A miracle to not offend

During the days of Jesus Christ, every male Jew, age 20 and above, was required to pay a temple tax, better known as tribute money. Today’s building fund in most churches was akin to this temple tax or tribute money.

The temple tax/tribute money was used for the upkeep of the temple. it was designed to cover many different et costs of the temple operations These costs included the upkeep of the grounds, general maintenance of the inside of the temple, costs of morning and evening sacrifices of a one year lamb, the cost of the offering of wine, flour and oil and even the cost of the robes for the Priests and High Priest.

This temple tax was equal to an average of two days’ pay. The Temple authorities had the power to take a man’s goods if he did not pay. The tax was due once a year, usually during the first month of every year.

Matthew 17:24-27 tells us Jesus was too poor to pay the tax. But Jesus, being the Son of God, was not obligated to pay the tax since the sons of Kings were free from this obligation. Even though Jesus knew this, He paid the tax anyway.

Jesus paid the tax because He did not want to offend any Jew. He did not want the Jews to think He did not support the activities of the Temple. In other words, He did not want to create a stumble block for the Jews. In addition, not paying the Temple Tax would have hindered His testimony.

This is a good lesson for all of us. We should not do anything that will offend or hurt another Believer. walk with Christ. There may be some things that are OK for us to do but if it hurts our testimony with another, it is by no means, OK for us to do. I’ll be the first to admit, there are things that I have done that have offended others and been a stumbling block to others. But as an old friend used to say to me, “when you know better, you do better.”

This was so important to Jesus that He performed a great miracle. He told Peter to go to the sea and cast a hook and catch the first fish that came up. Upon catching the fish, Jesus said open its mouth and you will find a piece of money that will be enough to pay my Temple Tax and also yours.

This was the first and only miracle done by Jesus to meet His need. It is the only miracle using money. It was his only miracle using one fish. It was the most complex of miracles. Consider this, (1) somebody had to lose a coin in the sea, (2) a fish had to take the coin into it’s mouth and not swallow it, (3) that same fish had to bite Peter’s hook. and (4), Peter only went fishing using nets but this time he used a fishing rod.

If Jesus went to all this trouble not to offend and create a stumbling block for someone’s walk with God, shouldn’t we do the same for someone’s walk with Jesus.