If examining Jesus Economics, there are three things to take into consideration. First, the Gospel favors the poor. Secondly, the way we think of wealth in America today is not really grounded to our scriptural foundation because we assume an importance to individual wealth and without connection to a larger community. This takes us to the third point: Jesus urged his disciples to think of wealth in terms of the community as opposed to the individual.
It seems everywhere we look, we see Jesus in ministry to the poor and proclaiming good news to those considered poor. Jesus began the sermon of the Mount, the Beatitudes, with the proclamation of blessing to the poor. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he specifically mentioned debt. Some of our favorite Jesus stories have economic themes: the young ruler who seeks eternal life in Luke which leads Jesus to encourage him to ‘sell all you own and give to the poor.’ The Good Samaritan, in which an unlikely foreigner becomes the hero, pays money out of his own pocket to care for the injured Israelite he finds on the road-side. The story of Zaccheaus…who turns from Bernie Madoff to a great humanitarian by repaying all those he has defrauded and then redistributing his own wealth to the poor. This, Jesus calls salvation. In Mathew 18, Jesus would describe the Realm of God in terms of a King who forgives debt.
Without a doubt in my mind, Jesus meant to be talking about wealth and finance. “Debts” was not a metaphor, but a real concern for Jesus and he purposely challenged the wealthy elites who grew rich on the labor and oppression of the peasantry. He purposely challenged his disciples to care for the poor and put their very salvation in economic terms.
We assume our wealth is our own. This is a popular concept in our culture, perhaps a bedrock belief. We tend to admire those who build wealth, attain impressive houses, cars, clothes and retire early to Florida or Arizona. They have worked hard for their money and deserve to reap the benefits.
But in the Gospel we have a parable of a successful business man. He is so successful he cannot find enough room for all his harvest. So he decides on an expansive building project to protect his wealth and plan an early retirement. In our culture’s terms, he is a success!
He did what see people do with their wealth all the time – expanded, invested and used the excess for his own benefit. 2,000 years ago Jesus told a success story for today – except Jesus does not let it stay a success story for today. He has God call this man a fool. He has only considered himself in this parable and the use of this wealth for his own benefit. His view of wealth, which I suggest isn’t so different from our own, God labels foolish.
