Miracles Of Jesus In The Gospels- Bible Study- 3

Miracles Of Jesus In The Gospels- Bible Study- 3

Narrated In 1 Gospel

Gospel Of Mathew

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?" "Yes, he does," he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes--from their own sons or from others?" "From others," Peter answered. "Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, 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." (Matthew 17:24-27)

Peter, once a fisherman, now a catcher of men- in training, is asked by Jesus to do a task so unusual that his jaw must have dropped when he witnessed the miracle happening when he obeyed the master’s words.

This was an unusual way to find money for paying the 2 drachma tax. Well, actually 4 drachmas, 2 for Jesus and 2 for Peter. The knowledge and experience that Peter had acquired by being a fisherman for long may have questioned the validity of his teacher’s proclamation of finding a 4 drachma coin in the mouth of a fish, but nevertheless he must have been obedient to his teacher.

Imagine Peter carrying the fishing line and a few live worms to get this task done. He must have been thrilled of going back to the waters to catch fish. Actually it was a habit he found hard to give up in the initial part of his ministry, for we read in the gospel of John that when Jesus died and was buried and then resurrected, the disciples decided to go fishing again. Perhaps they missed the constant presence of Jesus and were getting impatient, so they decided to go fishing.

Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. (John 21:2, 3)

Coming back to imagining Peter walking towards the lake, line in hand, humming a few praises to God. People seeing him must have commented, “Good old Peter, back to fishing, seems like old times.”Yet he was here on a different mission, known only to him and his master.

There could have been a lot of “what if’s” going through the mind of Peter, yet he had reason to believe; he had seen enough miracles done by his master. And so he must have cast the line with confidence; confidence not in his prowess as a fisherman or the quality of the fishing line, but confidence in the words of his Lord and Master. That’s when the miracle must have happened, for we do not have verses which say that he found the 4 drachma coin in the fish’s mouth and paid the tax, but that is understood as far as those of us who believe in the mighty miracle working power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are concerned.