This scene uses the story of one of Jesus’ stranger miracles to illustrate his teaching about money and power. In Matthew 17, tax collectors asked Peter if Jesus paid his taxes. Before Simon Peter had a chance to tell Jesus about this encounter, Jesus reframed the issue as one of inheritance: “‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?’ And when he said, ‘From others,’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then the sons are free.’” With this, Jesus taught his followers to view themselves not as subjects of distant masters but as children of a good creator; loving parents do not make their children pay rent, tribute, or taxes.

Nevertheless, to avoid giving offense to secular authorities, Jesus told Peter how to raise the money to pay those who act as lords over others on earth. “However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself” (Matthew 17:27). The image shows Peter—apparently successful in his fishing trip—pulling a coin out of a fish’s mouth and giving it to a tax collector.

In his influential 1520 work The Freedom of a Christian, Martin Luther referred to this story as an example of Jesus’ willingness to live peaceably with local laws and customs and as an encouragement for Christians to serve their neighbors through active civic participation (LW 31:369). Although Luther explained that such good works do not save Christians any more than this miracle made Jesus the messiah, care for the neighbor flows out of true faith in God. Aware that such teachings often arose in a setting of people testing Jesus—as in the encounter in Matthew 22 in which Jesus said, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”—the image shows a group of critics gossiping menacingly behind Jesus’ back.