August 10, 2025 • 28 mins
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Matthew 17: 22-27 - 'They will put the Son of Man to death.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 554 (in 'A Foretaste of the Kingdom: The Transfiguration') - From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Master "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. . . and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor do the others understand it any better than he (abbreviated).
- 586 (in 'Jesus and the Temple') - Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the Temple-tax, associating with him Peter, whom he had just made the foundation of his future Church (abbreviated).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Daily Gospel Exegesis
Podcast. As always, we're going to dive
into the text of today's gospel reading, and we have a really
interesting one today. This is, I think, perhaps the
least known passage in all four Gospels.
This is 1 you may never have heard before, even though it is
in the Gospel of Matthew. It's just one of those
(00:32):
interesting ones that people don't talk about.
Maybe people don't understand it.
It's a bit of a strange one. So let's have a look at the
text. And then, as always, we want to
give you the tools to help you understand what the text
probably meant in its original context.
And I think you'll find that when you have those tools, it
really will help in making senseof a difficult passage like this
one. So we're in Matthew Chapter 17,
(00:55):
verses 22 to 27. One day when they were together
in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, the Son of Man is
going to be handed over into thepower of men.
They will put him to death, and on the third day he will be
raised to life again. And a great sadness came over
(01:16):
them. When they reached Capernaum.
The collectors of the half shekel came to Peter and said,
Does your master not pay the half shekel?
Oh yes, he replied, and went into the house, but before he
could speak, Jesus said, Simon, what is your opinion?
(01:37):
From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute?
From their sons, or from foreigners?
And when he replied from foreigners, Jesus said, well
then the sons are exempt. However, so as not to offend
these people, go to the lake andcast a hook.
(01:58):
Take the first fish that bites open its mouth and there you
will find a shekel. Take it and give it to them for
me and for you. So that's our passage today.
It's a bit of a strange one. There's a miracle in here which
a lot of people are not aware ofor they don't talk about, which
is of course the finding of the fish with the coin in its mouth.
(02:22):
Why is this passage not talked about?
Well, there's probably a few different reasons for it.
Firstly, it's never read on a Sunday, so if you only ever go
to Mass on Sundays, you will never hear this passage read.
It's only ever read on a Monday of week 19 in ordinary time, and
in many places there are no Masses on Mondays because church
is typically closed in some places, at least after the
(02:44):
weekend. So if you don't have a Monday
Mass available in your area, it's possible you'll never ever
hear this passage read at Mass. Also, it's in a bit of a strange
place in the Gospel of Matthew. It's in this section here that a
lot of people don't read. It's sort of towards the end of
the Galilean ministry when a fewsort of isolated incidents
happen. And also there's a few
translational difficulties with some of the words that are used
(03:07):
of Jesus here. And finally, it's just a very
strange thing for Jesus to talk about.
So it's sort of come down. There's something that's in the
Gospels, but something that a lot of people don't know what to
do with. So let's give it a go, the
context here. So Jesus and his disciples are
doing ministry in Galilee, but he has started to predict his
(03:28):
death in Jerusalem. So he's already predicted once
that he's going to die and in this first little section here,
he's going to do it again. So verse 22, one day when they
were together in Galilee. Now what it actually says there
is as they were gathering in Galilee.
So as we will later learn, they're in Galilee and they're
on the way home to Capernaum, sothey're going back to Jesus home
(03:49):
base. Basically, Jesus said to his
disciples, now notice who he's talking to.
Only the inside group gets to hear this.
Jesus doesn't say this to the crowds, he just says it to his
disciples. And Jesus has already predicted
his death a few times and now he's going to get very specific
about it. So here's what he says.
The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of
(04:12):
men. They will put him to death and
on the third day he will be raised to life again.
So let's break this down a bit. The Son of Man, that's a term
that just means a Messiah and it's Jesus favorite way of
talking about himself and his mission.
He calls himself the Son of Man and he says the Son of Man is
going to be handed over into thepower of men.
(04:34):
So basically he's saying the Sonof Man is going to be captured
by men. This would be radical for his
disciples to hear. Remember these are Jewish
disciples and the common view atthe time was when the Messiah
comes, he's going to rule over everyone forever, not that he
would be captured by the authorities.
So for Jesus to say the Son of Man is going to be handed over
(04:56):
to the power of men, that would not have made sense in their
worldview about the Messiah verse 23.
They'll put him to death. Now, more literally, what it
actually says there is they willkill him.
Now think about what a bombshellthat will be for the disciples.
The authorities, particularly the Gentile authorities, are
going to kill the Messiah. That just did not compute.
(05:18):
In the Jewish view, the Messiah is supposed to reign forever
over the Gentiles. But here Jesus says he's going
to be the Messiah, is going to be killed by men.
But then there's good news, and on the third day, he'll be
raised to life again. Now that's a very specific
prophecy. Jesus doesn't just say he'll be
resurrected again. He says on the third day he'll
be raised to life again. Jesus knows how it's all going
(05:40):
to go down. He knows that he's going to be
in the tomb for three days and then rise again.
Now it seems the disciples don'tunderstand what he's saying,
even though he's just said the Messiah is going to be killed
and then raised again. They hear it and they kind of
accept it, but they don't reallyget it.
They just get very distressed about what Jesus is saying, and
(06:00):
I don't fully understand what he's saying until after Jesus
are in resurrection. That's when they start to put
things together again. Now, there's a question here
about why was Jesus in the tomb for three days?
And in fact he knew that it was going to be 3 days.
Why is it important that Jesus is in the tomb for three days?
There's probably lots of reasons, and this is something
we've talked about in the podcast before, but it's always
(06:23):
useful to go back to that passage in Hosea.
There's a prophecy in well, it'sactually just a statement in
Hosea where God is speaking through the prophet and he says
he'll raise Israel up after three days.
Now in the context of that Old Testament passage, it's a
metaphor. God saying I'll redeem you soon
and he just uses 3 days as a metaphor.
(06:45):
But Jesus is of course the perfect representative of
Israel. There's many aspects of Jesus
ministry where he recapitulates Israel and represents them.
And here he does it in a very real, literal, perfect sense.
He fulfills that statement made to Israel in the Old Testament.
I will raise you up after three days.
He fulfills that literally in his body.
(07:06):
So that's a really interesting connection there about how Jesus
brings together these Old Testament threads, often in more
literal ways than what they wereexpecting.
And now Matthew says a great sadness came over them.
Remember, Matthew was one of thedisciples himself Who would have
been there? Who would have been one of the
disciples who had the great sadness?
There's different ways of translating this.
(07:27):
So a great sadness, or they weregreatly distressed, or even they
were overwhelmed with grief. So the disciples here, they just
cannot understand what Jesus hassaid.
Or perhaps they partially understand Jesus has just
completely overturned their expectations of the Messiah.
So they're thinking to themselves, could it really be
that the Messiah is going to die?
(07:48):
Now, Jesus, of course, is hopingthat when he mentions and the
Messiah will be raised up after three days, he's hoping that
will cause them to have trust inGod's plan and to see that it is
all part of God's plan. But the disciples don't react
that way. Instead, they just get very
distressed about what they're hearing.
So really, I think Matthew is trying to present here that once
(08:09):
again, the disciples lack faith.They don't understand God's
plan. They're not willing to trust
God. So once again we see the
littleness of the faith of the disciples.
So that's the end of that littlesection.
Then we get to verse 24 when they reached Capernum.
So this is Jesus home, basically.
It's his home base for most of his life or most of his
(08:30):
ministry. So they get to Capernum, which
is right next to the Sea of Galilee.
And we see here the collectors of the half shekel.
So these are kind of tax collectors of a of a sort,
although not the kind that we usually talk about in the
Gospels. These are collectors of the half
shekel tax. Now, Capernum was a strategic
(08:50):
location for collecting taxes because there was a sea nearby,
so there could be boats coming in that they could collect taxes
from. And there's also significant
trade routes coming through capernum.
So if you're a person collectingtaxes, it's a very good spot to
to be in capernum. There's a lot of people to
collect taxes from and they're collecting what's called the
half shekel tax. There's other ways of
(09:13):
translating this, which is di drachma SO2 drachma tax and
basically it was worth 2 days wages, so 1/2 shekel or two
drachmas was worth 2 days wages.This half shekel tax was a
temple tax, and it was required by the Jews to be paid annually
(09:34):
by all Jews over the age of 20. So any male Jew over the age of
20 had to annually pay this temple tax to the Jewish
authority. Basically, it was used for the
upkeep of the temple to keep thetemple going.
Now there's actually an Old Testament tradition of this kind
of thing. So Moses had levied a similar
(09:54):
tax for the service of the Tabernacle.
If you look in Exodus chapter 30, when the Tabernacle is
around, Moses asks a similar thing of the people, and then
it's implemented again in Solomon's Temple in Second
Chronicles 24, and then in the time of the Second Temple,
they're still doing it. In Nehemiah chapter 10, it talks
about this tax which is put on the people to keep the temple
(10:17):
running. So certainly through most of
Jewish history there was this sort of tax they had to pay.
So there's a precedent for it. Certainly now in the time of
Jesus, historical records tell us that there were different
views about this Temple tax. The Pharisees required the
payment of the Temple tax. They were the ones who advocated
for paying the Temple tax. And since they were the ones
(10:38):
that had the most sway with the common people, typically most
people had to pay. Most Jews had to pay the Temple
tax because the Pharisees said they had to.
The Essenes said it should only have to be paid once in your
lifetime. So they had a different view
about it and the sad you sees itappears did not agree with the
Temple tax at all, which is interesting because typically
(10:58):
the SAD disease are the ones most closely associated with the
Temple. So there certainly wasn't
agreement on this matter amongstthe Jewish authorities and that
help sets up what Jesus will saynext.
So the collectors of this tax who are in Capernaum, they come
to Peter. Notice they don't go to Jesus.
They're too scared to ask Jesus directly, but they know Peter
(11:19):
speaks on behalf of the other apostles and basically Peter is
Jesus right hand man. Possibly they also know Peter
because Peter is lives in Capernaum, so they probably know
who Peter is. So they come to Peter, these tax
collectors, and they ask him, does your master not pay the
half shekel? And the Greek here implies that
(11:41):
they're expecting an answer to be yes.
So it's sort of their way of asking it's time for Jesus to
pay the half shekel tax. So Jesus has not paid his tax
yet. Maybe he's over.
His taxes are overdue, which is interesting, and he should have
by now. Apparently these tax collectors
have come to Peter and said, look, Jesus should have paid
this tax by now. And so Peter responds in verse
(12:03):
25. Our translation says Oh yes,
which is a bit weird. All it says there in the
original is yes, so Peter says yes, as in Jesus will be paying
this tax. Now think about what's going
through Peter's mind here. Does Peter actually know whether
Jesus is going to pay this tax? He probably doesn't.
Peter probably isn't sure what Jesus would think about this
(12:26):
particular temple tax, but maybehe presumes Jesus will be OK
with it. So he says, yes, Jesus is going
to pay the tax. And then he goes to see Jesus to
ask Jesus about it. So he goes into the house.
Now this is the home of Peter and probably Jesus.
It seems that Jesus lived there as well.
You can actually go and see thishouse today in Capernaum.
(12:47):
It's right next to the Sea of Galilee, and you can look down
into the house that Peter and Jesus would have lived at.
It's quite amazing. So Peter walks into this house.
He's about to talk to Jesus and ask him about this interesting
temple tax, Matthew says, but before he could speak.
Now what it actually says here is Jesus spoke to him first.
(13:08):
So it's like Peter was going to ask Jesus about this temple tax.
But Jesus knows what Peter is thinking.
So Jesus asks the question here.He says, Simon, what is your
opinion? Actually what it says here is
what do you think, Simon? So what we see here in this next
section, it's not really a parable.
It's more like a quiz. Jesus giving Peter a quiz about
(13:31):
the way things actually are. So it's a question with an
obvious answer. It's not really a parable, so he
says. What do you think, Simon?
From whom to the kings of the earth take toll or tribute?
From their sons or from foreigners?
Here's where some translational difficulties come in.
So our electionary gets it rightin saying from their sons.
(13:52):
But probably the phrase overall should be translated something
like this. From whom To the kings of the
earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?
So that's what Peter asks. Sorry, that's what Jesus asks
Peter, what's going on here? Well, in that time period, kings
would tax most people in their land, but they would not tax
(14:14):
their own family. If you think of the way the
Romans worked at that time, that's basically right.
The Romans taxed everyone, but not people in their own royal
household. So it appears that what Jesus
here is doing is he's making an analogy to God.
The idea is supposed to be the God is the king.
God is like the king, and God isonly going to tax other people.
(14:37):
God is not going to tax his own sons.
That seems to be the analogy that Jesus is setting up here.
He's teaching Peter. God is going to tax others, but
God is not going to tax his own sons.
That's the question that Jesus puts to Peter.
And then in verse 26, Peter replies from foreigners or more
(14:59):
literally from others. Jesus says, well then the Suns
are exempt. Or more literally, what Jesus
says here is then the Suns are free.
Interesting line isn't it? Jesus says, then the Suns are
free. What's Jesus saying here?
Well, I have to admit, the firsttime I was sort of looking at
this passage, this strange passage, I had to go at
(15:22):
interpreting it and I did come to a conclusion, but it wasn't
the right one. So this is one of these passages
where it's if you just try and do it yourself without the help
of commentaries, you're probablynot going to get the right
answer. So really, I think this is a
passage where commentaries come in very handy in helping you
think about the theology of whatmight be going on here.
So Jesus appears to be saying something like this when he says
(15:46):
the sons are exempt. Jesus is saying that since he is
a divine son of God, of course Jesus is the Son of God.
And also if you think about it, Peter has now become a son of
God. He's participating in the divine
sonship by adoption. Remember a couple of chapters
earlier, Jesus has made Peter the the rock, the the leader of
(16:06):
his church. So it appears that by this point
Peter is in a sense participating in the divine
sonship. So the teaching here Jesus is
saying is that since he and Peter are both divine sons of
God, God is not going to tax them for his house.
He's not going to tax them for the temple.
In other words, Peter and Jesus are exempt from the temple tax
(16:27):
for theological reasons. God is technically not going to
tax Peter and Jesus. That might seem like a bit of a
strange thing that's going on here, but that is what the
majority of commentaries say Jesus is getting at here.
And that does make sense if you think about it.
If you think about the theology of what Jesus has been saying in
the Gospel of Matthew up until now, he's been trying to
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emphasize that he is the specialdivine son of God, which means
that he gets some special rights.
If you remember what happens when they were plucking grain on
the Sabbath, the sort of the reason Jesus gave for that was
basically we're special in God'seye, so we have an exemption.
That's sort of what Jesus says. So again, here we have a similar
(17:08):
teaching. And of course, in Matthew 16,
the teaching was that Peter has a special place in God's Kingdom
as well. So Peter and Jesus are exempt
from paying the temple tax that all other Jews had to pay.
That's what Jesus says. But then he adds something
interesting in verse 27. However, so as not to offend
these people. So Peter, Jesus has said, well
(17:32):
we don't need to pay the temple tax, but so as not to offend
these tax collectors. So technically, as God's true
children, according to Jesus, Jesus and Peter don't owe any
taxes to the temple. But Jesus doesn't want to cause
trouble unnecessarily or draw attention to himself more than
he needs to. So in this case, he agrees to
(17:52):
pay the tax. This is interesting.
This is a case where Jesus technically doesn't have to do
something, but yet he chooses todo it out of prudence in this
case. Now if you think about it, there
are other times when Jesus is not afraid to make a scene.
He's not afraid to make a scene on the Sabbath.
But here Jesus perceives that giving money for the temple is
not going to do any harm, and it's also not going to violate
(18:15):
any significant moral principles.
So Jesus, even though he doesn'thave to technically, he chooses
to do it in this case in order to avoid offending his opponents
unnecessarily. It's one of these cases where
Jesus says, well, in this case it's probably best to just pay
the tax, keep it quiet, and not cause any issues.
This is an important principle. Jesus here is a role model of an
(18:40):
important Christian principle ofmorality, which is 1 does not
always need to assert one's rights.
They can cooperate with other people without making a fuss if
no larger principle is at stake.So there will be cases in the
Christian life when technically you have a right to something
and you don't have to cooperate.But out of prudence, if no
(19:00):
bigger principle is going to be violated by cooperating, it's
best to just cooperate. That is basically a something
you can take from this text. So let's broaden this out here.
Now normally we don't take away from the literal sense too much,
but I do think if you think about it, Jesus here is teaching
us a moral principle. If he if he can do this out of
(19:21):
prudence, then certainly we can learn some lessons from it.
So I want to quote here from theCatholic commentary on Sacred
Scripture from Matthew. And this is sort of a reflection
on this statement, but I think it gets it spot on.
Imagine how much greater unity there would be in Christian
marriages, families, parishes and communities if people had
the humble attitude of Jesus in things non essential.
(19:44):
It is often better to give in tothe preferences of others than
to insist on one's own opinion or way.
Even if we are convinced that weare right, sometimes it is
better to humbly die to self forthe sake of unity with our
spouse, friend or colleague, than to cause division by
fighting vehemently for a position that in the end is not
(20:07):
a serious matter. If Jesus was willing to give in
to others rather than defend what was justly due to him, we
should not do any less so. That's the quote there from the
Catholic commentary on Sacred Scripture.
So I think that's right and we should think about this in our
day, particularly in terms of politics.
We don't always have to assert our rights, even if those rights
(20:29):
are due to us. Sometimes out of humility and
for the sake of cooperation, we can cooperate as long as no
bigger moral principle is violated.
Now this principle here, where Jesus avoids offense even though
he doesn't have to, the apostlesactually continued this basic
practice in the book of Acts as well.
(20:50):
There were certain old covenant practices in the time of the
book of Acts that the apostles didn't have to adhere to
strictly, but they did in order to avoid giving fence offense to
their audience. So if you look at Act 16 and
Acts 21, there's a couple of stories there with the apostles
technically don't have to go along with these old covenant
things, but they do in order to avoid offense.
(21:13):
So Jesus here says to Peter, in order to avoid offense, go to
the lake and cast a hook. So Jesus tells Peter to go
fishing in the Sea of Galilee. Now if you go to Capernaum
today, this House of Jesus and Peter is about 10 or 20 meters
from the sea of Galloway. It is right there.
So Jesus, Peter could have literally walked out of his
house, taken a one minute walk down to the sea and cast a net
(21:36):
and very quickly caught a fish. So Jesus trust that Peter can do
this easily because Peter is a professional fisherman.
So go to the lake and cast a hook.
Take the first fish that bites open its mouth, and there you
will find a shekel. This is quite an amazing
miracle, Jesus says. The first fish you'll find will
have a shekel in its mouth, a coin in its mouth.
(21:59):
Jesus arranged supernaturally for a fish to have a shekel in
its mouth, which a fish would not normally have.
And also he arranged it so that the very first fish that bites
Peter's line will be that fish. This is one of those amazing
nature miracles that we don't often talk about.
So Jesus says once you've caughtthe fish, take it, take the coin
(22:21):
and give it to them for me and for you.
So let's think about it. We have 1/2 shekel tax that both
Peter and Jesus need to pay. So total that's one shekel that
they owe to the authorities. Apparently neither Peter nor
Jesus have 1/2 shekel on them atthis time, which shows how poor
they are. They don't.
Neither of them have two days wages to give up as a tax at the
(22:44):
moment. That's how poor they are at this
point. So this shekel that is found in
the Fisher's mouth covers the half shekel for Jesus and the
half shekel for Peter. Notice that it only covers Peter
and Jesus. Why?
Why doesn't Jesus provide 6 shekels to cover all 12 apostles
half shekel? There's an interesting
(23:05):
theological point here. It seems that by Jesus saying go
get this shekel which will coverme and you, he's hinting that
only he and Peter at this point are God's divine sons.
This might be quite a significant text if you think
about it in showing the spiritual union between Jesus
and his vicar on earth. At this point, Jesus has made
(23:28):
Peter the foundation of his church, the leader of his
church, the vicar on earth, as we would call in Catholic
theology. He's the Pope by this point.
That's already happened. So I think this is quite a
significant theological text. Jesus says go get the shekel
because you and I are exempt from it.
But in this case, as a united front, we're going to pay this
(23:49):
shekel together. It shows this intimate spiritual
union that Jesus and Peter have at this point.
It's quite amazing because, and certainly that makes sense
because one of the things Matthew is doing in his gospel
is showing how the church is thefulfillment of the Kingdom of
God, and particularly how the hierarchy of the church is
ordained by God. That is one of the things that
(24:09):
Matthew is trying to do. So it seems that here, as in
other places in this part of Matthew, Matthew is trying to
highlight the role of Peter in being a genuine, God chosen,
authoritative leader of the church.
Interestingly, the Catechism sees further significance in
this text. It sees significance with the
fact that Jesus associates Peterwith the temple tax.
(24:32):
There's something significant about it being about the temple,
because Jesus has just made Peter the foundation of the
future church in chapter 16. And of course the church is the
continuation of the temple. So we'll look at that catechism
reference in just a moment. Now that's the end of the text.
What does it mean for all of us?What can we take away from this?
(24:54):
Obviously there's lessons of morality that we've talked
about, but does it mean can we learn anything here about taxes?
Is Jesus teaching us about taxesin general?
I think it's not what Jesus is trying to do here.
Think about the other time in the Gospels, when Jesus does
teach about taxes, when the Jewish leaders come to him and
say, do we need to pay taxes to Caesar?
(25:15):
In that story, Jesus basically says that actually, yes, there
are some things you owe to Caesar, and taxes is something
that you owe to Caesar. So at that in that story, Jesus
basically says, yes, we do owe taxes to an extent.
Here, Jesus is making a limited theological point about himself.
He's not saying that all Christians don't have to pay
(25:37):
taxes. He's not saying that all people,
all Christians, are exempt or something.
He's making a theological point about himself and Peter.
He's not actually teaching aboutearthly taxes in general.
So we need to be careful when we're looking at this passage.
Another question here would be why does Matthew include this
strange story? Surely it has something to do
with Matthew being a tax collector himself.
(25:59):
Remember, Matthew was a tax collector that worked in
Kaperna, maybe as a tax collector.
Here. Matthew was particularly struck
by this miracle where God provides the tax in the fish's
mouth. So Matthew here is excited about
the fact that God provides even in matters of taxation.
Or alternatively, maybe Matthew felt that his Jewish audience
(26:21):
needs to hear Jesus teaching of his own identity here in
relation to the Temple and the Temple tax.
And also what is Peter's identity in relation to all of
these things? Certainly Matthew is getting at
all of those things. Hope you learned something new
from that extra Jesus. Let's turn to a couple of quick
catechism references. Paragraph 554 is about the
(26:43):
Transfiguration and it talks about how Jesus has been
predicting his own death. It says from the day Peter
confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God, the Master began to show his disciples, and he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many thingsand be killed, and on the third
day be raised. Peter scorns this prediction.
(27:04):
Nor do the others understand it any better than he.
So that of course links to the first half of the passage or the
first section of the passage we looked at today, and then
paragraph 586. This is a significant one about
Jesus relationship with the Temple.
Far from having been hostile to the Temple where he gave the
essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the
(27:26):
Temple tax, associating with himPeter, whom he had just made the
foundation of his future church so interesting.
The Catechism does mention this incident where Jesus is willing
to pay the Temple tax and He associates Peter with the Temple
tax as well. This what we've looked at today
in Matthew chapter 17 is actually a key passage in
(27:46):
understanding the importance of the role of Peter in the Church.
It's not one that we often go towhen discussing the theology of
the Pope and of Peter's primacy,but it's one that we should talk
about more if you've enjoyed today's episode, If you've
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Daily Gospel Exegesis
Podcast. As always, we're going to dive
into the text of today's gospel reading, and we have a really
interesting one today. This is, I think, perhaps the
least known passage in all four Gospels.
This is 1 you may never have heard before, even though it is
in the Gospel of Matthew. It's just one of those
(00:32):
interesting ones that people don't talk about.
Maybe people don't understand it.
It's a bit of a strange one. So let's have a look at the
text. And then, as always, we want to
give you the tools to help you understand what the text
probably meant in its original context.
And I think you'll find that when you have those tools, it
really will help in making senseof a difficult passage like this
one. So we're in Matthew Chapter 17,
(00:55):
verses 22 to 27. One day when they were together
in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, the Son of Man is
going to be handed over into thepower of men.
They will put him to death, and on the third day he will be
raised to life again. And a great sadness came over
(01:16):
them. When they reached Capernaum.
The collectors of the half shekel came to Peter and said,
Does your master not pay the half shekel?
Oh yes, he replied, and went into the house, but before he
could speak, Jesus said, Simon, what is your opinion?
(01:37):
From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute?
From their sons, or from foreigners?
And when he replied from foreigners, Jesus said, well
then the sons are exempt. However, so as not to offend
these people, go to the lake andcast a hook.
(01:58):
Take the first fish that bites open its mouth and there you
will find a shekel. Take it and give it to them for
me and for you. So that's our passage today.
It's a bit of a strange one. There's a miracle in here which
a lot of people are not aware ofor they don't talk about, which
is of course the finding of the fish with the coin in its mouth.
(02:22):
Why is this passage not talked about?
Well, there's probably a few different reasons for it.
Firstly, it's never read on a Sunday, so if you only ever go
to Mass on Sundays, you will never hear this passage read.
It's only ever read on a Monday of week 19 in ordinary time, and
in many places there are no Masses on Mondays because church
is typically closed in some places, at least after the
(02:44):
weekend. So if you don't have a Monday
Mass available in your area, it's possible you'll never ever
hear this passage read at Mass. Also, it's in a bit of a strange
place in the Gospel of Matthew. It's in this section here that a
lot of people don't read. It's sort of towards the end of
the Galilean ministry when a fewsort of isolated incidents
happen. And also there's a few
translational difficulties with some of the words that are used
(03:07):
of Jesus here. And finally, it's just a very
strange thing for Jesus to talk about.
So it's sort of come down. There's something that's in the
Gospels, but something that a lot of people don't know what to
do with. So let's give it a go, the
context here. So Jesus and his disciples are
doing ministry in Galilee, but he has started to predict his
(03:28):
death in Jerusalem. So he's already predicted once
that he's going to die and in this first little section here,
he's going to do it again. So verse 22, one day when they
were together in Galilee. Now what it actually says there
is as they were gathering in Galilee.
So as we will later learn, they're in Galilee and they're
on the way home to Capernaum, sothey're going back to Jesus home
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base. Basically, Jesus said to his
disciples, now notice who he's talking to.
Only the inside group gets to hear this.
Jesus doesn't say this to the crowds, he just says it to his
disciples. And Jesus has already predicted
his death a few times and now he's going to get very specific
about it. So here's what he says.
The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of
(04:12):
men. They will put him to death and
on the third day he will be raised to life again.
So let's break this down a bit. The Son of Man, that's a term
that just means a Messiah and it's Jesus favorite way of
talking about himself and his mission.
He calls himself the Son of Man and he says the Son of Man is
going to be handed over into thepower of men.
(04:34):
So basically he's saying the Sonof Man is going to be captured
by men. This would be radical for his
disciples to hear. Remember these are Jewish
disciples and the common view atthe time was when the Messiah
comes, he's going to rule over everyone forever, not that he
would be captured by the authorities.
So for Jesus to say the Son of Man is going to be handed over
(04:56):
to the power of men, that would not have made sense in their
worldview about the Messiah verse 23.
They'll put him to death. Now, more literally, what it
actually says there is they willkill him.
Now think about what a bombshellthat will be for the disciples.
The authorities, particularly the Gentile authorities, are
going to kill the Messiah. That just did not compute.
(05:18):
In the Jewish view, the Messiah is supposed to reign forever
over the Gentiles. But here Jesus says he's going
to be the Messiah, is going to be killed by men.
But then there's good news, and on the third day, he'll be
raised to life again. Now that's a very specific
prophecy. Jesus doesn't just say he'll be
resurrected again. He says on the third day he'll
be raised to life again. Jesus knows how it's all going
(05:40):
to go down. He knows that he's going to be
in the tomb for three days and then rise again.
Now it seems the disciples don'tunderstand what he's saying,
even though he's just said the Messiah is going to be killed
and then raised again. They hear it and they kind of
accept it, but they don't reallyget it.
They just get very distressed about what Jesus is saying, and
(06:00):
I don't fully understand what he's saying until after Jesus
are in resurrection. That's when they start to put
things together again. Now, there's a question here
about why was Jesus in the tomb for three days?
And in fact he knew that it was going to be 3 days.
Why is it important that Jesus is in the tomb for three days?
There's probably lots of reasons, and this is something
we've talked about in the podcast before, but it's always
(06:23):
useful to go back to that passage in Hosea.
There's a prophecy in well, it'sactually just a statement in
Hosea where God is speaking through the prophet and he says
he'll raise Israel up after three days.
Now in the context of that Old Testament passage, it's a
metaphor. God saying I'll redeem you soon
and he just uses 3 days as a metaphor.
(06:45):
But Jesus is of course the perfect representative of
Israel. There's many aspects of Jesus
ministry where he recapitulates Israel and represents them.
And here he does it in a very real, literal, perfect sense.
He fulfills that statement made to Israel in the Old Testament.
I will raise you up after three days.
He fulfills that literally in his body.
(07:06):
So that's a really interesting connection there about how Jesus
brings together these Old Testament threads, often in more
literal ways than what they wereexpecting.
And now Matthew says a great sadness came over them.
Remember, Matthew was one of thedisciples himself Who would have
been there? Who would have been one of the
disciples who had the great sadness?
There's different ways of translating this.
(07:27):
So a great sadness, or they weregreatly distressed, or even they
were overwhelmed with grief. So the disciples here, they just
cannot understand what Jesus hassaid.
Or perhaps they partially understand Jesus has just
completely overturned their expectations of the Messiah.
So they're thinking to themselves, could it really be
that the Messiah is going to die?
(07:48):
Now, Jesus, of course, is hopingthat when he mentions and the
Messiah will be raised up after three days, he's hoping that
will cause them to have trust inGod's plan and to see that it is
all part of God's plan. But the disciples don't react
that way. Instead, they just get very
distressed about what they're hearing.
So really, I think Matthew is trying to present here that once
(08:09):
again, the disciples lack faith.They don't understand God's
plan. They're not willing to trust
God. So once again we see the
littleness of the faith of the disciples.
So that's the end of that littlesection.
Then we get to verse 24 when they reached Capernum.
So this is Jesus home, basically.
It's his home base for most of his life or most of his
(08:30):
ministry. So they get to Capernum, which
is right next to the Sea of Galilee.
And we see here the collectors of the half shekel.
So these are kind of tax collectors of a of a sort,
although not the kind that we usually talk about in the
Gospels. These are collectors of the half
shekel tax. Now, Capernum was a strategic
(08:50):
location for collecting taxes because there was a sea nearby,
so there could be boats coming in that they could collect taxes
from. And there's also significant
trade routes coming through capernum.
So if you're a person collectingtaxes, it's a very good spot to
to be in capernum. There's a lot of people to
collect taxes from and they're collecting what's called the
half shekel tax. There's other ways of
(09:13):
translating this, which is di drachma SO2 drachma tax and
basically it was worth 2 days wages, so 1/2 shekel or two
drachmas was worth 2 days wages.This half shekel tax was a
temple tax, and it was required by the Jews to be paid annually
(09:34):
by all Jews over the age of 20. So any male Jew over the age of
20 had to annually pay this temple tax to the Jewish
authority. Basically, it was used for the
upkeep of the temple to keep thetemple going.
Now there's actually an Old Testament tradition of this kind
of thing. So Moses had levied a similar
(09:54):
tax for the service of the Tabernacle.
If you look in Exodus chapter 30, when the Tabernacle is
around, Moses asks a similar thing of the people, and then
it's implemented again in Solomon's Temple in Second
Chronicles 24, and then in the time of the Second Temple,
they're still doing it. In Nehemiah chapter 10, it talks
about this tax which is put on the people to keep the temple
(10:17):
running. So certainly through most of
Jewish history there was this sort of tax they had to pay.
So there's a precedent for it. Certainly now in the time of
Jesus, historical records tell us that there were different
views about this Temple tax. The Pharisees required the
payment of the Temple tax. They were the ones who advocated
for paying the Temple tax. And since they were the ones
(10:38):
that had the most sway with the common people, typically most
people had to pay. Most Jews had to pay the Temple
tax because the Pharisees said they had to.
The Essenes said it should only have to be paid once in your
lifetime. So they had a different view
about it and the sad you sees itappears did not agree with the
Temple tax at all, which is interesting because typically
(10:58):
the SAD disease are the ones most closely associated with the
Temple. So there certainly wasn't
agreement on this matter amongstthe Jewish authorities and that
help sets up what Jesus will saynext.
So the collectors of this tax who are in Capernaum, they come
to Peter. Notice they don't go to Jesus.
They're too scared to ask Jesus directly, but they know Peter
(11:19):
speaks on behalf of the other apostles and basically Peter is
Jesus right hand man. Possibly they also know Peter
because Peter is lives in Capernaum, so they probably know
who Peter is. So they come to Peter, these tax
collectors, and they ask him, does your master not pay the
half shekel? And the Greek here implies that
(11:41):
they're expecting an answer to be yes.
So it's sort of their way of asking it's time for Jesus to
pay the half shekel tax. So Jesus has not paid his tax
yet. Maybe he's over.
His taxes are overdue, which is interesting, and he should have
by now. Apparently these tax collectors
have come to Peter and said, look, Jesus should have paid
this tax by now. And so Peter responds in verse
(12:03):
25. Our translation says Oh yes,
which is a bit weird. All it says there in the
original is yes, so Peter says yes, as in Jesus will be paying
this tax. Now think about what's going
through Peter's mind here. Does Peter actually know whether
Jesus is going to pay this tax? He probably doesn't.
Peter probably isn't sure what Jesus would think about this
(12:26):
particular temple tax, but maybehe presumes Jesus will be OK
with it. So he says, yes, Jesus is going
to pay the tax. And then he goes to see Jesus to
ask Jesus about it. So he goes into the house.
Now this is the home of Peter and probably Jesus.
It seems that Jesus lived there as well.
You can actually go and see thishouse today in Capernaum.
(12:47):
It's right next to the Sea of Galilee, and you can look down
into the house that Peter and Jesus would have lived at.
It's quite amazing. So Peter walks into this house.
He's about to talk to Jesus and ask him about this interesting
temple tax, Matthew says, but before he could speak.
Now what it actually says here is Jesus spoke to him first.
(13:08):
So it's like Peter was going to ask Jesus about this temple tax.
But Jesus knows what Peter is thinking.
So Jesus asks the question here.He says, Simon, what is your
opinion? Actually what it says here is
what do you think, Simon? So what we see here in this next
section, it's not really a parable.
It's more like a quiz. Jesus giving Peter a quiz about
(13:31):
the way things actually are. So it's a question with an
obvious answer. It's not really a parable, so he
says. What do you think, Simon?
From whom to the kings of the earth take toll or tribute?
From their sons or from foreigners?
Here's where some translational difficulties come in.
So our electionary gets it rightin saying from their sons.
(13:52):
But probably the phrase overall should be translated something
like this. From whom To the kings of the
earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?
So that's what Peter asks. Sorry, that's what Jesus asks
Peter, what's going on here? Well, in that time period, kings
would tax most people in their land, but they would not tax
(14:14):
their own family. If you think of the way the
Romans worked at that time, that's basically right.
The Romans taxed everyone, but not people in their own royal
household. So it appears that what Jesus
here is doing is he's making an analogy to God.
The idea is supposed to be the God is the king.
God is like the king, and God isonly going to tax other people.
(14:37):
God is not going to tax his own sons.
That seems to be the analogy that Jesus is setting up here.
He's teaching Peter. God is going to tax others, but
God is not going to tax his own sons.
That's the question that Jesus puts to Peter.
And then in verse 26, Peter replies from foreigners or more
(14:59):
literally from others. Jesus says, well then the Suns
are exempt. Or more literally, what Jesus
says here is then the Suns are free.
Interesting line isn't it? Jesus says, then the Suns are
free. What's Jesus saying here?
Well, I have to admit, the firsttime I was sort of looking at
this passage, this strange passage, I had to go at
(15:22):
interpreting it and I did come to a conclusion, but it wasn't
the right one. So this is one of these passages
where it's if you just try and do it yourself without the help
of commentaries, you're probablynot going to get the right
answer. So really, I think this is a
passage where commentaries come in very handy in helping you
think about the theology of whatmight be going on here.
So Jesus appears to be saying something like this when he says
(15:46):
the sons are exempt. Jesus is saying that since he is
a divine son of God, of course Jesus is the Son of God.
And also if you think about it, Peter has now become a son of
God. He's participating in the divine
sonship by adoption. Remember a couple of chapters
earlier, Jesus has made Peter the the rock, the the leader of
(16:06):
his church. So it appears that by this point
Peter is in a sense participating in the divine
sonship. So the teaching here Jesus is
saying is that since he and Peter are both divine sons of
God, God is not going to tax them for his house.
He's not going to tax them for the temple.
In other words, Peter and Jesus are exempt from the temple tax
(16:27):
for theological reasons. God is technically not going to
tax Peter and Jesus. That might seem like a bit of a
strange thing that's going on here, but that is what the
majority of commentaries say Jesus is getting at here.
And that does make sense if you think about it.
If you think about the theology of what Jesus has been saying in
the Gospel of Matthew up until now, he's been trying to
(16:47):
emphasize that he is the specialdivine son of God, which means
that he gets some special rights.
If you remember what happens when they were plucking grain on
the Sabbath, the sort of the reason Jesus gave for that was
basically we're special in God'seye, so we have an exemption.
That's sort of what Jesus says. So again, here we have a similar
(17:08):
teaching. And of course, in Matthew 16,
the teaching was that Peter has a special place in God's Kingdom
as well. So Peter and Jesus are exempt
from paying the temple tax that all other Jews had to pay.
That's what Jesus says. But then he adds something
interesting in verse 27. However, so as not to offend
these people. So Peter, Jesus has said, well
(17:32):
we don't need to pay the temple tax, but so as not to offend
these tax collectors. So technically, as God's true
children, according to Jesus, Jesus and Peter don't owe any
taxes to the temple. But Jesus doesn't want to cause
trouble unnecessarily or draw attention to himself more than
he needs to. So in this case, he agrees to
(17:52):
pay the tax. This is interesting.
This is a case where Jesus technically doesn't have to do
something, but yet he chooses todo it out of prudence in this
case. Now if you think about it, there
are other times when Jesus is not afraid to make a scene.
He's not afraid to make a scene on the Sabbath.
But here Jesus perceives that giving money for the temple is
not going to do any harm, and it's also not going to violate
(18:15):
any significant moral principles.
So Jesus, even though he doesn'thave to technically, he chooses
to do it in this case in order to avoid offending his opponents
unnecessarily. It's one of these cases where
Jesus says, well, in this case it's probably best to just pay
the tax, keep it quiet, and not cause any issues.
This is an important principle. Jesus here is a role model of an
(18:40):
important Christian principle ofmorality, which is 1 does not
always need to assert one's rights.
They can cooperate with other people without making a fuss if
no larger principle is at stake.So there will be cases in the
Christian life when technically you have a right to something
and you don't have to cooperate.But out of prudence, if no
(19:00):
bigger principle is going to be violated by cooperating, it's
best to just cooperate. That is basically a something
you can take from this text. So let's broaden this out here.
Now normally we don't take away from the literal sense too much,
but I do think if you think about it, Jesus here is teaching
us a moral principle. If he if he can do this out of
(19:21):
prudence, then certainly we can learn some lessons from it.
So I want to quote here from theCatholic commentary on Sacred
Scripture from Matthew. And this is sort of a reflection
on this statement, but I think it gets it spot on.
Imagine how much greater unity there would be in Christian
marriages, families, parishes and communities if people had
the humble attitude of Jesus in things non essential.
(19:44):
It is often better to give in tothe preferences of others than
to insist on one's own opinion or way.
Even if we are convinced that weare right, sometimes it is
better to humbly die to self forthe sake of unity with our
spouse, friend or colleague, than to cause division by
fighting vehemently for a position that in the end is not
(20:07):
a serious matter. If Jesus was willing to give in
to others rather than defend what was justly due to him, we
should not do any less so. That's the quote there from the
Catholic commentary on Sacred Scripture.
So I think that's right and we should think about this in our
day, particularly in terms of politics.
We don't always have to assert our rights, even if those rights
(20:29):
are due to us. Sometimes out of humility and
for the sake of cooperation, we can cooperate as long as no
bigger moral principle is violated.
Now this principle here, where Jesus avoids offense even though
he doesn't have to, the apostlesactually continued this basic
practice in the book of Acts as well.
(20:50):
There were certain old covenant practices in the time of the
book of Acts that the apostles didn't have to adhere to
strictly, but they did in order to avoid giving fence offense to
their audience. So if you look at Act 16 and
Acts 21, there's a couple of stories there with the apostles
technically don't have to go along with these old covenant
things, but they do in order to avoid offense.
(21:13):
So Jesus here says to Peter, in order to avoid offense, go to
the lake and cast a hook. So Jesus tells Peter to go
fishing in the Sea of Galilee. Now if you go to Capernaum
today, this House of Jesus and Peter is about 10 or 20 meters
from the sea of Galloway. It is right there.
So Jesus, Peter could have literally walked out of his
house, taken a one minute walk down to the sea and cast a net
(21:36):
and very quickly caught a fish. So Jesus trust that Peter can do
this easily because Peter is a professional fisherman.
So go to the lake and cast a hook.
Take the first fish that bites open its mouth, and there you
will find a shekel. This is quite an amazing
miracle, Jesus says. The first fish you'll find will
have a shekel in its mouth, a coin in its mouth.
(21:59):
Jesus arranged supernaturally for a fish to have a shekel in
its mouth, which a fish would not normally have.
And also he arranged it so that the very first fish that bites
Peter's line will be that fish. This is one of those amazing
nature miracles that we don't often talk about.
So Jesus says once you've caughtthe fish, take it, take the coin
(22:21):
and give it to them for me and for you.
So let's think about it. We have 1/2 shekel tax that both
Peter and Jesus need to pay. So total that's one shekel that
they owe to the authorities. Apparently neither Peter nor
Jesus have 1/2 shekel on them atthis time, which shows how poor
they are. They don't.
Neither of them have two days wages to give up as a tax at the
(22:44):
moment. That's how poor they are at this
point. So this shekel that is found in
the Fisher's mouth covers the half shekel for Jesus and the
half shekel for Peter. Notice that it only covers Peter
and Jesus. Why?
Why doesn't Jesus provide 6 shekels to cover all 12 apostles
half shekel? There's an interesting
(23:05):
theological point here. It seems that by Jesus saying go
get this shekel which will coverme and you, he's hinting that
only he and Peter at this point are God's divine sons.
This might be quite a significant text if you think
about it in showing the spiritual union between Jesus
and his vicar on earth. At this point, Jesus has made
(23:28):
Peter the foundation of his church, the leader of his
church, the vicar on earth, as we would call in Catholic
theology. He's the Pope by this point.
That's already happened. So I think this is quite a
significant theological text. Jesus says go get the shekel
because you and I are exempt from it.
But in this case, as a united front, we're going to pay this
(23:49):
shekel together. It shows this intimate spiritual
union that Jesus and Peter have at this point.
It's quite amazing because, and certainly that makes sense
because one of the things Matthew is doing in his gospel
is showing how the church is thefulfillment of the Kingdom of
God, and particularly how the hierarchy of the church is
ordained by God. That is one of the things that
(24:09):
Matthew is trying to do. So it seems that here, as in
other places in this part of Matthew, Matthew is trying to
highlight the role of Peter in being a genuine, God chosen,
authoritative leader of the church.
Interestingly, the Catechism sees further significance in
this text. It sees significance with the
fact that Jesus associates Peterwith the temple tax.
(24:32):
There's something significant about it being about the temple,
because Jesus has just made Peter the foundation of the
future church in chapter 16. And of course the church is the
continuation of the temple. So we'll look at that catechism
reference in just a moment. Now that's the end of the text.
What does it mean for all of us?What can we take away from this?
(24:54):
Obviously there's lessons of morality that we've talked
about, but does it mean can we learn anything here about taxes?
Is Jesus teaching us about taxesin general?
I think it's not what Jesus is trying to do here.
Think about the other time in the Gospels, when Jesus does
teach about taxes, when the Jewish leaders come to him and
say, do we need to pay taxes to Caesar?
(25:15):
In that story, Jesus basically says that actually, yes, there
are some things you owe to Caesar, and taxes is something
that you owe to Caesar. So at that in that story, Jesus
basically says, yes, we do owe taxes to an extent.
Here, Jesus is making a limited theological point about himself.
He's not saying that all Christians don't have to pay
(25:37):
taxes. He's not saying that all people,
all Christians, are exempt or something.
He's making a theological point about himself and Peter.
He's not actually teaching aboutearthly taxes in general.
So we need to be careful when we're looking at this passage.
Another question here would be why does Matthew include this
strange story? Surely it has something to do
with Matthew being a tax collector himself.
(25:59):
Remember, Matthew was a tax collector that worked in
Kaperna, maybe as a tax collector.
Here. Matthew was particularly struck
by this miracle where God provides the tax in the fish's
mouth. So Matthew here is excited about
the fact that God provides even in matters of taxation.
Or alternatively, maybe Matthew felt that his Jewish audience
(26:21):
needs to hear Jesus teaching of his own identity here in
relation to the Temple and the Temple tax.
And also what is Peter's identity in relation to all of
these things? Certainly Matthew is getting at
all of those things. Hope you learned something new
from that extra Jesus. Let's turn to a couple of quick
catechism references. Paragraph 554 is about the
(26:43):
Transfiguration and it talks about how Jesus has been
predicting his own death. It says from the day Peter
confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God, the Master began to show his disciples, and he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many thingsand be killed, and on the third
day be raised. Peter scorns this prediction.
(27:04):
Nor do the others understand it any better than he.
So that of course links to the first half of the passage or the
first section of the passage we looked at today, and then
paragraph 586. This is a significant one about
Jesus relationship with the Temple.
Far from having been hostile to the Temple where he gave the
essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the
(27:26):
Temple tax, associating with himPeter, whom he had just made the
foundation of his future church so interesting.
The Catechism does mention this incident where Jesus is willing
to pay the Temple tax and He associates Peter with the Temple
tax as well. This what we've looked at today
in Matthew chapter 17 is actually a key passage in
(27:46):
understanding the importance of the role of Peter in the Church.
It's not one that we often go towhen discussing the theology of
the Pope and of Peter's primacy,but it's one that we should talk
about more if you've enjoyed today's episode, If you've
learned something new about thismysterious gospel passage,
please share it around. This is a ministry which does
not grow unless listeners tell other people about it.
(28:08):
There's no marketing department,there's no other ministries or
dioceses that financially support the ministry.
So if we want the ministry to grow, we need you to tell others
about what you're learning. And thanks once again for your
support of the Ministry, and we'll see you again tomorrow.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.