One of this mornings readings included Matthew 17:24-27 which is:

 

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?" "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?" "From others," Peter answered. "Then the children are exempt," Jesus said to him. "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 is wonderful in his teaching. Some churches have used these verses about paying the temple tax as a lesson on why we need to tithe. While I agree tithing is important, to use these verses is somewhat disengenuous because the context is Israel, a theocracy living under the power of a foreign occupier (Rome). The temple tax is part of the governing tax unlike most countries today. At any rate Jesus has many points bound up in his example. The minor points include the need to pay the tax solely for the purpose of not offending the government (not out of fear or legal requirement). A broader application of this can be that when something is asked of us we deliver for the sake of the other even though it may be a sacrifice. The reverse of this then is that we should probably not burden others with similar requests.

 

The main point of the teaching though is the illustration that rulers do not ask anything burdensome, such as taxes, from their children. The children owe their father the king nothing. As adopted children of God he asks us for nothing and offers us everything. To make this point more solidly Jesus continues his teaching on children in chapter 18. One of the drawbacks of the age-old chapter and verse system in the Bible is that people will often assume the lesson to be done at the end of chapter 17 and fail to read further. If we read the first five verses of chapter 18 we find the following:

 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child, whom he placed among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

 

The disciples were brilliant when it came to not getting the point and in typical fashion the same happens here. One can hardly blame them for interpreting kingdom values with worldy eyes though. Jesus is asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. After the teaching about the taxes and the lesson that the children of the king (princes and princesses of the kingdom) are exempt from such burdens the natural question then is who will become the princes and princesses of the kingdom; or as the disciple asks "who then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" We know these verses are directly connected to the end of chapter 17 because of the "who then" in the first verses which is clearly in response to what came before. We also know they are connected because Jesus continues the theme of children. Jesus’s response is loaded with theological meaning (we cannot go into it all here). The children of the king are the greatest in heaven and therefore if we would be great in the kingdom we must become as children.

 

ASIDE: Too often people attempt to wrestle a behavioural ethic from these verses. Why? We simply love to reduce things to rules of behaviour (God knew this when he established the law to show us the futility of "right behaviour" as a bridge between us and him). We must become like children people say. Innocent, humble, gentle, etc. While these attributes most surely are welcome this is not what the verses are speaking of here. Frankly if you have ever watched children you know they are about as far from humble and gentle as we generally get. They are completely and totally self-focused/self-absorbed and often will often fight and physically dominate weaker children to get what they want (not unlike many adults actually)…becoming like children from a behavioral perspective will not get one into the kingdom of heaven.

 

How then do we ecome like children? We have by natural birth no claim to God as father. Adoption then is the only option and not simply behaviour. Further on in the gospel Jesus teaches about what it means to be adopted by the father and once again this requires nothing on the part of the child except acceptance. It should be a relief that we do not have to develop a behavioral pattern to enter the kingdom of God.