IN the time of our Lord on earth a custom prevailed, which had grown up in Judaea after the captivity. Every adult Jew was required to give a defined sum for the service of the Temple. The amount was half a shekel, representing a present value of rather above a shilling of our money; but as the precious metals are now of far less worth than was the case eighteen hundred years ago, the half shekel tribute was really a heavy burden upon poor people. God had ordained a system of tithes for the support of the religious service in Israel, and this would fall upon all according to their respective prosperity. The annual toll of a given sum on everyone alike for the support of annual worship was not of Scripture origin. We remember the ransom-money of the half shekel paid by each Israelite which was devoted to the service of the tabernacle (Ex. 30:11-1611And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. 13This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. 14Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. 15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. 16And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. (Exodus 30:11‑16)), which had in it this great lesson, that, whether rich or poor, every man needs one and the same ransom paid for his soul-another principle altogether from that bound up in the custom of paying by a fixed rate for the maintenance of the temple of Jehovah.
This Temple tribute was regarded as a proper tax by the orthodox Jews. The Sadducees had tried to hinder it, but in vain, and probably to this fact, may be attributed Peter’s answer to the question of the receivers of the toll, when they inquired of him, “Doth not your Master pay tribute?” He was ever eager for the honor of his Master, and his ready “Yes,” would lead to the belief in the receivers of the money, that, without doubt, the preservation of the Temple, its services, and its wealth was a matter dear to the feelings of Jesus of Nazareth. But a greater than the Temple, and glories more exalted than even Solomon’s Temple had ever known, had but a few days previously been shining before Peter’s eyes. On the mount of transfiguration he had seen Jesus, had heard the excellent voice from heaven out of the glory-cloud, and had beheld Moses and Elias glorified in that glory with the Lord! Should the King of kings give tribute? Should He who is greater than all the Temples Israel ever saw, Jehovah-Jesus, contribute to the Temple’s support?
Doth not your Master―who is the King of kings―give tribute? would have been a strange question to put; but the receivers of the toll knew not the glory or the Person of the Lord, and Peter in his zeal seems to have forgotten it.
On Peter coming into the house, the Lord spoke before Peter could narrate what he had said, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom (or tribute)? of their own children, or of strangers?”
“Peter saith unto Him, Of strangers?”
“Jesus saith unto him, ‘Then are the children free?’”
The sons of the king do not pay tribute, by virtue of their relation to the king, and in this liberty are the sons of God placed.
But what the Lord could not do as a matter of constraint, He could do in grace! And commanding creation, as it were, to render tribute to Him, He bade Peter, “Lest we should offend them,” go to the lake, cast an hook, and take up the fish that came up first. Someone had let fall a shekel into the lake, and a fish had seen it shining in the water, and had seized it, and in that fish’s mouth was found the money necessary to pay the tribute for two persons. “That take,” said the Lord, “and give unto them for Me and thee.”
The almighty power of the Lord and His perfect grace stand here before us. In grace He linked Peter with Himself― “for Me and thee”―and yet in so doing wrought with wisdom and with power, which none other than He could do.
On another occasion the Pharisees and the Herodians (that is, the religious party and the court party of Judaea, as we might say―the church and the world) joined hands to catch Him in His words. The upholders of the Temple of God and the chiefs of Herod’s palace made a union to overthrow Christ; so, commencing with flattery, they asked their catch question, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?” Over and over again the Lord answered questions to meet the state of soul of those who put them. He knew their hypocrisy, and said, “Why tempt ye Me? Bring Me a penny, that I may see it.” This was not a coin devoted to Temple use, as was a Jewish shekel, but a coin current in Judea, then under Roman sway.
“And they brought it. And He saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto Him, Cæsar’s. And Jesus answering, said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”
His words cut asunder their union. He never did and never will tolerate the combination of the church and the world, and all kinds of such union are really but dishonor to God and denial of the truth of His word.