One thing that can easily be overlooked in our reading of scripture is the deep corruption of the later Second Temple period. It is a corruption that Jesus confronts several times, and it is that corruption that ultimately leads to his crucifixion. 

Matthew 17:24-27 is on point in this regard. Peter is confronted about paying the temple tax, and Jesus has Peter do a little fishing so that they might obtain coins to pay the tax.

It isn’t as if Jesus and Peter couldn’t pay the tax — the mission had a treasury and patrons (hence Judas carrying the money bag) — but Jesus is teaching a lesson about both submitting to earthly authority, even if corrupt, and not surrendering your allegiance and dependence on God.

In this era, the position of high priest was purchased from Rome, and it remained within family dynasties. The Temple Tax was of questionable scriptural provenance. The rate was set by the high priest. It had to be paid in Tyrian coins, so the high priest also set the exchange rate. 

The animal sacrifice system had also been corrupted. Annas, in Jesus’s time, sold animals from his own herd for sacrifice, and priests would also reject the animals brought in by families and defective, forcing them to purchase animals at inflated prices from Annas.

The Sadducees considered the temple tax voluntary, but as we can see in this passage, Jews were pressured into paying the tax. This created a two-tier system in which priests and the well-connected could avoid the tax, while everyone else had to pay.

Jesus asks Peter who has to pay — the kings of the earth and their kin, or just “strangers.” Peter answers strangers, meaning the rest of us. 

We see that Jesus recognizes the corruption, just as they did when he flipped tables in the Court of the Gentiles, but rather than encouraging resistance to the Empire, he advises not to cause offense, knowing that God provides and is ultimately the only sovereign.  So he instructs Peter to go fishing so that the Temple Tax might be paid by God, subverting the entire corrupt system. It is resistance through God’s authority, not in our own power.

This is giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar while relying not on man but God alone. 

Jesus flips tables, he asserts the sovereignty of God, but he turns his back on revolution, confrontation, violence, even to the point of going to the cross.

It’s a powerful lesson in resisting empire through obedience to God, in not conforming to this world, but standing apart from it.