Family Taxes

When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes.”
And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
(Matthew 17:24-27 NKJV)

Tax time – every year it comes around. Everyone has to pay it. We pay it as citizens of a country. We even pay it if we are strangers of a foreign country. Mark Twain said it best: “There are two things for certain – death and taxes.”

Even YouTube is promoting a contest about paying taxes this year – “The Tax Rap”.

Taxes are always paid, except in the family. A tax is a governmental institution. It was a way for the government to pay for services for its citizens. But parents would never collect taxes from their children. Children don’t pay a clothes tax, room tax, taxi tax, nor a meal tax. Children don’t have to pay customs tax when they cross the front door of the family home. Parents are not tax collectors. Instead, parents freely give to their children. So it is with God. God’s children are free from the obligations of a church tax.

But in this personal conversation between Jesus and Peter, I think that Jesus is making an important point about our relationship in the family. Not just the physical family, but also as the family of God.

Why did Jesus ask Peter to pay this tax?

1. To teach Peter – in the strange task that Jesus asked Peter to perform (catching a fish and collecting the coin out of the mouth) – that God will provide and pay for His children.

2. To teach us as Christians the importance of responsibility. Children don’t pay taxes, but they do learn to give.