"Coin Fish Mouth"¹

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light. Send out your light and your truth, O God, and let them lead us. Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the gospel of Matthew. Listen.

Matthew 17.24-27.

When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” ²⁵He 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?”  ²⁶When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free.  ²⁷However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea 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.”

The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

This week and next, I am going to tackle a couple of Parables that have been named Parables of Grace. In the past I have preached on Parables of Judgment, and Parables of the Kingdom, so now I want to tackle at least a couple of the Parables of Grace.

This story, found in Matthew, is considered the first parable of grace, which is interesting in that this is an acted out parable, not a story told. This is not uncommon, as there are parabolic elements in such stories as the temptation in the wilderness, walking on water, casting money changers out of the temple, cursing of a fig tree, among others. Some folks will dismiss these enacted parables because they seem too unlikely to have actually happened. Without getting lost down that rabbit hole, let me simply reiterate what I have said before. It’s not important to me whether or not the story before us happened exactly as it is written. All of my favorite stories, several of which I share from this pulpit on Sunday mornings, all of them are true. And some of them actually happened the way I have said they did. What is important to me is finding the point of the story, not proving or disproving the historical fact of it. I’m not saying I believe it happened differently than reported. I’m just saying I don’t care. I can’t prove it did happen, but you can’t prove it didn’t either. The episode just sits there in the text waiting to be commented on, not argued with. You’re free to do with that whatever you want. I tell you so you know where I come from in preaching stuff like this to you.

Matthew 17 contains the following miracles: the transfiguration in verses 1 – 13, the healing of a boy with a demon in 14 – 21, the second prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection in 22 & 23, and the coin in the fish’s mouth in 24 – 27. The disciples and Jesus have moved to Capernaum and the collectors of the annual temple tax, equal to about two days pay, came to Peter with a question. “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” they ask. Peter’s answer is yes, but with undertones of ‘sure,’ or ‘of course he does’. A quick reply probably based on Peter’s desire to make his master look respectable in the eyes of the authorities more than on Peter’s actual knowledge of Jesus’ intentions and practices. Peter comes into the house, and Jesus, who seems not to have been present for the questioning, ironically begins to speak about the temple tax before Peter even says a word. “What do you think, from whom do the kings of the earth take tax, from the children of Israel or from others?” Peter answers “from others,” and Jesus replies, “then the children are free,” which is mostly lost on us. Jesus is saying that the tax is not relevant to him, his followers, the children of Israel, since they are the children of the temple, who is imposing this particular tax. And children aren’t responsible to pay the tax. They are free. But, so as to not get in trouble for this, Jesus decides to cough up the money, so to speak.

My interpretation of the whole passage can be summed up briefly, or could be if I or any pastor could sum up things briefly: Jesus, having arrived at the recognition that his own death will lie at the heart of his being the messiah, finally feels free enough of that old, political, religious and ethical expectations that people had about the messiah, so free that he can make a joke about them. Not that he hadn’t always flown in the face of those expectations. From the beginning he broke the Sabbath and consorted with morally unacceptable types of people. But now he experiences a new kind of freedom. Knowing they are going to kill you anyway has that kind of effect. The coin in the fish’s mouth is a breath of fresh air for Jesus.

Those of course are not Jesus’ words. He probably never thought or felt about the matter in those terms. But it is hard to read the episode and not conclude that it is a lark. Jesus seems more at ease, more relaxed than before. He performs this odd little miracle, and it feels like a joke. He sets Peter up with his question. Peter gives the obvious response, so Jesus delivers a sweeping declaration of independence, the children of Israel are not required to pay for salvation. Then Jesus spits out a hilarious mixture of consideration for others, “let’s not scandalize them,” frivolous wonder working, “take the first fish,” and financial precision, “you’ll find a stater,” four drachmas, right on the nose for two people. At the least, Jesus intimates what Paul would eventually express with eloquent words in Romans 8.21, namely, “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

In other words, Jesus is trying to get across the issue of freedom, that what marks the children of God is that they are free from having to pay any tax to anyone to be right with God, that God is picking up the tab. And Jesus uses this teachable moment in the form of a good joke.

I think the point of the story, and again, for me, finding the point is the point, not arguing whether the reporter, in this case Matthew, got all the facts right. I’m tired of bashing of the media, justified or not, and I’m not going to do it here in the writer of the gospel bearing my name. The point is the point, nothing else matters to me. The point is that Jesus says, “then the children are free,” and that means an end of religion.

The episode says that whatever it was that religion was trying to do, the religion of the temple in particular and, by extension, all religions everywhere. Whatever religion was trying to do will not be accomplished by religious acts or religious tax, but in the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That perception seems to have been so liberating to Jesus that he allowed himself the frivolity of this very odd little miracle. But beyond that it is, and should be, radically liberating to everyone.

Humans are profoundly and desperately religious. From the beginning of our history right up to the present day, there is not a man, woman, or child of us who has ever been immune to the temptation to think that the relationship between God and humanity can be repaired from our side, by our efforts. These efforts often involve theological correctness or ethical achievements, or some combination of those with some others; but we are all, it seems to be, deeply committed to them. If we are not convinced that God can be conned into being favorable to us by our right belief, or chicken sacrifices, or the gritting of our moral teeth, then we still have a hard time shaking the belief that stepping over sidewalk cracks, or placing the roll of tp as an over or under, will somehow render the Ruler of the Universe kindhearted.

But we know that is all bunk. We know it, its just hard living it. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, nor can any other religious act do what it sets out to do. We haven’t got a card in our hand that can take even a single trick against God. Despite the correctness of its insistence that something needs to be done about our relationship with God, religion remains unqualified bad news: it traps us in a game we will always and everywhere loose.

But the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is extremely good news. It is the announcement, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that God has simply called the game off – that God has taken all the disasters that religion was trying to remedy and, without any recourse to religion at all, God has set them right. How sad, then, when the church acts as if it is in the religion business rather than the gospel-proclaiming business. What a disservice, not only to itself but also to a world perpetually sinking in the mire of religiosity, when the church harps on creed or conduct as the basis of salvation. What a perversion of the truth that sets us free when the church takes the news that while we were sinners Christ died for us, and turns it into a proclamation of God as just one more insufferable bookkeeper.

The messiah that was expected was a little bit like a religious version of the song Santa Claus is coming to town. They wanted Jesus to make a list, check it twice, and find out who was naughty and who was nice. Fortunately, and I think Jesus senses it clearly at the point where coin, fish, and mouth intersect, Jesus is not Santa Claus. He comes to the world’s sin with no list to check, no tests to grade, no debts to collect, no scores to settle. He will wipe away the handwriting that was against us and nail it to his cross. He will save not some small portion of little girls and boys with religious money in their piggy banks, but all the stone-broke, morally bankrupt, deadbeat, overextended children of this world, and set them free in the liberation of his death.

And when Jesus senses that, it is worth a laugh, worth a joke miracle. He tacks a “Gone Fishing” sign over the sweatshop of religion, and for all the debts of all sinners who ever lived, he provides exact change for free.

How nice it would be if the church could only remember to keep itself in on the joke.