A Son's Obligation: Free, Yet Bound
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:34
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· 16 viewsYou are free in Christ and yet bound by love of God and others.
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Call to Worship
Call to Worship
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Adoration
Adoration
The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
Confession
Confession
Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise?
He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge—
the Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Message
Message
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “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.” And they were greatly distressed.
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”
He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”
And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.
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.”
My family like to play Monopoly in our house.
Though I often don’t play, I observe what is happening.
Jesus pays a tax He does not owe so that those who owe a debt they cannot pay may become sons.
From Matthew 17 onward, Jesus predicts of His suffering and glory.
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “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.” And they were greatly distressed.
This is the first hint that Judas would betray Jesus.
Jesus’ betrayal though was not an accident.
It was not something Judas came up with.
It wasn’t something Jesus’ enemies came up with.
It was the will of the Father to hand His Beloved over to lawless men.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
The prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection, solidifies Him as the True Prophet of God.
The disciples cannot see that Jesus will be truly raised from the dead, nor did they understand it.
They may have understood it like Martha in John 11:24…
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
But they didn’t understand it at the time.
But they remembered all that Jesus prophesied only after these events took place.
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
These predictions are crucial for the historicity, validity, and surety of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The exchange which follows Jesus’ prediction may seem trivial, but bears great importance for the status and mission of Jesus.
They’ve come off the Mount of Transfiguration and are immediately encountered by a demon oppressed boy.
So it seems strange that Matthew would focus in on the taxes?
Remember a couple of things though…
(1) Matthew was a tax-collector.
It makes sense that former tax-collector would show particular interest in the topic.
(2) The other gospels are geared toward primarily Gentile audiences, whereas Matthew’s gospel was written to Jewish converts.
Former Jews would need special attention for how to regard the various laws placed upon them in the OT.
Notice a payment demanded by the Religious Leaders
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”
Capernaum was Jesus’ base of primary ministry.
It was Peter’s hometown.
Peter’s house was a stones throw from the only synagogue in town.
They’ve been gone over a month now…
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”
What is the “two-drachma tax”?
This tax was not enforced by the Romans but by the Jews.
It was not a secular tax.
We’ll see them challenge Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar later in Matthew’s gospel Matthew 22:21
But that’s not what this tax is concerning…
It was a religious tax in support of the Temple.
It was a tax mandated for every Jewish male, 20 years old and up.
This annual levy was commissioned by God in the OT in Exodus 30.
“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them.
Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.
Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering.
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives.
You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”
So you can understand the concern of those who see Jesus and His disciples neglecting to support the temple.
We’ve already seen Jesus’ regard for the temple in Matthew 12:6…
Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
But the charge that Jesus opposed the temple has not yet been leveled at Him and will come later (Matthew 27:40).
Is this man an insurrectionist against our religious system?
Does he think he’s better than the rest of us?
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”
The concern for Jesus’ contemporaries is that Jesus is not patriotic toward the people of God.
The tax levied by God in the OT is being neglected by this man.
Now Peter goes on the answer these men…
He said, “Yes.”
You can picture Peter frantically answering these men to assure them that they pay their taxes.
Jesus gives a principle to Peter…
Jesus gives a principle to Peter…
And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”
Kings of the earth don’t tax their own family.
It would make no sense for a monarch to tax himself.
And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.
Taxes in Jesus’ day did not happen in a Democratic Republic like our own.
Societies were run by kings and monarch.
They set the tax rate.
They enforced the taxes being paid.
Jesus draws this conclusion: taxes are to be paid by subjects, not sons.
Kings and monarch’s didn’t tax their families or even their own citizens.
They would tax people they’ve conquered, those who are considered servants and subjects.
Jesus does two things here: (1) He elevates Himself above other Israelites and (2) claims Sonship status with the King.
Son’s are supreme over servants.
Jesus asserts that He is not the same as other Israelites.
He is greater than an ordinary Israelite in the same way that a son is greater than a servant.
Jesus equates Himself with the Son of a King.
Not just any king, but the King of Heaven, the One who instituted and commissioned the building of the Temple.
“I am the King over the Temple’s son, so I’m not obligated to pay the tax for the temple!”
Son’s are exempt from taxes.
Jesus asserts He has NO obligation to pay this temple tax.
As a son of the Divine King, He is not obligated in paying this tax.
The principle Jesus discusses is simple: I am free, and yet bound!
Jesus Christ, being the Son of His Father, the King of all Creation was free from the temple tax.
He was free in the same way a monarch would not charge his own family of taxes.
Jesus sets aside a command in the OT, not because it doesn’t matter.
Not because it’s not relevant.
But because He understands the system of the OT pointed to something much greater.
Namely: Himself!
And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.
Notice that Jesus isn’t talking just about Himself.
He’s inviting Peter into that freedom and all those who come after him.
This is what Paul picks up on in Galatians 4.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything,
but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
The Mosaic law was like a “guardian and manager” some would even say a “tutor” of a child.
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
Jesus Himself is the Son of God, and in God’s household, He is free.
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.
Jesus sees Himself as the Son of God!
And all those who are found in Him as adopted sons!
By faith, we are the adopted sons of God.
Adopted fully, freely, and finally in the family of God.
Free as adopted children of God.
Free as adopted children of God.
You have been freed from sin.
Freed from the tyranny of the devil.
Freed from the bondage of the law with its regulations.
Freed as an adopted child is free in his father’s house.
Free from the burden of ceremonial obligation.
Free from the burden of ceremonial obligation.
Much of the OT was a type and shadow of the good things to come.
It pointed forward to the day when we see the substance of the Law, which is Christ.
What do I mean by ceremonial obligation?
By ceremonial obligation, we don’t mean that Christians can live however they want.
We are called to obey the Scriptures!
There is a difference between a obedience from a heart transformed in the gospel, and one trying to claw it’s way to being “right with God.”
But the obedience we walk in is the overflow of the right relationship we share with God.
We don’t relate to God through transactional taxation, we relate to God in relationship to Him.
In Galatians 4, Paul gives the example of two different sons of Abraham.
One being a child of the promise (Isaac), and the other being the child of the slave woman (Ishmael).
What’s remarkable is who Paul applies those children to be.
Isaac, the child of promise, he says correspond to those who believe on the Lord Jesus.
Ishmael, corresponds to those who are rejecting the Lord’s Messiah.
Paul’s conclusion is that we are not born of the slave woman under the Law.
We are born of the Spirit and thus belong to the Jerusalem above that is the “free woman.”
Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
The freedom that Paul has in mind here is the freedom found in justification by faith alone.
Its the freedom of the children of promise is realized in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
To stand firm is to reject the need for circumcision in order to be declared righteous before God.
So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
If you’re a Christian, you share in the freedom of the Son of God.
Capernaum was Peter’s hometown.
He may have felt obligated that he and Jesus pay the temple tax, which is why he says,
“Yes, Jesus pays His taxes!”
And he’s not wrong, because Jesus does pay taxes.
But maybe not in the way that Peter will think He will.
…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.”
Jesus will command Peter to take a single hook and cast it into the sea.
The Bible doesn’t say the hook was baited, so it’s possible it was a hook without any bait on it.
And cast it into the sea and take up the first fish he catches.
If you’ve ever fished before, you’ve likely seen something in the mouth of a fish that was eaten prior to your catch.
But think of the order of events here.
A “stater”, equivalent to four drachma coin was dropped.
The fish needed to swallow the coin.
But not long enough it would have went into the fishes stomach.
Free to trust the Father’s provision.
Free to trust the Father’s provision.
Creation itself obeys the Son.
The Father not only owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
He owns the fish of the sea as well!
The world strives anxiously toiling after their labor for the next dollar.
But the Christian can have confidence to know that God provides for everything the Christian may need.
Application for the Christian.
The Father provides what is needed to honor Him.
Now at this point we usually stop and hear something like,
“Look at the way God provided for Peter, and He can provide for you too!”
But is provision the main point of the text here?
No, Jesus provides for Peter, true enough! But provision is a sub-point of something much larger for us to consider.
Jesus says that the sons are free.
Yet, we are bound by love.
Bound by love of God and others.
Bound by love of God and others.
What do we mean by this concept of being bound by love?
Jesus was free to NOT pay the tax.
Yet he paid a tax He did not owe, so as to not cause offense.
Jesus pays a tax He does not owe so that those who owe a debt they cannot pay may become sons.
How should free Christians interact with people who are bound in their consciences?
The conscience is a tricky thing because though it points people to the truth, it can often get off course.
It can convict people of things that they shouldn’t be convicted of.
It can be silent when people should be convicted.
Bound by love to yield legitimate rights.
Bound by love to yield legitimate rights.
We wish to avoid unnecessary offense.
However, not to give offense to them…
The language of “give offense” is literally to “make a person stumble” or “to set up a stumbling block.”
Bound by love to protect Gospel appeal.
Bound by love to protect Gospel appeal.
Jesus, who later predicts the destruction of the temple in Matthew 24, pays taxes for that temple.
You can imagine how he felt when the tax collectors from the temple service came knocking.
Like the furnishing of a gravestone, the temple was being well furnished while the internals were dead bones.
The destruction of the temple would come in 70 A.D.
But that’s not Jesus’ concern here.
Jesus concern here is to avoid placing an unnecessary stumbling blocks in the paths of His contemporaries.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
He’s free from the restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
The NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible Chapter 9
Christian liberty for Paul is not “I am free to do whatever I want to do.” It is “I am free to be flexible for the sake of the gospel.”
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
The Modern Western mindset focuses on our “rights.”
Much like a child playing Monopoly can demand their payment while forgetting who pays the mortgage.
“Do not pass GO, do not collect $200” while forgetting who pays the electric or who feeds you.
Jesus has a right to abstain from taxes chooses to forsake His right.
He chooses to forsake His right so to not cause an offense.
There are believers living all around the world that have to deal with this on a daily basis.
For example…
In Muslim contexts, Muslims celebrate Ramadan where they will fast from sun up to sundown.
For a Christian to be effective in that place, they will likely need to fast as to not cause extra offense.
Is a Christian free to drink alcohol?
Of course.
The condemnation of Scripture is that they should not drink alcohol to grieve the Holy Spirit and be governed by a different spirit.
Is a Christian free to drink alcohol around a former drunk?
We love “black and white” things.
There is a clear categorical distinction.
But the Bible’s demands of love means we must know our neighbors.
Bound by love to model the Savior.
Bound by love to model the Savior.
Jesus was willing to pay the temple tax now so that others would see and hear His message clearly.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
You are free in Christ and yet bound by love of God and others.
You are free in Christ and yet bound by love of God and others.
