Straight from the glory of the mountain top, he was met by human suffering. Straight from hearing the voice of God, he came to hear the persistent demands of human need that cried out to him. The most Christlike people in the world are those who never find other people a nuisance. It is easy to feel Christian in the moment of prayer and meditation; it is easy to feel close to God when the world is shut out.

But that is not religion—that is escapism. Real religion is to rise from our knees before God to meet other people and the problems of the human situation. Real religion is to draw strength from God in order to give it to others. Real religion involves meeting both God in the secret place and men and women in the market place. Real religion means taking our own needs to God, not that we may have peace and quiet and undisturbed comfort, but that we may be enabled graciously, effectively and powerfully to meet the needs of others. The wings of the dove are not for Christians who would follow their Master in going about doing good.

23.169 σεληνιάζομαι: to suffer epileptic seizures (associated in ancient times with the supernatural power of the moon)—‘to suffer epileptic seizures, to be an epileptic.’ σεληνιάζεται καὶ κακῶς πάσχει ‘he is an epileptic and suffers terribly’ Mt 17:15.

When Jesus spoke about removing mountains, he was using a phrase which the Jews knew well. A great teacher, who could really expound and interpret Scripture and who could explain and resolve difficulties, was regularly known as an uprooter, or even a pulverizer, of mountains. To tear up, to uproot, to pulverize mountains were all regular phrases for removing difficulties.

So, on the basis of Exodus 30:13, it was laid down that every male Jew over twenty years of age must pay an annual Temple tax of one half-shekel. In the days of Nehemiah, when the people were poor, it was one-third of a shekel. One half-shekel was equal to two Greek drachmae; and the tax was commonly called the didrachm, as it is called in this passage. The value of the tax was in fact the equivalent of two days’ pay for a working man. It brought into the Temple treasury about £100,000 a year. Theoretically, the tax was obligatory and the Temple authorities had power to seize the goods of anyone who failed to pay.

The method of collection was carefully organized. On the 1st of the month Adar, which is March of our year, announcement was made in all the towns and villages of Palestine that the time to pay the tax had come. On 15th Adar, booths were set up in each town and village, and at the booths the tax was paid. If the tax was not paid by 25th Adar, it could only be paid directly to the Temple in Jerusalem.

So, on the basis of Exodus 30:13, it was laid down that every male Jew over twenty years of age must pay an annual Temple tax of one half-shekel. In the days of Nehemiah, when the people were poor, it was one-third of a shekel. One half-shekel was equal to two Greek drachmae; and the tax was commonly called the didrachm, as it is called in this passage. The value of the tax was in fact the equivalent of two days’ pay for a working man. It brought into the Temple treasury about £100,000 a year. Theoretically, the tax was obligatory and the Temple authorities had power to seize the goods of anyone who failed to pay.

The method of collection was carefully organized. On the 1st of the month Adar, which is March of our year, announcement was made in all the towns and villages of Palestine that the time to pay the tax had come. On 15th Adar, booths were set up in each town and village, and at the booths the tax was paid. If the tax was not paid by 25th Adar, it could only be paid directly to the Temple in Jerusalem.

The picture is more likely to be a much simpler one than that. If any king imposed taxes on a nation, he certainly did not impose them on his own family. It was indeed for the support of his own household that the taxes were imposed. The tax in question was for the Temple, which was the house of God. Jesus was the Son of God. Did he not say when his parents sought him in Jerusalem: ‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ (Luke 2:49). How could the Son be under obligation to pay the tax which was for his own Father’s house?

Matthew’s gospel was written between AD 80 and 90. Now just a little before that time, Jews and Jewish Christians had been faced with a real and very disturbing problem. We saw that every male Jew over twenty years of age had to pay the Temple tax; but the Temple was totally destroyed in AD 70, never to be rebuilt. After the destruction of the Temple, Vespasian, the Roman emperor, passed an act decreeing that the half-shekel Temple tax should now be paid to the treasury of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome.

Here indeed was a problem. Many of the Jews and of the Jewish Christians were violently inclined to rebel against this law. Any such widespread rebellion would have had disastrous consequences, for it would have been utterly crushed at once, and would have gained the Jews and the Christians the reputation of being bad and disloyal and disaffected citizens.

This story was put into the gospels to tell the Christians, especially the Jewish Christians, that, however unpleasant the duties of a citizen might be, they must be shouldered. It tells us that Christianity and good citizenship go hand in hand. Christians who exempt themselves from the duties of good citizenship are not only failing in citizenship, they are also failing in Christianity.