Home>Essays>Jesus
and Money
We live in a society obsessed with money. In the church we
say: Blessed are they who come in the name of the Lord. But
both in and outside the church we confess: blessed are they
who come in the name of silver and gold. By and large people
are not measured by what they do or say, but by the amounts
of possessions they have. Money is the most important rule in
today's society and the acquisition of it is seen as its highest
goal. Some are so taken in by its mere possession that money
becomes their secret life: they always think themselves poor
and portray themselves as such, but they do this because they
simply cannot part with money and become hoarders, avaricious,
like the infamous Tartuffe. Others are fascinated by money because
it enables them to buy things and show off their acquisitions.
Most North Americans seem to fall in that category. Curiously,
even though they regard money as the highest goal in life, where
the two-income-family has become the norm, they often spend
it before they have it, and mortgage their future at a rate
never experienced before in modern history.
Money, in short, is seen as the meaning of life: our actions
are geared towards that goal, and if we can't make it by working,
perhaps playing the lotteries will do it, or a bit of cheating
here and there might help as well. It seems that no institution
or person has become immune to the power of a bribe. Nothing
seems sacred anymore. Even the CRC's image has suffered because
of their dubious investments which promised a much higher yield
on money.
Money is a dangerous thing and a strange substance as well.
In the past year or so the money market has gone crazy with
the decline of several valuta: the Korean won, the Thailand
ringgit, the Indonesian rupiah, the Russian ruble and now the
Brazilian real, all have depreciated by enormous percentages
compared to the almighty dollar.
In spite of all its drawbacks, money, as a tool to facilitate
the commerce between human beings, was and is, nevertheless,
an inspired invention, with tremendous potential for both good
and evil. That is why, when first invented, it was administered
by the priestly class. Today, more than ever, Money makes the
world go round and goes around the world with a velocity equal
to the speed of light and in torrents unequaled in history:
the daily flood amounts to more than One Trillion Dollars. Because
of Money the global economy is like a jet plane, fast, comfortable
and when it crashes, its fall is also spectacular. And what
has all this to do with Jesus?
When Jesus came to earth, forever to retain the status of both
God and Human, he could have been a human being of any description,
stature, degree and condition; and yet he chose to be poor.
The English poet Christopher Harvey said of him in the seventeenth
century:
It was Thy Choice, whilst Thou on Earth didst stay, And hadst
not whereupon Thy Head to lay.
No wonder that throughout the Middle Ages Jesus is appearing
not just as God, but as a pauper. Curiously the fastest growing
Protestant movement in Brazil, the so-called Crentes, as the
believers are known, preaches the theology of prosperity, which
promises material success as well as eternal salvation, a puritan
ideology imported from the United States. Compare Schuller and
the Crystal Palace. With such a complete reversal of what Jesus
portrayed in his life, we do well to investigate the relationship
between Jesus and money a bit closer.
I am convinced that Jesus had some basic misgivings about money
- just like we do at times- because we all know that wealth
and its acquisition makes people do crazy and often dishonest
things. "The love of money is the root of all evils,"
is Paul's warning to Timothy and this probably was one reason
why Jesus did not like money. If I understand Jesus correctly
- and I must admit that this is no easy thing to do, because
it means a great degree of self-knowledge - I think that with
Jesus there also was a deeper reason, something very personal.
I get the impression that Jesus went out of his way to avoid
contact with money and was even loath to touch the stuff. Why
do I make that assumption? Well, Jesus has a perfect recall
of everything, past, present and future and so has perfect insight,
hindsight and foresight into everything. We will we recall that
his betrayal, his suffering and death was directly associated
with money. How would we feel - how would I feel - if I know
that money would eventually kill me? Well, I think that this
view governed Jesus' attitude towards money and perhaps even
towards economic theory.
I better back this up with some concrete examples, so here
are a few. Take the feeding of those thousands: Jesus knows
that if these people had gone off to buy bread and fish in the
neighbouring stores, the merchants, being good businessmen,
would have suddenly increased the prices of these basic food
items because of greater demand. The law of supply and demand
is certainly not a latter-day invention: it has existed as long
as people have traded. That's what economics is all about: charge
high when everybody needs it. It happened in Ontario and Quebec
with the prolonged blackout during the ice storm: the few candles
available tripled in price overnight in the disaster areas.
So what did Jesus do to forestall this price-gouging? He simply
by-passed the economic law of supply and demand and created
bread and fish ex nihilo- out of nothing- well, almost out of
nothing.
Then there is that so uncharacteristic incident where Jesus
almost went berserk when he chased the money changers out of
the temple, upsetting much more than the tables. After all having
these business people do their work in the temple was an age-old
tradition and necessary to keep the Jewish house of worship
functioning properly because only certain kinds of money were
accepted in the temple. And how else to get the proper animals
for sacrifice? I think it was money and its abuses that made
Jesus so angry. Another, more indirect, indication: I find it
curious that Judas, the unredeemed among the saints, carried
the purse and handled the finances: Judas, who loved money more
than Jesus. In the end he ended up with thirty pieces of silver
and then discovered that money as an idol wants our very lives.
In that sense we are much closer to Judas than to Jesus. With
'we' I include all people in the over rich West. Also to me
a tip-off was Jesus' great disdain for the nominal value of
currency, evident when Mary spent perhaps a year's income on
that precious oil. "So what," Jesus remarked, "so
what if such a large sum was spent. It is only money."
Or consider the occasion when Peter was asked if Jesus would
pay the temple tax. "Of course," is Peter's immediate
reaction, "of course Jesus pays."
But for Jesus this was not such a straightforward matter. Why
this reluctance to pay the temple tax? Well, I have my theory
about this. I think Jesus knew that perhaps this very money
given to the temple was going to buy his life and ensure his
death.
And then, in an ironic twist, with almost a touch of black
humor, Jesus shrugs his shoulders and says: "OK, not important.
Let me not major in minors. Go to the lake, catch a fish and
there you'll find a silver coin enough for the both of us."
I like that. Jesus is never skimpy. And, of course, with this
gesture, he shows that all the fish in the sea and- by implication-
the cattle upon a thousand hills, are his. Here we see Jesus'
royalty coming through. Queen Elizabeth never carries a wallet.
Wherever she goes on an official visit, she goes free. Jesus
is the same and much more so. Here he shows that he is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but people do not recognize
him that way.
More. That familiar encounter with the Pharisees who were out
to trick him. They asked Jesus whether Jews should pay the Roman
head-tax. The story is well known. Jesus calls for a denarius
(No, he does not carry money on him) and asks; "Whose image?"
They dutifully answer, "Caesar's." Jesus replies:
"Give to Caesar what belongs to him and to God the things
that are God's."
Here is a story we have grown up with in the church. On it
we have based the separation of church and state and have interpreted
this to mean that there are two important divisions in society:
God and the State. Well, we live in times where all automatic
responses need to be questioned, so let me try another angle.
In the first place Tiberius, the then emperor, could not possibly
have owned the coin anymore than the heirs of George Washington
or Queen Elizabeth have the legal right to the bank notes which
carry their image. In his compact answer Jesus touches upon
two important segments of society: the political-economic reality
represented by Caesar and money on the one hand, and the eternal
as expressed in the Kingdom of God on the other. He implies
in the political part that, no, he would not support an armed
revolt or even passive resistance to Rome, and in the economic
sector he asserts that the tax and the coins themselves are
simply a human device and that all of life, including money,
is a matter of faith. That the latter is true, is evident from
the many devaluations the world has witnessed in the past year,
with the Indonesian rupiah losing 80 percent of its value. In
essence Jesus implies that the value of money is sheer fiction.
The only matter that counts is the eternal - God's kingdom-
which is at hand.
So here is a curious twist in the historical explanation of
this incident. Where Jesus, by his life and in this particular
instance proclaims an almost puritanical and revolutionary renunciation
of the world of money, today we explain this passage to mean
exactly the opposite. Where Jesus saw only the Kingdom - which
includes all things, also money - as the dominant factor of
his life and his followers, and money at best a minor player,
today, based on this very text we believe that there are two
realms of equal importance: Caesar, the State, represented by
taxes- money - and the Church, in charge of the sacred. Here
we are face to face with a dilemma: where Jesus abhorred money
by all indications because it contributed to this death, we
adore it. Where Jesus lived without money, our lives are centered
around it. Jesus once made a radical statement: "You cannot
serve God and Mammon." In our Western world everything
is about money: the stock market, the strength of the dollar,
the price of gold, three items mentioned in almost every newscast.
Let's not kid ourselves: Mammon is God, the Dollar is King in
the world and its possession a holy grail. We now put a price
tag on everything. First on Jesus - 30 pieces of silver - and
now also on the rest of creation: the woods are paved, the mountains
mined, the seas eaten, species eliminated: all because of money.
We all participate in that criminal act. Jesus was sold for
the price of a slave: we are selling creation to serve us as
a slave. We, as 6 percent of the world's population cause 40
percent of the world's pollution, in perfect accordance with
the aims of Capitalism which defines itself as Creative Destruction.
I am more and more inclined to think that Capitalism and its
exponent, the global money economy, is the Anti-Christ. I know,
that is a strong statement, but I think that's why Jesus feared
money because he foresaw how destructive it would be for him,
for his creation and for us. He died so that we too could be
included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life
than we can ever live in a money society. If we want to share
in that life then we must regain a new sense of value; we must
reset our priorities to have our treasures expressed not in
money but in love, in genuine compassion for all God's creatures,
humans, animals, trees, flowers, air, water. God so loved the
cosmos.... (John 3:16).
We live in a society obsessed with money. In the church we say:
Blessed are they who come in the name of the Lord. But both in
and outside the church we confess: blessed are they who come in
the name of silver and gold. By and large people are not measured
by what they do or say, but by the amounts of possessions they
have. Money is the most important rule in today's society and
the acquisition of it is seen as its highest goal. Some are so
taken in by its mere possession that money becomes their secret
life: they always think themselves poor and portray themselves
as such, but they do this because they simply cannot part with
money and become hoarders, avaricious, like the infamous Tartuffe.
Others are fascinated by money because it enables them to buy
things and show off their acquisitions. Most North Americans seem
to fall in that category. Curiously, even though they regard money
as the highest goal in life, where the two-income-family has become
the norm, they often spend it before they have it, and mortgage
their future at a rate never experienced before in modern history.
Money, in short, is seen as the meaning of life: our actions
are geared towards that goal, and if we can't make it by working,
perhaps playing the lotteries will do it, or a bit of cheating
here and there might help as well. It seems that no institution
or person has become immune to the power of a bribe. Nothing
seems sacred anymore. Even the CRC's image has suffered because
of their dubious investments which promised a much higher yield
on money.
Money is a dangerous thing and a strange substance as well.
In the past year or so the money market has gone crazy with
the decline of several valuta: the Korean won, the Thailand
ringgit, the Indonesian rupiah, the Russian ruble and now the
Brazilian real, all have depreciated by enormous percentages
compared to the almighty dollar.
In spite of all its drawbacks, money, as a tool to facilitate
the commerce between human beings, was and is, nevertheless,
an inspired invention, with tremendous potential for both good
and evil. That is why, when first invented, it was administered
by the priestly class. Today, more than ever, Money makes the
world go round and goes around the world with a velocity equal
to the speed of light and in torrents unequaled in history:
the daily flood amounts to more than One Trillion Dollars. Because
of Money the global economy is like a jet plane, fast, comfortable
and when it crashes, its fall is also spectacular. And what
has all this to do with Jesus?
When Jesus came to earth, forever to retain the status of both
God and Human, he could have been a human being of any description,
stature, degree and condition; and yet he chose to be poor.
The English poet Christopher Harvey said of him in the seventeenth
century:
It was Thy Choice, whilst Thou on Earth didst stay, And hadst
not whereupon Thy Head to lay.
No wonder that throughout the Middle Ages Jesus is appearing
not just as God, but as a pauper. Curiously the fastest growing
Protestant movement in Brazil, the so-called Crentes, as the
believers are known, preaches the theology of prosperity, which
promises material success as well as eternal salvation, a puritan
ideology imported from the United States. Compare Schuller and
the Crystal Palace. With such a complete reversal of what Jesus
portrayed in his life, we do well to investigate the relationship
between Jesus and money a bit closer.
I am convinced that Jesus had some basic misgivings about money
- just like we do at times- because we all know that wealth
and its acquisition makes people do crazy and often dishonest
things. "The love of money is the root of all evils,"
is Paul's warning to Timothy and this probably was one reason
why Jesus did not like money. If I understand Jesus correctly
- and I must admit that this is no easy thing to do, because
it means a great degree of self-knowledge - I think that with
Jesus there also was a deeper reason, something very personal.
I get the impression that Jesus went out of his way to avoid
contact with money and was even loath to touch the stuff. Why
do I make that assumption? Well, Jesus has a perfect recall
of everything, past, present and future and so has perfect insight,
hindsight and foresight into everything. We will we recall that
his betrayal, his suffering and death was directly associated
with money. How would we feel - how would I feel - if I know
that money would eventually kill me? Well, I think that this
view governed Jesus' attitude towards money and perhaps even
towards economic theory.
I better back this up with some concrete examples, so here
are a few. Take the feeding of those thousands: Jesus knows
that if these people had gone off to buy bread and fish in the
neighbouring stores, the merchants, being good businessmen,
would have suddenly increased the prices of these basic food
items because of greater demand. The law of supply and demand
is certainly not a latter-day invention: it has existed as long
as people have traded. That's what economics is all about: charge
high when everybody needs it. It happened in Ontario and Quebec
with the prolonged blackout during the ice storm: the few candles
available tripled in price overnight in the disaster areas.
So what did Jesus do to forestall this price-gouging? He simply
by-passed the economic law of supply and demand and created
bread and fish ex nihilo- out of nothing- well, almost out of
nothing.
Then there is that so uncharacteristic incident where Jesus
almost went berserk when he chased the money changers out of
the temple, upsetting much more than the tables. After all having
these business people do their work in the temple was an age-old
tradition and necessary to keep the Jewish house of worship
functioning properly because only certain kinds of money were
accepted in the temple. And how else to get the proper animals
for sacrifice? I think it was money and its abuses that made
Jesus so angry. Another, more indirect, indication: I find it
curious that Judas, the unredeemed among the saints, carried
the purse and handled the finances: Judas, who loved money more
than Jesus. In the end he ended up with thirty pieces of silver
and then discovered that money as an idol wants our very lives.
In that sense we are much closer to Judas than to Jesus. With
'we' I include all people in the over rich West. Also to me
a tip-off was Jesus' great disdain for the nominal value of
currency, evident when Mary spent perhaps a year's income on
that precious oil. "So what," Jesus remarked, "so
what if such a large sum was spent. It is only money."
Or consider the occasion when Peter was asked if Jesus would
pay the temple tax. "Of course," is Peter's immediate
reaction, "of course Jesus pays."
But for Jesus this was not such a straightforward matter. Why
this reluctance to pay the temple tax? Well, I have my theory
about this. I think Jesus knew that perhaps this very money
given to the temple was going to buy his life and ensure his
death.
And then, in an ironic twist, with almost a touch of black
humor, Jesus shrugs his shoulders and says: "OK, not important.
Let me not major in minors. Go to the lake, catch a fish and
there you'll find a silver coin enough for the both of us."
I like that. Jesus is never skimpy. And, of course, with this
gesture, he shows that all the fish in the sea and- by implication-
the cattle upon a thousand hills, are his. Here we see Jesus'
royalty coming through. Queen Elizabeth never carries a wallet.
Wherever she goes on an official visit, she goes free. Jesus
is the same and much more so. Here he shows that he is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but people do not recognize
him that way.
More. That familiar encounter with the Pharisees who were out
to trick him. They asked Jesus whether Jews should pay the Roman
head-tax. The story is well known. Jesus calls for a denarius
(No, he does not carry money on him) and asks; "Whose image?"
They dutifully answer, "Caesar's." Jesus replies:
"Give to Caesar what belongs to him and to God the things
that are God's."
Here is a story we have grown up with in the church. On it
we have based the separation of church and state and have interpreted
this to mean that there are two important divisions in society:
God and the State. Well, we live in times where all automatic
responses need to be questioned, so let me try another angle.
In the first place Tiberius, the then emperor, could not possibly
have owned the coin anymore than the heirs of George Washington
or Queen Elizabeth have the legal right to the bank notes which
carry their image. In his compact answer Jesus touches upon
two important segments of society: the political-economic reality
represented by Caesar and money on the one hand, and the eternal
as expressed in the Kingdom of God on the other. He implies
in the political part that, no, he would not support an armed
revolt or even passive resistance to Rome, and in the economic
sector he asserts that the tax and the coins themselves are
simply a human device and that all of life, including money,
is a matter of faith. That the latter is true, is evident from
the many devaluations the world has witnessed in the past year,
with the Indonesian rupiah losing 80 percent of its value. In
essence Jesus implies that the value of money is sheer fiction.
The only matter that counts is the eternal - God's kingdom-
which is at hand.
So here is a curious twist in the historical explanation of
this incident. Where Jesus, by his life and in this particular
instance proclaims an almost puritanical and revolutionary renunciation
of the world of money, today we explain this passage to mean
exactly the opposite. Where Jesus saw only the Kingdom - which
includes all things, also money - as the dominant factor of
his life and his followers, and money at best a minor player,
today, based on this very text we believe that there are two
realms of equal importance: Caesar, the State, represented by
taxes- money - and the Church, in charge of the sacred. Here
we are face to face with a dilemma: where Jesus abhorred money
by all indications because it contributed to this death, we
adore it. Where Jesus lived without money, our lives are centered
around it. Jesus once made a radical statement: "You cannot
serve God and Mammon." In our Western world everything
is about money: the stock market, the strength of the dollar,
the price of gold, three items mentioned in almost every newscast.
Let's not kid ourselves: Mammon is God, the Dollar is King in
the world and its possession a holy grail. We now put a price
tag on everything. First on Jesus - 30 pieces of silver - and
now also on the rest of creation: the woods are paved, the mountains
mined, the seas eaten, species eliminated: all because of money.
We all participate in that criminal act. Jesus was sold for
the price of a slave: we are selling creation to serve us as
a slave. We, as 6 percent of the world's population cause 40
percent of the world's pollution, in perfect accordance with
the aims of Capitalism which defines itself as Creative Destruction.
I am more and more inclined to think that Capitalism and its
exponent, the global money economy, is the Anti-Christ. I know,
that is a strong statement, but I think that's why Jesus feared
money because he foresaw how destructive it would be for him,
for his creation and for us. He died so that we too could be
included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life
than we can ever live in a money society. If we want to share
in that life then we must regain a new sense of value; we must
reset our priorities to have our treasures expressed not in
money but in love, in genuine compassion for all God's creatures,
humans, animals, trees, flowers, air, water. God so loved the
cosmos.... (John 3:16).
to
top