Matthew 17:14-27.
Jesus comes down from the mountain of his transfiguration, casts out the demons from a possessed boy, berates his disciples for not having enough faith to do it, tells them he’ll be betrayed, killed and rise again, and then tells Peter to go catch a fish in whose mouth will be a coin to pay for his and Peter’s temple tax.
The disciples can’t cast out the demons from the boy because they’re jealous of Peter, James and John, who went up the mountain with Jesus.
The price they pay for being jealous is not enough faith to do what they should be able to.
#65279;
I struggle with jealousy too.
Even though I’m the principal, I get jealous when students or teachers go to the assistant principal or the main lady in the office.
I fail to see that this happens out of deference to me and my position.
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They don’t want to bother me with the small things.
I don’t see that they’re protecting me, preserving me for carrying heavier responsibilities.
My jealousy saps my energy, puts me out of focus, and makes me petty, unable to do move mountains, just like the disciples. It’s a heavy price to pay.
I love the story of the fish with a coin in its mouth. It seems almost magical, but it’s not. Jesus knows which fish picked up a coin someone dropped and he sends Peter the fisherman to catch that fish.
#65279; Peter does, gets the coin, pays the tax and keeps the fish.
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Since I was 16 and had my first part time job, I’ve been paying tax. There’s always tax. To live in this world, I have to pay tax.
There was a time when I did my best to avoid it by creating a phony company and using it to claim expenses. It didn’t work.
I could never balance my bank book because I never saw my first wife taking the money for alcohol.
I couldn’t figure out where my money was going.
I was blind to my own reality and blamed the tax people for my own predicament.
I blamed the tax man for my money problems until I lost all my money.
Then I began to understand things.
By paying my taxes and living frugally I had enough to live on.
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When I started paying the “temple tax” of tithing, I began to have more than enough to live on.
It seemed like magic, the same magic of Peter finding a coin in the fish’s mouth.
But it was just following God’s simple rules of life.
Do my work, pay my taxes, focus on God.
The price to pay for that simple life is giving up the desire for a special life.
Tomorrow I must be a substitute teacher because I have a teacher who is absent.
I am the principal, but I am also a teacher.
I can do this work to help share the burden in my school.
Lord, let me not be jealous of those in positions below me. Let me do the work you have provided for me and keep me focused on you, paying my temple taxes with joy.
