5/1/16-Matt. 17:24-27-Ambassadors for Jesus

Theodore Sorensen once said, “The ambassador was never present, but his presence was never absent.

An ambassador is a citizen of a country that goes to live in another country to be a representative, to live, teach, and promote goodwill. It may live in the new, but it never forgets the home.

As a Christian people, we are to be ambassadors too. To be in the world, yet not of it, and this requires us to walk a balancing line.

On the one hand, we cannot be so “out of this world” because we have to realize people need to hear and see the good news of Jesus Christ, yet we cannot be so much “of the world” that people do not see the difference Jesus made in us.

So it comes down to one simple question, Can people see Jesus in our lives? If we are so sheltered and removed from everyday life, people can’t see Jesus in us. Yet if we go and act no differently than everyone else in our life, people can’t see Jesus in us either. So “let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven”.

With that in mine, let us look at this parable. Jesus’ disciple, Peter, is asked a simple question, “Does Jesus pay the temple tax”? Peter answers, “Yes.”

And here is Jesus, almost as if He knows Peter’s thoughts (which by the way He does because He is God), and He asks a question to Peter, “From whom do the kings of the earth collect taxes?” In other words, “Peter if you were the boss, would you collect money from your own children or the people who worked under you?” Peter replies, “From the strangers under me”.

So Jesus replies, “Then the sons are exempt.” Yet, He tells Peter, “Let us not offend anyone.

Peter go and catch a fish and in its mouth you will find the tax money for both of us.”

So, what lessons are to be learned here? Well, let us unpack this a bit to find out. Jesus says the sons of the king are exempt.

Now, if Jesus is the Son of God, and the temple was the house of God, then Jesus is basically asking Peter, “If Kings do not tax their sons, and if Jesus is God’s Son, then Jesus is exempt from paying the temple tax, because He is God of the temple!

The first truth: Jesus the Son of God is exempt from the tax.

The second truth: The second truth goes back to what we said about being ambassadors, or being in the world but not of it.

Look at what Jesus does here, He says “the children are exempt” from the taxes. (It says “children” meaning both Jesus and His followers (all of us). YET, He still turns around and pays the tax…why? What is going on here?

He is trying to not offend and so He pays the tax and also leaves us an example by doing so.

As ambassadors for Christ, we must be careful to, on the one hand, obey the laws of the world, yet always remember where our true loyalty must always be, God’s Kingdom.

How? Know the Word of God, and if a law is passed that violates God’s Word or Doctrine, then we must obey God rather than man.

But if a law does not contradict His Word, then it does no harm to our souls to obey it.

So, it comes down to this, Can people see Jesus in you?

Remember as Christ one said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar, and give to God what is God’s (which by the way is everything!).

Or another way to remember, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar, but realize Caesar does not own you. We Christians belong to a much more good and loving King of Kings!”