Monday, February 25, 2008

gone fishing

42. Matthew 17:14-27

This morning before I left the house, Bonnie and I were talking about bills and money and this discussion turned into a conversation about doing our taxes. I'll have to admit that for the last few years, Bonnie has taken care of our taxes. Neither of us really want to do what it takes to sit down and figure out all this stuff so we usually keep putting it off, not until the last minute, but longer than we should. Which reminds me of years ago when David Willis and I would make an event out of going down to the Post Office on the night of April 15th, just so we could watch people try to get their taxes done and mailed on time. Every year some poor soul would show up just after midnight and would bang on the door, but to no avail. They were going to pay a late fee.

Jesus has an interesting way of paying his taxes in Matthew 17. First, Jesus makes the point that the kings of earth do not collect taxes from their sons, so the Son of God should not have to pay the Temple Tax. But not to offend, Jesus sends Peter out fishing with these instructions, "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."

So tomorrow, I'm taking the day off. Tell everyone I've 'gone fishing.' Hey, you never know!

5 comments:

David H. Willis said...

I remember those nights. I can still see people running up to the door trying to beat the clock. Very funny.

2 words: Turbo Tax. One of the greatest inventions of our time!

secondjohnvs12 said...

Bonnie has been using our neighbor's copy of Turbo Tax for a couple years. We have to print it and send it snail mail, but it is free.

Seems like we took lawn chairs out there and some drinks just to watch people. But we might have just talked about the lawn chairs, I can't remember.

Levi said...

how was the fishing trip? Any luck?

Curt Seth said...

You must have been really bored prior to meeting Bonnie...she's a bigger blessing than you know!

secondjohnvs12 said...

Curt, you nailed it! We would make up ways to try and have fun. And this was one of our better ideas!