Matthew 17: When God Provides for Your Needs

Introduction

A coin found in the mouth of a fish. During his studies, Jago Wynne was convinced that this miracle was not in the Bible. He had even said so to an atheist friend who cited it as proof that you cannot believe everything in Scripture. He was wrong: the episode is found at the end of Matthew 17.

Jago Wynne leads Holy Trinity Clapham in London, where he holds the equivalent of a senior pastor's role. This message is the fifth in a series of eight on how Jesus trained Peter as a disciple, through the episodes Matthew records between chapters 14 and 19.

The account takes just four verses (Matthew 17:24-27). The question is not so much what happens, which is fairly clear, but why Jesus performs such a strange miracle. The preacher finds in it deep comfort and a very concrete challenge.

Message Outline

1. Listening to Jesus by Listening to the Bible

At the start of Matthew 17, on the mount of transfiguration, a voice comes out of the cloud: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." (Matthew 17:5).
About thirty years later, in his second letter, Peter looks back on that episode (2 Peter 1:16-21). He explains to his readers that we can no longer listen to Jesus in person, but that we listen to him through Scripture.
So many voices demand our attention today. The only way to hear the voice of Jesus loud and clear, "as through a megaphone", is to listen to him in the Bible.
Before the reading, the pastor prays for three provisions: spiritual protection, the finances the church needs, and "ears that listen".

2. A Strange Miracle, but Really in the Bible

In Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax ask Peter whether his teacher pays it. Peter answers that he does.
Inside the house, Jesus explains that they do not have to pay it, but that they will pay it anyway so as not to cause offense.
To find the money, he sends Peter to the shore of the sea: the first fish he catches will have a stater in its mouth, a coin worth four drachmas.
"This miracle, however strange it may seem, is in the Bible." We may be puzzled about why, but the summary is simple: Jesus miraculously provides for Peter's needs.

3. Jesus Can Provide for Your Needs

There is nothing wrong with asking Jesus in prayer to provide for our needs. We cannot guarantee a miraculous provision, but we can ask for it, and sometimes Jesus answers.
This summer, the pastor's family, with four children, was lent a house in the south of France for two weeks, free of charge. But their accounts were almost empty, and renting a seven-seater car alone cost 1,000 pounds.
He and his wife prayed without really knowing what to expect. Two days later, a group of people gave them a generous gift for their 25th wedding anniversary. It covered essentially all the costs of the vacation.

4. Jesus Is the Exempt Son

In London, people over 60 travel free on public transport thanks to the "freedom pass". They are exempt.
Jesus asks Peter: "From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their children, or from strangers?" Peter answers: "From strangers." (Matthew 17:25-26).
You cannot picture Prince William and Princess Kate standing in line and paying for a ticket to visit Buckingham Palace. The king's children are exempt.
This tax goes toward the upkeep of God's house, the temple. God's own Son therefore does not have to pay it.

5. Jesus Paid So That You Could Be Exempt Too

Despite his exemption, Jesus pays for himself and for Peter. A little arithmetic is enough: the tax is two drachmas, and the coin is worth four. It pays for two people.
Just before this, Jesus has announced his death (Matthew 17:22-23). With the coin, he pays what Peter owed for the temple. On the cross, he pays what we all owed for our sin.
How do we know the miracle points to the cross? This annual tax had been established in the time of Moses (Exodus 30:11-16). Each person had to pay it as a ransom for their life, because everyone had sin to atone for.
The temple tax underlined the need for atonement. The cross is the place where that atonement actually took place. Jesus, the only sinless man, pays for you with his own life.
Jesus says "Therefore the children are exempt" (Matthew 17:26), in the plural. If you trust in his death, you can say: "I owe nothing, and I will never owe anything for my sin, past, present, and future." You have a "freedom pass" for life and for eternity.

6. A Child Holding Her Father's Hand

Being a Christian is not only a legal status (being released from paying for your sin). It is also a family status: you are a child of God and you can call him Father.
At 20 months old, on vacation in Cornwall, his eldest daughter loved the sea. On the beach, she would point at the water and run straight into the waves. Her father ran after her, took her hand, and they went into the water together.
She could not swim, the waves were much bigger than she was, but she was not afraid: she knew her father loved her and took care of her.
At 20, she knows that her father cannot always protect her and that he makes mistakes. But she sees in that relationship a picture of her relationship with her heavenly Father, who cares for her perfectly and lets her move forward with courage.
Whatever your relationship with your earthly father, even if it has been difficult or painful, you can know in Jesus the wonder of calling God your Father and holding his hand throughout your life. That is the comfort of this passage.

7. Not Being a Stumbling Block

The challenge is found at the start of verse 27: "But, lest we cause them to stumble." The word literally means a stumbling block.
It is the same word Jesus used with Peter when Peter wanted to steer him away from the cross: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me" (Matthew 16:23).
Jesus did not want anyone to be able to say that he did not respect the rules. And he says "we": he wanted Peter to share the same concern not to block anyone on the way to God.
Is there something in the way you live that makes others say: "If Christians are like that, I want nothing to do with them"? Hypocrisy, lack of love, a life that is no different from anyone else's?
The obstacle may simply be never talking about this exemption. The church team spots free burgers or sweets handed out in the neighborhood in an instant and tells everyone. Are we just as quick to talk about the far more glorious exemption from the price of our sin, or to invite someone to an Alpha course?
Nine years after university, while preparing a sermon on Matthew 17, the pastor discovered that the miracle did exist. He invited his atheist friend to the pub to apologize. His friend reassured him, apologized in turn for his hostile questions, then told him he had become a disciple of Jesus and was going to be baptized a few weeks later.
"I didn't have all the answers. I didn't even know what was in the Bible. But God used me in my weakness, as a small link in what led him to faith." We are far more often stumbling blocks through lack of courage than through lack of wisdom.

Key Takeaways

We listen to Jesus today by listening to the Bible: that is where we hear his voice loud and clear.
You can ask Jesus to provide for your needs. He does not guarantee the miracle, but he can answer and sometimes he does.
Jesus, the exempt Son, paid on the cross what you owed for your sin, just as the coin from the fish paid for him and for Peter.
In Jesus, you are an exempt child: you owe nothing more, and you can call God your Father.
The greatest obstacle to other people's faith is often our lack of courage to talk about this good news.

Personal Application

Among all the voices calling you, how much room are you giving this week to the voice of Jesus in the Bible?
What concrete need can you bring to Jesus in prayer, without demanding the form his answer will take?
Are you living as someone who owes nothing more for their sin, or are you still carrying a debt that Jesus has already paid?
What changes in the way you face life's waves when you know you are the child of a Father who holds your hand?
Who around you could hear about this exemption if you found the courage to tell them?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus pay the temple tax when he is exempt from it?

Jesus explains that kings do not make their children pay the tax: as the Son of God, he does not have to pay the tax for his Father's house. Yet he pays it, "lest we cause them to stumble" (Matthew 17:27). For Jago Wynne, Jesus did not want anyone to be able to say that he did not respect the rules, and so become an obstacle for those who might come to God.

How does the coin in the fish's mouth point to the cross?

The two-drachma tax, established in the time of Moses (Exodus 30:11-16), served as a ransom for each person. The stater found in the fish is worth four drachmas: it pays for Jesus and for Peter. Just before this, Jesus has announced his death (Matthew 17:22-23). On the cross, he pays what we owed for our sin.

What does it mean to be an "exempt" child of God?

Jesus says "Therefore the children are exempt" (Matthew 17:26), in the plural. If you trust in the death of Jesus, you owe nothing more for your sin, past, present, and future. It is not only a legal status: it is also a family status. You can call God your Father and hold his hand throughout your life.