Matthew 17:22-27
O Lord, today may you catch us. May you pull us out of the sea of our worries and our distractions.
I don’t know what to make of the gospel today. I almost wonder if Jesus isn’t joking, or putting Peter off.
If I owed you money, and you asked for it, and I said, well, go to the lake, and throw out a line, and the first fish you catch will have a coin in it, and that’s your payment, how would you react?
It’s as if he’s saying, don’t bother me with stuff like this.
We don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to weep and fast and pray.
Or maybe the fish with the coin in its mouth is a symbol of the little gifts our lives are always giving us. We don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to weep and fast and pray. Every day there are pennies from heaven, they just come, they just appear.
Spontaneity is implied here. It’s the first fish. You just drop your hook in. Whatever happens happens.