The Purpose of Money: A Christ-Exalting Open Hand

Last night in our Bible study, we were confronted with a question:

Which is more impressive:
A) To get rich and thank God
or
B) to be so satisfied in God that you give away riches and call it gain?

We bantered back and forth for a while about responsible stewardship and giving when your kids have to go hungry because of it or when your light bill doesn't get paid. The real answer for us lies in what the Bible says, so I want to put forth the story rich ruler and Jesus to help us understand the purpose of money.

¹⁸ And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ¹⁹And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. ²⁰You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" ²¹And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth." ²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." ²³ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. ²⁴Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁶Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" ²⁷But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

The ruler wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus gives him a list. What is interesting about this list is what it does not contain -more on that in a moment. But let me take this opportunity to say that I believe that this guy kept those commandments. He was surely a standup guy! You or I would love to be around him. He's moral, he pursues holiness, and he's responsible with his cash (he is rich after all). He would probably make a great deacon in many churches. To drive this home -the guy was not lying about his commandment keeping. That's not the problem here.

Back to what the list leaves out. Jesus then makes a second request of him, "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Is Jesus giving him yet another rule to follow? No! Jesus is pointing out to the ruler that he has made money into an idol. The rulers affections are so bound up in his money that he is morally unable to part with it to follow after another love, namely God. His riches on Earth are so appealing to him -so enjoyable and satisfying- that they have robbed him of a right affection for God. He took his money and put it in the place of God -the place of adoration, affection, and worship. Luke writes that "when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich." The idol of money is not easily usurped. The ruler knew that his relationship with his money was keeping him from being in right relationship with God, but still he would not forsake his worship of money for affection, love, and worship of God.

So what is the solution then? Let me first address a few ways in which we deal wrongly with money. The first way is money-phobia. Jesus says, "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor...and come, follow me." Well then, that means that every single person should sell everything and go live in the woods (the only place you'll find food without money). Don't get me wrong. This approach is not always wrong. It was right for the rich ruler, and it is right for many today. But Christ did not intend for all to do this in order to follow him (although everyone must give up the idol of money to follow). Jesus dealt with money. The disciples dealt with money. Paul make tents to make money to support his ministry. The solution is not to be rid of all money, period.

The second solution is to twist the text to allow us to stay rich. Face it. We here in America, although we all desire to claim middle class status, are filthy rich compared to the rest of the world. If we want to stay rich and keep a clean conscience with have to come up with a way to deal with the text that lets us stay that way. Jesus says, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." What do we do with that? "Well you see, there was a gate in Jerusalem that was called the Eye of the Needle. And camels would have to get on their bellies and shimmy through to get in. It was a tight fit." Bologna. That explanation never appeared in any commentary until the 15th century, and it is completely historically unfounded. There is no historical evidence that any such gate ever existed, but it makes us feel better to think that Jesus was just saying that it's a tight squeeze for the rich to get into heaven. The plain meaning of the text is that just as impossible as it is for the biggest animal that we have seen (the camel for people in Jerusalem) to go through the smallest opening that we can think of (the eye of a needle for people in Jerusalem) so it is for the rich entering heaven. It's impossible and not just tough.

What do we do then with our money to keep from being rich? We give it away! We count it as useless for anything other than giving glory to Jesus and showing that he is valuable. God gives us money to show that money is worthless in comparison to him. The answer to finding our treasure in money is to find our treasure in Jesus! Let's look at this in scripture. In Matthew 6 Jesus says,

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on...But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Jesus flat out says that our first pursuit is to be God's kingdom. Every dime we have then has the end of advancing the good news of forgiveness from God and the return of King Jesus to Earth. The accumulation of wealth ceases to be the end in itself when the pursuit of the kingdom of God takes its place. Money then becomes merely another opportunity to make Jesus look really really valuable. As stewards of the money that belongs to God, we give it away, we buy food with it, we move to a city and buy a house with it, we buy clothes with it, but all with ONE goal -the advancement of the kingdom of God, the honor and fame of his great name among all the nations. How would your life change if this is what your bills looked like?



If every time you looked at your money you had that question before you? If every time you handed it to a cashier that question was placed before her -to look at your money, look at your purchase, look at you, and consider your God. Let me encourage you to have that question before your eyes every time you spend a dollar, and open up your mouth by the Spirit and pose it to the cashier. Does what you do with your money make Jesus look valuable? When you give it away, do you call it gain?