A Reflection for Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
Today’s Gospel reading falls into the biblical scholarly category of “kind of weird.”
It’s short, so I’ll quote the bulk of the passage:
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, ”Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?” ”Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, ”Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.”
I say it’s weird because most of the other miracles Jesus performs are so obviously meaningful and heavy with portent: He restores sight to the blind; he raises the dead. He makes the paralyzed man walk and casts out demons. He calms the storm, walks on water and multiplies food so no one goes hungry. Even his first public miracle moves effortlessly into metaphor: The wedding jars were full of water, but suddenly the party is overflowing with the very best wine.
His other miracles tend to convey the idea that “God can do this amazing thing for bodies, so now consider what he can do for souls.” But this fish-coin story is different. The problem at hand is that the temple bureaucrats are fussing at Peter over whether Jesus pays a few drachmae, so Jesus tells him to throw his line into the sea, and the tax will be delivered via fish. It comes across almost like a magic trick, maybe even a waste of Jesus’ unfathomable divine power.
Maybe that’s the point!
The one part of the Gospel reading I didn’t quote yet is the opening lines:
As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ”The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief.
That’s quite a bit heavier. It marks the beginning of Jesus revealing to them what’s really going on, and why he’s really here. Then the reading immediately switches over to the story about the fish.
So here we have Jesus telling his friends about his imminent passion, death and resurrection, which will interrupt the course of the entire cosmos and change the relationship between God and humans forever.
But wait, what should we do about the temple tax? I don’t know, go grab a magic fish and keep the change. Get yourself an ice cream cone.
I take this reading as Jesus making a deliberate contrast for his disciples. He tells them clearly why he came, and he is showing them that things like taxes, money, civic laws, people fussing at you and politics in general truly do not matter. Yes, you have to deal with them, but they’re not what our faith is for. They are not why Jesus came.
The best thing to do, according to Jesus’ example, is to shortcut your way into solving problems without picking needless fights, so you can get back to the things that do matter: saving lives. Saving souls. Healing. Being healed. Feeding the hungry. Giving comfort. Giving hope. Participating in the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord.
You can’t just ignore the demands of this world. Taxes do need to be paid; political questions do need to be addressed. They’re not completely unimportant. But they’re not worth the same level of attention, or the same whole-hearted pouring forth of our gifts, that other matters deserve.
This is a very good season to remember this message! You do what you need to do. You fish, you get the money, you pay the fee, you don't start senseless fights. And you keep your eyes on Jesus and do what he does.
