From the Daily Office for Tuesday in the Third Week after Pentecost
Matthew 17:22-27
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were greatly distressed.
When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?” When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”
This on the surface is a very strange reading. I have to admit it had me stumped for a while; but I turned to our old friends: context, and the writer’s overall agenda voiced in the prologue. This Gospel was written in the late seventies, perhaps early eighties of the first century, two generations after the life and ministry of Jesus. Times are different; most notably, the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed by Roman Legions in the year 70. The Romans had acted decisively to quell any would-be Jewish revolt. Before 70 Jews paid to the Temple authorities a “half-shekel” tax per person to support the income of the priestly class, as well as the maintenance of the vast facility. After the destruction of the Temple the tax then was converted by the Romans to the support of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which as the name implies, was a temple to Jupiter in Rome. A desecrating sacrilege.
As to the writer’s agenda, remember the beginnings of this Gospel: a scandalous pregnancy and birth set against a backdrop of a genocidal and paranoid Roman overlord who vows to kill all male children ages two and under. The Holy family must flee for their lives to Egypt until the death of Herod. Matthew pits the Jesus movement up against abusive imperial power. So the gist of this reading becomes clear. The tax is an abomination to Jews. It represents the abusive occupation of the Empire. Most Jews (and Matthew’s community are Jewish Christians probably living in Antioch) would rather die than pay the tax. So Matthew has Jesus concocting a clever and subversive resolution. In the early Christian movement of the first and second centuries, communities used the fish as a symbol to designate their identity as followers of Christ. The word for fish in the Greek contained the letters that spelled Christ; so the “fish” became a symbol, a code, for the designation of Christian households wherein fellow Christians could find shelter, hospitality, and safety.
It appears to me that Jesus is sending a message to the powers that be, the intractable and self-interested status quo. We (he and Peter) are paying the tax (a half shekel each) contained in the mouth of a fish. The message of course is that the empire will be swallowed up by the movement, a movement unified (a whole shekel paid by “you and me”) in resistance to the devices of tyranny; that imperial power cannot stand against people of conscience who live and move under the auspices of Love. We pay the tax with a message: that Love will stand in the end; that there is no power greater. And empires of the world will inevitably fall to the power of Love. O, that that may be true.
A Prayer for Peace (BCP p. 815)
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of justice, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one God; to whom be glory, now and forever. Amen.
