The Fish With The Temple Tax Coin And Baptism

Temple Tax, Payments and Debt: Jesus Pays the Debt He does not Owe, but WE do!

Interesting analogy with the temple tax Scripture: Matthew 17, closing paragraph:

Jesus implies to Peter, I don't owe the temple anyhing, I'm God, but to avoid scandal, (that the Son of Man may fulfill the Law, as in His Baptism, which was not necessary, or the Mosaic rites of purification at the Presentation, which were equally unnecessary due to the baby Jesus' sinlessness, and the purity of His Mother likewise), go to the sea, toss in a hook, and the FIRST fish you catch, open its mouth, and there shall be a coin worth twice the temple tax. Then go and pay the tax, one for Me, one for you.

Really profound: Christ Himself, through His death and Resurrection, is the SUPREME payment we owe the king of the Temple; Our failure to keep the Old Law or any Divine Law: Our debt to the Holy of Holies, because of our sins, is infinite; we cannot pay it. Christ Himself offers His Sacred Body and Blood to pay the debt we owe.

Yet, also, though Christ is Divine, and therefore owes nothing to any sin, He takes upon Himself, not considering His immeasurable power something to grasp at, the pain and suffering of our fallen nature and even the consequences of our sins, in His flesh and soul.

Hence, in obedience to His Father, He willingly subjects Himself to debt and offers it to the Father on our behalf.

Hence, Christ Himself pays the "debt" to His Father and for US, or double the "temple tax".

Finally, what is the FISH that bears the coin, the Christ, a double temple tax, the Christ, who is One Coin, One Person, but two Natures, Human and Divine?

Well, there were five loaves and two fish; the two fish were the two Sacraments that heretics retain, Baptism and Marriage; in the sea of doctrinal chaos, the source of fish, the vast ocean of Protestantism, the Protestants can take no part in the stability of Bishops and Tradition, which are like the stable earth to stand upon, a stability of understanding Scripture. From the stability of Bishops and Tradtion emanate the five Sacraments that require it, just like loaves [five loaves] that require barley to make, where barley requires the EARTH to be grown in. In other words, just as loaves require the earth of stability to be made, so five Sacraments, five loaves, require the stability of the Bishops and Tradtion: Confession, Confirmation, Eucharist, Holy Orders, Unction.

But Baptism and Marriage do NOT require the Episcopate,, for the Church solemnly declared in antiquity, the Baptism of heretics is valid, DE FIDE, and also, marriage is not conferred by the minister or priest; it is conferred BY THE MAN and WOMAN UPON EACH OTHER. Hence, any validly baptized man and woman, if they intend the vows and are free to marry, contract a sacrament, even if they don't believe it is a sacrament.

Hence, these two sacraments not requiring the stable earth of the Bishops and Tradition, they are like FISH in the ocean, and can be caught in the sea of chaos by Protestants

Now, remembering that Christ said the first fish would have the coin for the temple tax: Baptism is the first fish, since it is an absolutely necessary gateway into the kingdom of God, that one might no longer owe the infinite debt: "And if any man saith that he can be saved apart from Baptism or the desire thereof, let him be anathema," Trent, DE FIDE.

Through the Baptism, the infinite Merits and Atonement of the One Person Jesus Christ are applied to us, and it absolves us of punishment, or debt, due to sin, both eternal and temporal!

Hence, indeed, in the mouth of Baptism is contained the coin of redemption, the coin worth TWICE the temple tax: one for us, and one for Jesus, who paid the Temple Debt though He owed it not!