Matthew 17:27

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend (or 'stumble') them - all ignorant as they are of My relation to the Lord of the Temple, and should misconstrue a claim to exemption into indifference to His honour who dwells in it.

Go thou to the sea (Capernaum, it will be remembered, lay on the sea of Galilee), and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up: and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money [ stateera (G4715)] - 'a stater.' So it should have been rendered, and not indefinitely, as in our version; because the coin was an Attic silver coin, equal to two of the fore-mentioned "didrachms" of half-a-shekel's value, and so, was the exact sum required for both. Accordingly, the Lord adds,

That take, and give unto them for me and thee, [ anti (G473) emou (G1700) kai (G2532) sou (G4675)] - literally, 'instead of Me and thee;' perhaps because the payment was a redemption of the person paid for (Exodus 30:12) - in which view Jesus certainly was "free." If the house was Peter's, this will account for payment being provided on this occasion, not for an the Twelve, but only for him and His Lord. Observe, our Lord does not say "for us," but "for Me and thee;" thus distinguishing the Exempted One and His non-exempted disciple. (See the note at John 20:17.)

Remarks:

(1) A stronger claim to essential divinity than our Lord in this scene at Capernaum advances-as "own Son" of the Lord of the Temple-cannot well be conceived. Either, therefore, the teaching of the Lord Jesus was systematically subversive of the prerogatives of Him who will not give His glory to another, or He was the Fellow of the Lord of hosts. But the former cannot be true, attested as Jesus was in every imaginable way by His Father in heaven: His claim, then, to supreme personal Divinity, ought with Christians to be beyond dispute, and is so with all who deserve the name-who would die sooner than surrender it, and with whose loftiest joys and hopes it is inseparably bound up.

(2) What manifold wonders are there in the one miracle of this section! The exact sum required was found in a fish's mouth; Jesus showed that He knew this; this very fish came to the spot where Peter's hook was to be cast, and at the very time when it was cast; that fish took that hook, retained it until drawn to land, and there yielded up the needed coin! And yet,

(3) Amidst such wealth of divine resources-lo, the Lord's whole means of temporal subsistence at this time appear to have been exhausted! "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" - but do ye know it, O my readers? - "that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich!" (2 Corinthians 8:9).