John Piper asks, “What’s the point of the miracle of the coin in the fish’s mouth?”
Two things at least.
One is this: If Jesus is bringing the temple to an end for the true children of God, because “something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6), then it is fitting that he show that he is worthy of our worship. This miracle involves divine power and wisdom and knowledge. Someone had to be sure that a shekel (precisely worth four drachmas – two for Jesus and two for Peter) was dropped in the sea. Someone had to be sure that the fish scooped it up, but did not swallow it all the way. Someone had to be sure that the fish that scooped up the coin would be near where Peter drops his hook in the water. And Someone would have to be sure that the fish bites Peter’s hook, without swallowing the coin, and stays hooked till he gets the coin. When Jesus says that this is, in fact, all going to happen just as he says, he shows himself to be just what Peter confessed him to be: the Son of God worthy of worship and trust. You don’t have to go anywhere or pay anything to worship God. He has come to you. There he is. Here he is!
The other point of the miracle is that when you act in freedom and love -not under coercion or constraint – God himself works for you in ways you would never dream. It’s like the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus says to the disciples who have five loaves and two fish borrowed from a little boy, “You feed the five thousand.” When they set out to do that (just as when Peter sets out to pay the temple tax), God causes the five loaves and two fish to become enough to feed them all. And God causes a coin to be there in a fish’s mouth.
The point is not that God will always work a miracle to get you out of some scrape, but that he will do whatever he has to do to help you pursue the path of freedom and sacrificial love that may seem impossible to you.
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