01/24/17 - Matt 17

Jan 24, 2017 – Matt 17

Go throw out your line, take the first fish you catch, and open its mouth to find a coin.  Give it to them for my tax and yours.  Matt 17:27

God has equipped you with skills and abilities to use for receiving His blessing – so that you can pass it along.

The Pharisees were searching for any way to criticize and condemn Jesus’ ministry, and finally asked about paying taxes.  Much like today, people often tried to minimize or even cheat the Roman IRS and keep the money for themselves.  But since Jesus had no property or income, that was not much of a problem until it came to the temple tax required by all Jews.  When the Pharisees asked about that, Peter defended his mentor, but then realized he needed to check with Jesus to confirm the answer was right.

Jesus’ response was quite ironic:  The one who you pay the taxes to is not required to pay them to himself!  If you think about it, that’s a little silly.  Why pay money to yourself you already have?  But then Jesus said something even more ironic – to set the example of obedience, go fish and use the coin you catch to pay our taxes.  REALLY?  A coin in a fish’s mouth?  That’s crazy!  First of all, fish don’t eat coins.  And secondly, how do you get a fish to bite that already has his mouth full of metal?  And then … what makes you think that the first fish you catch will be such a fish!  Crazy!!!

But Peter obeys (that’s crazy too), and sure enough, there’s a fish with a coin to pay both of their taxes on the first try.  Jesus had Peter use his fishing skills to catch the fish, but then used the fish to supply the blessing, so that the blessing would help both Peter & Jesus (the Kingdom). 

God has given all of us skills and abilities.  Some of those came at birth in the form of natural giftedness.  Others have been trained along the way.  But all of those skills are useful to God as a source of receiving blessing.  That blessing is not a product of our skills, but of Jesus’ provision.  We don’t create the blessing, Jesus provided that.  All we do is use the skills and Jesus provides the catch.  And when we get the catch, it’s not just for our use alone.  Just as Jesus told Peter to use the coin for BOTH of their taxes, Jesus wants us to use the resources He gives us for both our needs and His Kingdom’s needs. 

Sometimes we forget God’s hand in our blessing.  We think it’s because of our skills, or abilities, or efforts, and that whatever we catch is for ourselves.  But we didn’t create the fish.  We don’t make the fish bite our hooks.  We don’t supply the fish with the needed blessing.  All of that was God’s doing, just like our abilities & skills were His doing.

Don’t miss out on the blessing by ignoring your skills.  And don’t misuse your skills to selfishly amass blessing.  Use what God has given you to receive His blessing, and pass some along for His Kingdom.