I grew up in the Ozarks around lots of fishermen, guys with bass boats and bait-stained fingers. My wife loves to fish, starting as a little girl in a Colorado stream next to her house in the mountains. I enjoy eating fish someone else caught and cleaned.

Jesus worked with a bunch of fishermen. After a confrontation about paying a temple tax one of them entered the house where Jesus waited. Jesus spoke first and somehow knew of the private conversation. He asked Peter who kings collect taxes from—their children or others? Peter answered, from others.

Then the children are exempt, Jesus replied. 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 referred of his divinity. As the Son of God, he wasn’t required to pay a tax to the temple dedicated to God. Or, to look at it another way, as part of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—Jesus didn’t need to pay a tax to himself.

But since this wasn’t the time to press the point, Jesus sent Peter off to catch a fish. First cast, big fish with a the predicted coin in its mouth. Jesus underscored his claim to divinity with the miraculous catch of a money-fish. One more stunning incident Peter and the rest of the disciples experienced.

People who fish love to tell stories. You hear tales of whoppers—the one that got away was a state record for sure!

With Jesus around the fish stories took a turn, much like the lives of the fishermen in his orbit, and the lives of those who follow him today.

Matthew 17 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by NOAA