the more satisfactory will they be found ; and that the more cordially the truth itself is embraced, the more influential will it become, for the comforting and sanctifying and saving of every believing soul.]
Matt. xvii. 27. Notwithstanding , lest we should offend them,
go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that
first Cometh up ; a?id when thou hast opened his mouth, thou
shall find a piece of money : that take and give unto them for
me arid thee.
THERE was nothing in the whole creation over which our Lord did not exert his sovereign authority. He not only overruled the spirits of men, but caused diseases and devils to flee at his command. The very beasts of the forest^, and the fishes of the sea, were subject to his control, and yielded a ready obedience to his will. A most remarkable instance of his power over every living creature occurs in the passage before us. To elucidate it we shall,
I. Unfold the circumstances under which he wrought the miracle — A certain tribute was about to be demanded of him —
[This tribute was half a shekel *'. It was originally to be paid by every one above the age of twenty, whensoever the people should be numbered. It was called the ransom money, and an atonement for their souls, because it was an acknow- ledgment to God, that their lives had been justly forfeited, and were spared merely through his sovereign mercy. More was not to be paid by the rich, nor less by the poor, because the lives and the souls of all are of equal value in the sight of God, and there is but one ransom-price for all. It was to be applied to the service of the tabernacle and temple, in which all classes of men were alike interested, and to the due support of which all should contribute'']
From this, Jesus had a right to claim an exemption —
[It is usual for kings to exact tribute, not of their own children, but of their subjects, and of the foreigners who trade
^ Mark i. 13. '^ About fifteen pence of our money.
<= Exod. XXX. 12— to.
1379.1 CIimST PAYING THE TRIBUTE MONEY. 469
with them. Now Jesus was the Son of God, and the heir of all things : he therefore was not liable to pay the tax ; and this right of exemption he stated to his servant Peter.]
But he waved his claim rather than give offence —
[Just as his claim really was, it was not likely to be acknowledged by the tax-gatherers. If insisted on, it might have given them occasion to represent him as indifferent to the temple service ; and it might perhaps have been drawn into a precedent by those who were God's ado^Hed children. He therefore chose rather to wave his right than by insisting on it to produce contention. He would " not give occasion to those who sought occasion against him," " nor suffer his good to be evil spoken of." He would not do even a lawful thing, if it might prove an occasion of offence'^.]
Not having money wherewith to answer the de- mand, he was constrained to supply his necessities by a miracle —
[In this miracle he discovered his omniscience. His all- penetrating eye beheld what was passing in the very depths of the sea : He knew that there was a fish, with one particular piece of money in its mouth ; that it should be in the precise place where Peter should let down his hook ; and that, coming to the hook, it should instantly be caught. What greater proof of omniscience could he give ? And what in heaven or earth can be concealed from him, who discovered these things with such infallible certainty ?
His omnipotence also was evinced by it. It is not to be con- ceived that such improbable things should occur, if they had not been accomplished by the secret agency of his overruling providence ; nor would he have risked the credit of his divine mission upon so trifling an incident, if he had not foreordained that it should exactly correspond with his predictions. Can any thing then be impossible to him, who could thus overrule the motions of a creature so distant from him, and apparently so independent of him ? Surely no miracle whatever could more plainly evince his eternal power and godhead.]