Christian singer Mandisa has some grumbles about paying taxes. She knows that it's something she must do, but that does not mean that she likes doing it. So in order to maintain the proper perspective in paying taxes, she looks up to her role model Jesus Christ.
"When I want to complain about hefty tax payments, I like to remember that Jesus paid taxes, too!" she wrote on her Facebook page.
Mandisa then shared the Bible verses Matthew 17:24-27 which open the story of how Jesus dealt with tax collectors. It says: "Then Jesus and His disciples went toward Capernaum, and when they arrived there, some people who had collected the two-drachma tax that went for the upkeep of the temple came up to Peter."
The temple tax collectors asked the disciple Peter if their teacher, Jesus, pays the temple tax, and Peter answered that He did. When Peter told Jesus what had happened, the Lord had some surprising words of wisdom.
He asked Peter, "What do you think? When kings collect taxes and duties and tolls, from whom do they collect? Do they levy taxes on their own people or on strangers and foreigners?"
The disciple answered that taxes fall on the foreigners, so Jesus said that children of the King should therefore be exempted from the two-drachma tax. "But all in all, it's better not to make any waves; we'd better go on and pay the tax," noted the Savior. "So do this: go out to the lake and throw out your line. And when you catch a fish, open its jaws and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take this to the tax collectors, and pay your taxes and Mine."
For her part, Mandisa said that she has never been keen on fishing, but she jokingly said that she would be willing to take it up if Jesus inserted the amount she owes in taxes into the mouth of a trout.
