The Great Ransom | Matthew 17:22-27
Most Bibles put a subheading between Matthew 17:23 and Matthew 17:24, as if the death Jesus predicts and the temple tax conversation are two different stories. They are not. Matthew placed them together on purpose. The cross interprets the tax. And when we read the passage as Matthew wrote it, we see something remarkable.
Jesus, having just told His disciples that He is about to die, quietly pays a ransom into a temple sacrificial system He is about to fulfill and end. He was free from every obligation. He owed nothing. And He chose to pay it anyway, because a greater ransom was coming, one that would set us free forever. This week we walk through the two payments Christ makes, and the "so now, I" response that flows from a life bought at a price.
