Exposition of Matthew (Matthew 16:28, 17:22-27)

September 3, 2021 

(Jesus’ last days of earthly ministry)

Questions to be answered in this study

1. When did the slow learning disciples finally get it concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus?
2. What is the capstone of the Christian faith and the essence of the Gospel?
3. What was the biggest issue that the disciples failed to understand about Jesus?
4. What is the greatest assurance of the Gospel?
5. What are the two concepts concerning the Gospel that are essential to understand if we assimilate it?
6. What did Jesus mean when He asked Peter, “When kings on earth institute a poll or customs tax, does that tax apply to the sons of the king or to strangers?”
7. What was the one most important thing about Jesus that His disciples did not understand?
8. What was Jesus’ primary mission on earth?
9. What lesson do we learn from Jesus concerning His humble approach of paying taxes that He did not owe?

Introduction

Our study of Mathew has centered on the final days of the earthly ministry of Jesus. As we have seen, it has been a time of conflict and turmoil. When Jesus offered Israel a kingdom and a king, they rejected it, and the window closed, which has now been closed for nearly 2,000 years with Israel still in disbelief concerning their Messiah. Although the nation Israel is still in disbelief in general, there are many Jewish Christians. My wife and I met several of them during our recent visit to Israel, which were very dedicated to the Lord.

Many believed during the earthly ministry of Jesus, including the 12 faithful disciples. After the ascension of Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, some 3,000 were added to the church and many more believed following that. However, during His final year on earth, after His rejection, Jesus was no longer revealing Himself to the nation Israel, nor was He publicly teaching and healing the crowds as He did before. It was with the 12 that Jesus spent most of His time training and teaching them to take over the kingdom ministry, particularly the church.

Jesus has introduced to the disciples His upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection, which the disciples struggle to believe and accept. It would only be after they saw Jesus after His death and resurrection that they would finally understand and get it. It was only then that they could explain it to others.

In today’s study, Jesus continues to teach the disciples further what the future held:

Matthew 17:22-23, “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: 23And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”

Jesus is teaching the disciples the capstone of the Christian faith and the essence of the Gospel, based on His death, burial, and resurrection. The biggest issue that the disciples failed to understand was that the primary purpose for Jesus coming to earth was to make way to forgive sin by paying the penalty for it by His death. Even though Judas, Pilot, and the Jewish religious authority were responsible for delivering Jesus to the Romans for His crucifixion, it was God who ordained for it to take place. Jesus lay His life down of His own accord. For the Scripture says, “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand,” Isaiah 53:10 (KJV).

The Gospel assures us that placing our faith in Jesus forgives ourselves our sins by His substitutionary death. That would be the message these disciples would go forth to proclaim to others at the risk of losing their life. The disciples were yet to understand what Jesus was teaching them, as evidenced by their response in verse 23 that “they were exceeding sorry.” 

After this, according to Mark 9:30, they went out and began to go through Galilee. Jesus now wants to go without being known where He can concentrate on teaching the disciples. In Mark 9:31 (KJV), Mark tells us Jesus said, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” Mark tells us in Mark 9:32 that the disciples did not understand but were afraid to ask Jesus of the meaning. Twice now, Jesus has spoken of His impending death and resurrection. They did not know the importance of the kind of information Jesus told them because they had no former reference point by which to compare it.

There are two concepts concerning the Gospel that are essential to understand if we are to assimilate it: God’s incarnation and the self-sacrificial love of God. These two things are at the heart of Christian theology. It is difficult to understand how God came down from heaven and became a man, becoming both fully man and fully God and then loving those who rejected him and crucified Him enough to die in their place to pay the price for their sin. The important thing is not so much understanding but accepting what God has done through faith.

Now we come to the place in Matthew where we see the disciple’s confusion concerning the concepts of the gospel. The first one, the significance of God becoming man, is noted in the following two verses:

Matthew 17:24-25, “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 25He 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?”

Jesus and the disciples had traveled back to the northern part of Judea and arrived at Jesus’ adopted hometown, Capernaum. Capernaum was also the home of Peter, and that is where they go. Some tax collectors come to Peter’s house looking for Jesus concerning taxes owed based on Exodus 30:11-12. The taxes amounted to a half-shekel; these taxes were levied each year for all males ages 20 to 50. They were generally collected at the time of the Passover and were contributions to God. These taxes took care of the upkeep and operation of the Temple. There was no half-shekel coin; so, two-drachma coins equaled a half-shekel.

Peter was the one who went outside to meet with the tax collectors since it was his home. The tax collectors ask Peter if his rabbi had paid the required tax. Without first consulting Jesus, Peter presumptuously says yes, Jesus would pay the tax. Then Peter reenters the house and informs Jesus. Jesus then asks Peter the question: “When kings on earth institute a poll or customs tax, does that tax apply to the sons of the king or to strangers?”

To understand the question Jesus is asking Peter, we must understand it in the context of the day in which Peter and Jesus lived. Taxation was different in those days from today. The king levied taxes and made the laws, but he and his family were exempt from paying taxes and keeping the law. Many of the Roman tax laws only applied to strangers, not citizens of Rome. Today in America, the president, and congress create taxation and make laws, and they are also subject to both like everyone else, including non-citizens or strangers. However, there are times when other countries or strangers are required to pay taxes in the form of tariffs not imposed on the citizens of a nation.

Peter did not understand the deity of Jesus, or he would not have told the tax collectors that Jesus would pay the taxes. God instituted the taxation on the Temple, but Jesus is the son of God and actually God in the flesh and was not subject to the surcharge. If Peter had known this, he would have told the tax collectors that they needed to speak with Jesus.

We also need to understand who Jesus is. He is both 100% Man and 100% God. We struggle to comprehend that in our minds, but it is true. Otherwise, Jesus would not have been qualified to be the savior. First, He had to be a human person to die and pay the sin debt. Second, He also had to be God to be sinless and qualified to die for the sins of others. Therefore, according to the Bible, only those who place their faith in Jesus can be forgiven of their sins and enter into the kingdom of heaven. For the Bible says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the LORD Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” Romans 10:9 (KJV).

Peter and the disciples were yet to understand the most important thing about who Jesus concerned His deity. They saw Him more like a man or maybe fully as a man and not as God. Therefore, neither could they understand why He must die. Had He only been a man, then His death would have been untimely and devastating. It then would seem to put an end to the Messiah’s mission on earth, but actually, it was Jesus’ primary mission to come to earth and die for the sins of man. Jesus’ death was not the failure of a plan; it was the fulfillment of a program, God’s plan of salvation: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Rom. 5:8 (KJV).

Perhaps Peter and the other disciples struggled more to accept that God should be willing to become a man and die for the sins of man than to believe that He was God in the flesh. That brings us to the following verse:

Matthew 17:27, “Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.”

Just because Jesus is exempt from the taxes imposed on Him does not mean that the tax collectors will agree. So, Jesus gives Peter instructions on where to get the money to pay them, and it was not from the bank but from the mouth of a fish in the sea.

Suppose Peter, after being told by Jesus that He was exempt from taxes because He was God, went and relayed that message to the tax collectors. What do you think the reaction would have been? It would have resulted in the Pharisees making a charge against Jesus and arresting Him for not paying the taxes due. The Pharisees were already highly offended because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. In John 10:33-36 (KJV), the Jews were about to stone Jesus and give the reason why: “The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” 

The unbelieving Jews would have accused Jesus of Blasphemy even though Jesus had spoken the truth. So, Jesus, rather than offending them, agreed to pay the taxes. He instructs Peter to go down to the sea, which was only a short distance away, and get the needed money from the mouth of a fish. So, the first fish Peter catches has a shekel in its mouth, enough to pay the tax for both of them.

This particular miracle was a very unusual miracle in which God provided the money to pay the tax, which underscores that Jesus is indeed who He claims to be, God in the flesh. It also shows the humility of Jesus agreeing to pay taxes He did not owe.

Philippians 2:5-9 (KJV) shows the humility of Jesus: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ₉Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:”

Jesus had told Peter when He called him to be a disciple that He would make him a fisher of men. Since Peter was a fisherman, catching a fish with the tax money in its mouth was a great way to have Peter get the needed money. Now Peter must have been greatly encouraged because of the power of his master. Jesus is calling each of us today into a serving ministry, and He will also provide the way and the means.

Jesus’ humble approach is a lesson for each of us today. We also are sometimes mistreated. Should we become defensive, or should we humble ourselves and go our own way. I might add here that being defensive is never a help; it only offends others and never endears us to them or resolves an issue. We do well to mimic the humility of Jesus, setting aside our desires to glorify our Lord and Savior by serving others as He has served each of us by providing our needs.