2025.11.09 | The Sons Are Free — Yet Jesus Paid It All

Mornings, workloads, and endless responsibilities often feel like a competition for chaos. Between bills, burned toast, and balancing demands, it’s easy to feel constantly in debt—always owing time, energy, or an apology you don’t have. Yet, even in those messy, ordinary moments, we are reminded of grace.

This week, listening to the sermon from Matthew 17:24–27, one line caught my attention and lingered with me: “Then the sons are free.”

It’s such a short verse, but it says everything about who Jesus is, and who we are because of Him.

In the passage, Jesus talks to Peter about the temple tax, a payment required to maintain God’s house. Jesus, as the Son of God, was exempt. He didn’t owe it; it was His Father’s house. And yet, He paid it anyway.

That truth struck something deep in me. Because as a mom, I know what it means to pay for something I didn’t owe. I do it in little ways... staying up late to help with a last-minute project, carrying my kids’ worries as if they were mine, apologizing first just to restore peace. That’s what love drives us to do.

But what Jesus did goes so much deeper. He didn’t just step into our mess; He paid the full debt of it. He was free, yet He chose to pay it all.

As David Ord said: “Jesus didn’t owe the debt, we did. But love moved Him to pay it anyway. That’s grace.”

And that truth has a way of quieting my heart when life feels loud. Because sometimes, in the middle of parenting and bills and uncertainty, I forget that I’m not striving to earn God’s love. I’m living from it. The debt is settled.

Later in the passage, Peter finds a coin in the mouth of a fish, a miracle of God’s precise, personal provision. It wasn’t coincidence. It was care. And that’s the kind of God we have, one who provides, not just what we need, but exactly when we need it.

Maybe you’re in a season where provision feels out of reach, emotionally, financially, or spiritually. Maybe you’re just tired of trying to hold everything together.

Take heart. The sons, and daughters, are free. Not because we’ve earned it, but because Jesus already paid it all.

If you missed this week’s message, you can watch “The Sons Are Free — Yet Jesus Paid It All” on Hope Community’s YouTube channel. Be encouraged and reminded of the grace that sets us free.