Does Jesus Pay Taxes? Matthew 17:22-27

Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time

22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 

This is the second time Jesus tells the disciples about his suffering, death, and resurrection.  

"The substance of what they heard was the same as before, but its repetition gave it a new force, as showing that it was not a mere foreboding of disaster, passing away with the mood of sadness in which it might have seemed to originate." (Ellicott)

23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

It is interesting that Jesus talks in the third person about himself.  In the Mark and Luke it says that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was talking about because it was hidden from them.  The sadness the disciples exhibit probably comes from two reasons.  One, they were sad their friend and mentor would be killed and taken from them.  Second, they were saddened that Jesus was betrayed and handed over to be killed.  They still had hopes that Jesus would be a Messiah who would deliver them from the Romans and become King of Israel.  

Despite the fact that Jesus said he would be raised from the dead, they still were filled with grief.  It's as if they didn't really hear that apart of what he said, Or, at least did not understand it. 

The Temple Tax

24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

As usual the Jewish tax collectors were trying to trap Jesus.  If he didn't pay that tax they would say he didn't support the religious establishment or its temple laws.  

"This was a tribute or payment of a peculiar kind, being half a shekel, (that is, about fifteen pence,) which every master of a family used to pay yearly to the service of the temple: to buy salt, and little things not otherwise provided for. It seems to have been a voluntary thing, which custom, rather than any law, had established." Benson

25 “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”26 “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 

Peter gave the quick and natural answer to this question. But then Jesus explained that He is notliable to pay this tax, because the Father doesn’t require it of His own Son. (Guzik)

“Rabbis were exempt from paying this tax, and so were the priests in Jerusalem; would Jesus claim a similar exemption? The question assumes that he does pay regularly, and Peter agrees.” (France)

27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Jesus not only pays the tax, but does it in a miraculous way.  

"To have refused to pay the didrachma on purely personal grounds would have been to claim prematurely that title of the Christ, the “Son of God,” which He had told His disciples at this crisis not to claim for Him (Matthew 16:20). To have done so on general grounds, common to Himself and others, would have been to utter a truth for which men were not prepared, and which they were certain to pervert." Ellicott

Importantly Jesus did the right thing, though he could have justified not paying it.  This reminds us how many times Jesus humbled himself by becoming human and obeying the laws of the land.  He was also teaching his disciples how to act in the public sphere.  

How do you handle things like paying taxes? How can we avoid giving offense by what we do? Or, give Christians a bad name?  What does this have to do with Paul's teaching us to "live a life above reproach"? What happens when Christians disobey laws claiming allegiance to a higher authority?  Is there any law a Christian should disobey on the grounds of Christian conscience?