Matthew 17: 24-27 Jesus pays taxes
Jesus pays
taxes – yup! Every year during Lent we
also endure tax season in the US. Each
of us filling out the forms, praying to God we don’t owe too much and sending
them back to the government before the deadline. People remind each other that we can’t avoid
taxes like we can’t avoid death. Two
truths that even existed for Jesus.
But why
included paying taxes during the week we discuss making good decisions? Even though Jesus was a rebel and called into
question many practices; even though Jesus reformed things and challenged
authority; he did not just disagree. He was not a rebel that didn’t have a cause
and so just disagreed with everything.
He wasn’t someone just breaking all the rules around him because he could. His rebellion was formulated. His teachings were wise. His breaking or bending the rules was done
not out of distaste for it all but out of the hope to change.
There is a
difference between breaking the rules simply because you want to and breaking the
rules to stand up for change. Jesus was
a rebel for breaking and bending the rules; but he showed us several times
where he respected the laws. This is one
of those times; he pays his taxes.
Sometimes it
feels like a fine line between breaking the rules out of disdain for the church
and breaking the rules out of hope to change the church. Yet Jesus taught us to question
status-quo. We are not expected to think
that reform in the church ends with Jesus or that the prophetic age ended with
the greats of the Old Testament. We are
expected to continue in Jesus footsteps; pushing for some rules to change and
yet remembering to honor others.
