Jesus and Wealth

Submitted by centraldallas on Sat, 01/28/2006 - 21:10

From LARRY JAMES' URBAN DAILY, 1-26-2006
http://larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/2006/01/jesus-and-wealth.html

People use the Bible in unusual ways. This is especially the case when attempting to justify some personal habit, practice or decision.

Recently, I read a review of a new book, a biography written about an important American minister. The author of the review pointed out that the minister had recently purchased a new home costing several million dollars.

When queried about his obvious wealth and material success, the minister said that since Jesus was very wealthy, he had no problem with wealth himself.

Jesus wealthy?

I have to tell you, that was a new one on me.

The minister went on to say that the robe Jesus wore on the way to his execution was the clothing of a rich man, so valuable that those who guarded him entered into a game of chance to see who would take the robe now that Jesus no longer needed it.

The implication here is that Jesus owned the costly robe.

Hmmm.

Matthew 27:28 reports that Jesus' captors stripped him and put the robe on him, along with a twisted crown made of thorns, before mocking him as a king. The reading in John 19:1-3 concurs.

Then, there are those pesky words of Jesus himself when he told his followers that, unlike the birds of the air and the foxes of the field, he had nowhere to lay his head, no place to call his own home.

I better not get started on what he said about poverty, the poor and economics!

Let's just leave it here: Jesus was a pauper.

Let's be clear about that.

I don't know about you, but I have less trouble with the big house than I do with twisting the image of Jesus like this.

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Jesus And Wealth

Submitted by NYGaribaldi on Tue, 01/31/2006 - 19:39.

We don't know for sure that Jesus was a pauper (after all He did work as a carpenter) but I don't believe He was wealthy. Furthermore, unlike many of these New Right ministers who comfort the already comfortable as well as Opus Dei types who seek out the wealthy and powerful for their following, Jesus preached to all people with a special emphasis on the disenfranchised and others living on the margins of society.

It seems to me that the good reverend is doing nothing more than making rationalizations for his good fortune, some of which might have been accrued through greed and sloth.