Sunday 2 Jun 2013

Sunday Reading: Matthew 17:24-27

Key Verse: Matthew 17:25
25  He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

Devotion:
There was absolutely no reason for Peter doubting that Jesus would pay the appropriate temple tax because he knew Jesus was just. Christ already knew what they had asked Peter about and so He stopped Peter from asking the question in the first place and asked him a question instead. Jesus asked Peter what he thought of the situation to get an honest answer out of him. How Jesus presented the question was a bit different because He wanted to extract the correct answer instead of throwing doubt into Peter’s mind.

When we face others we often ask questions that will trip them up instead of getting the most information out of them. We also tend to do things like put people down by our words instead of lifting them up with encouragement. In fact the questions that we ask others quite often end up driving a wedge between us and them rather than smoothing any situation. But when it comes to speaking within families we often spend a bit more time before asking the question so that we do not offend our friends or relatives.

If we are going to charge anybody for doing a service then we are far more likely to charge strangers than our own friends and relatives – indeed we may well allow friends and relatives to get free service through us rather than to have to pay like anybody else.

Jesus wanted the disciples to see that God did not want them to be charged with having to pay for the privilege of meeting with Him. God wants us to have free and ready access to Him at any time and not only after we have paid enough money to get past some guards that are only there to extract money and not to serve God. By rights Jesus should not have to pay any tax because not only was he a direct descendant of Kind David, but He also is the actual Son of God! Both these positions should make Him exempt; but Jesus paid the tax because He wanted others to see that the religious leaders were extracting unlawful taxes at any opportunity.

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to keep to the law?

Are you trying to keep to Christ’s law as well?