Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
November 17, 2021
Invitatory
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: Matthew 17:22-27
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were greatly distressed. When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?” When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”
Meditation – Peter Vanderveen
I love this text from Matthew because it’s so entirely out of step with how we tend to read -- or, in like manner, not read -- the Bible. The story about the tax collectors is ludicrous. It’s not meant to be believed, as if this were an event, something that actually happened. Nor is it meant to be put to use as a moral tale, as if Jesus were instructing us about our relationship to religious institutions and our corresponding responsibility to support them. And yet, these seem to be habits from which we cannot break free. If you were to page through a number of commentaries on this text, more often than not you’d find authors doing whatever they can to squeeze these verses into the form of these two expectations. And the result is both hilarious and sad. We seem to be so sure of how the Gospels should function that we can no longer allow them to speak for themselves. We feel the need to take them solemnly, and thereby we can miss the obvious humor, and, following this, what the humor is meant to disclose.
But what if this text were read as a jest? Let’s dispense with the default impulse that since it’s about Jesus we should remind ourselves that miracles can happen. And even though we’re still in the midst of our own Stewardship campaign, it would be a misread to suggest that this tells us anything about financial giving. I think we’re supposed to laugh out loud at how ridiculous this story is and, even more, at how ridiculous we look when we try to fit this story within our religious sensitivities. How absurd we can be, with every good intention.
To laugh is important here: to laugh at ourselves as readers, to laugh at our tacit acceptance that God as God would cause a coin to appear in the mouth of a fish, to laugh that such an event might tell us something essential about temples or churches. It’s farcical.
And our laughter is important because it opens up for us the space to see what’s really at issue. Matthew placed this story immediately after Jesus’ declaration that he would be violently eliminated. This is what the disciples heard: resurrection at that time meant nothing to them. What’s amazing, following after this, however, is that Jesus, in response to the inquiry about temple payments, would say about something as trivial as a temple tax that he had no desire to cause “offense.” Offense? Really? About this? When the temple authorities were plotting to kill him?
The absurdity of the account of how, then, to find the necessary coins simply reflects the absurdity that offense could be taken. And it frames up the astonishing nature of Jesus’ generosity of spirit, which is then all the more manifested in the note that the fish would yield enough payment for both Jesus and for Peter. It’s the humor here that shows how trifling our concerns are in comparison to the extravagance of God’s good will.
And this might be as good a lens as any, through which to read the Bible, unshackling it from all the presuppositions that make it so dull.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
