Go Fish

By Cheri Cowell –

Did you play Go Fish as a child? My sister and I loved to play Old Maid and Go Fish when at my grandparents’. I loved to send my sister “fishing.” Now, we weren’t too good at real fishing. Daddy had two girly girls and fishing was just too dirty for us. I remember watching Daddy clean the fish he caught and when I saw how he used pliers to get the hook from the poor fish’s mouth—that was the end of my fishing. Now if he’d found what Peter found when Jesus told him to Go Fish, I’d have instantly become a tomboy.

What did Peter find?

The drachma was a tax levied on Jews for the upkeep of the Jerusalem Temple. Head, or poll, taxes normally listed specific exceptions. For example, conquerors subjected conquered peoples, not their own subjects, to taxation. Likewise, priests were exempt from the two-drachma tax cited here. Most significantly, dependents of a king were naturally exempt from his taxes. Jesus was making a point to Peter, a point he would not understand till after Jesus’ death—the King of the Temple in whose name these taxes are being collected is God, the Father. Furthermore, and a point for you and me, Jesus supplied the tax in the mouth of the fish just as He will supply the needs of today’s church through us.

“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’” (Matthew 17:24-27 NIV).

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord for the provisions You supply. Help me to Go Fish with a heart of faith when the offering plate passes this Sunday.