sins fully paid for out of the riches of the storehouses of Heaven, and of Christ’s mercy.

Brothers and sister, Jesus Paid it all because we could not. He paid it all and because of that we are no longer slaves, but free children. Let us live in light of this.