Jesus' attitude toward earthy riches was most succinctly summarized in the Gospel of Matthew 6:32 'For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.' His concern is that we should not assign them too high a place in our own concerns. He continues, immediately (v. 33), saying, 'But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'

This passage is traditionally understood as a warning and a reassurance against anxiety and worry ('Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature?' Mt 6:27). By stating that we should 'first' seek righteousness, Jesus tells us how to properly prioritize our concerns and thus avoid the suffering that befalls the various 'rich' men he speaks of in other places.

In the popular imagination, perhaps the best-known of the rich men in the New Testament is the one whose chance of entering the kingdom of heaven was less than that of a camel going though the eye of a needle. Even without explanation of the image used, the simile conveys the unmistakable message, 'it ain't gonna happen.'

His followers understood Jesus clearly but were 'greatly astonished' by this observation, since virtually all of us have riches in some degree, and naturally asked, 'Who then can be saved?' Our Lord reassured them (and us!) that, 'with God all things are possible.'

Let's review the story, which appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus was approached by a man, a 'ruler' (Lk 18:18), who asked him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. After determining that the man had been keeping the commandments from his youth, Jesus said that there was one thing lacking. Then he told the man to, 'Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' At this word, the man went away, 'very sorrowful, because he was very rich.' (Lk 18:23) Note the parallel adjective, 'very,' suggesting that there is a proportionality of sorrow with riches. Upon the rich man's departure, Jesus turns to his disciples and comments on how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The closest to an explanation of why this should be so is given in Mark 10:24, where Jesus says, 'How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.'

The important explanatory word is 'trust.' To trust in riches is, in a sense, a violation of the first commandment. It is a dis-ordering of our priorities. It is clear that the rich man in this story was not ready to 'seek first the kingdom of God' nor to trust that he would have 'treasure in heaven' if he distributed his earthly riches to the poor.

Return for a moment to the image of the camel and the needle's eye. As many are not aware, the eye of the needle is a euphemism for the small (man-sized) door in the gates of the walled cities of Jesus' time. A camel was a beast of burden loaded with bags on either side. A rich man would not carry his possessions himself, but would load them onto his camel(s). As he approached the city (kingdom of God), he would be able to enter through the eye of the needle, but his earthly riches on the camel would have to remain outside. What Jesus conveys to us with this image is that a 'man' could enter the kingdom of God, but not a 'rich' man, whose trust is still in his earthly riches.

Another example of mis-placed trust is given in the parable of the rich man whose lands yielded a bumper-crop so large he decided to tear down his existing granaries and build larger ones to store the enormous harvest. He is reported to have told his soul to take its ease, 'eat, drink, be merry' because he had many goods laid up for many years. He is revealed to be a fool when God requires of him, that very night, his soul, 'then whose will those things be that you have provided?' (Lk 12:16-21)

This parable also indicates the power of the 'deceitfulness of riches' mentioned by Jesus in his explanation of the parable of the sower. Once again, Mark's account (4:18-19) is more explanatory. Their power is to distract us and dis-order our priorities, leading to an unfruitful response to hearing the word of truth.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong or evil about earthly riches, but our sinful tendency to exalt them in our minds and hearts beyond a proper degree of stewardship and attention is what contributes to their bad reputation among superficial Christians. An example of this shallow understanding of earthly riches is the prevalent mis-quotation of Paul (I Tim 6:10) in this way, 'money is the root of all evil.' Of course, Paul's observation is that it is the 'love of money' that leads to temptations and snares and all kinds of evil.

That it is our attitude toward earthly riches that counts with God is indicated again in the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30). So well has the allegorical message of this parable been internalized in the Anglosphere that we use the biblical name for about 15 years worth of labor-wages to name innate human abilities. This parable is generally understood as an admonition to use our God-given 'talents' profitably. It is not really about money, although the amounts involved are relatively enormous. It is about faithful obedience to the master, in mundane ('little') matters. The use of money as the metaphor for talent in the story suggests that Jesus, in fact, approves of money and its profitable uses, as long as we are faithful to the will of the master and use it beneficially. The behavior of the servant who was given only one talent seems to derive from his fearful misunderstanding of his master's intention. He did not understand that the gift was his to use. He understood that his role was merely to be a repository for the money and that punishment awaited him if he risked and lost it. He unwittingly made himself the equivalent of a hole in the ground; surely a desecration of the image and likeness of God.

In the parable of the 'unjust steward,' Jesus enjoins faithfulness (as in the tale of the talents) and rhetorically asks, '... if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?' (Lk 16:11) We reveal our character in our dealings with the power concentrated in money. He concludes with another articulation of the need to get our priorities straight, because 'No servant can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and Mammon.' (Lk 16:13) However, in our (inevitable) dealing with 'unrighteous mammon' we have the opportunity to practice righteous behavior and 'make friends for (y)ourselves' so that, when it (inevitably) fails, 'they may receive you into an everlasting home.' (Lk 16:9) Again, it is not the earthly riches that are central, but how we use them that is of concern to our Teacher.

'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.' (Mt 6:19) My concordance reveals seventeen occurrences of the word 'treasure' in the N.T. In every case, a noun. But when we consider it as a verb, it helps us to understand more clearly our Teacher's observation, 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' Jesus intention for us is to treasure what is truly worth treasuring. He wants our hearts to be with him in the kingdom, not languishing outside the gate, burdened like the camel, with the cares of this world and its earthly riches. Peter and Helen Evans "www.peterandhelenevans.com"

If you would like to get our newsletter directly into your mail box send a request to we2rone@cox.net and just put subscribe into the subject line.

---

 [How Do Orthodox Handle Financial Crisis]

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment Preview