²⁴ On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

²⁵ “Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.

But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”

²⁶ “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! ²⁷ However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

Matthew 17:24-27

Dear God. I just realized something I’ve never seen before. I think Peter straight out lied to the temple tax collectors. Instead of calling him out on it, Jesus had a nice interaction with Peter about it. I think there are two interesting things about this:

• Jesus obviously knew Peter felt like he was in a no-win situation if he told the truth.
• Jesus decided this battle with the temple tax collectors was not worth fighting.

I’ve puzzled over this for a few minutes trying to find an application of this story to my life. I think what I’ve finally come to is that there is a line between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. There were two laws being broken in this story (at least in my interpretation, which could be wrong): Peter lying and Jesus and his disciples not paying the temple tax. Jesus seems to have given Peter a pass on the first one (at least directly, although he did passive-aggressively indicate to Peter that he saw what Peter did). On the second one, he explained why he didn’t feel the need to pay the temple tax.

For me, there are all kinds of things that are the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. I see it all of the time at the nonprofit where I work. One of the things we have to do is determine if patients are eligible for our services. There is the letter of the law that sets limits. But then there is the spirit of the law that goes back and asks why the limit was set where it is and if that person or family doesn’t qualify regardless of the actual rules.

My wife and I have some friends who are gay and in same-sex marriages. We were having dinner with one of the couples the other night. I have to admit, Father, that I do not know how you feel about this. I can justify it either way. But as we sat there at dinner, I looked at the two people, two humans, sitting across from me who seemed to be meeting needs–filling gaps–in each other’s lives. Does their love for each other grieve you? It was committed. It was monogamous. Honestly, as I sat there, I thought you were more concerned about their rejection of you as their God than you were about their relationship. So I just tried to represent you in that time and make you as appealing to them as I could without ever addressing sexual orientation. If they can get to a point where they will embrace you then I will let the Holy Spirit take it from there. After all, I have probably grieved you as much sexually throughout my life as they have, if they, indeed, are grieving you through their relationship.

Father, Holy Spirit, I pray for my friends–all of them–who are not your disciples. Show me how to love them. Show me how to draw them closer to yourself. Give them your peace. Give them your love. Use me in whatever way you see fit so that your kingdom might come and your will might be done in this world. Use me today as I get to know the strangers on this trip as well.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen