Jesus was extra concerned with rich people. The gospels make it clear that Jesus often tried to warn those who had wealth about the great risk in having too much. When we have more than enough, it is very easy to make what we have the center, the god, of our life. We can tend to put our trust in the illusion of security that wealth whispers seductively to our heart. Jesus invites us to have what we need and to be grateful and generous – generous like the One who provides good things to us.
Luke, in his gospel, definitely captures Jesus’ heartache for the wealthy. In the sixteenth chapter (Luke 16: 9-15), there is a followup to his parable of the “Dishonest Steward.” (Remember the guy who was cheating his master and gets caught?). Jesus says, “Use wealth (most probably gained at the expense of others), to cultivate friendships, so that when wealth betrays you and fails you, you will have people to welcome you when you ultimately approach God’s tent.
Jesus goes on to point out that if we are worthy of trust when engaged in the nitty-gritty, we will be trustworthy when we are dealing with big stuff. And if we cheat to get our own advantage in the little things, we will be totally unreliable when it comes to really important matters. To Jesus, how we use money is important. It is a measure of our integrity. And, for him, all we have is, at root, a gift from God. It’s given to us to use to build up God’s Kingdom. Are we wealthy due to our own crafty manipulations and dishonesty, or because we are using God’s gifts as God desires?
Jesus is pointing out that we are the stewards of God’s abundant blessings. Do we use our intelligence, status, abilities to advance peace, unity, goodness, truth, love in the world? Or not? Do we want to look good, like we’ve got the world in our back pocket, or be good? What, or Whom, do we serve? God or illusory wealth?
Jana Buckley says:
Pride (AKA vanity) does seem to rear its ugly head all too often. We do want to look good to others and our vanity shines, yet looking presentable is important as well for a matter of self respect. This seems to be as much of a constant battle as trying to balance the use of our material wealth. Saving is good and important, but ever so hard to know when it flows over into greed. Prayer seems to be a good ongoing help to balancing these.
a43dcb5_wp says:
Prayer and humility help us to keep balance.