Money, money, money

Moneyball is a great movie about systems and leadership. It captures some of the worst of humanity, and some of the best of humanity. And it is a story of the possibility of positive change.

Jesus is the ultimate source of positive change; of changing human hearts, and of Kingdom of God change where there is flourishing and wholeness for everyone. And in Luke 16, he is trying to teach Kingdom ways to those who will listen.

But, of course, not everyone is willing to listen.  

When we enter chapter 16, Jesus is teaching the disciples. He tells them a parable about someone who has mismanaged money and as a result is about to get fired (Luke 16:1-9). On the way out the door, so to speak, this person who is about to lose his job makes some pretty radical decisions to adjust down the bill of folks who owe his company money. Jesus says, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9). The dishonest manager used the resources available in this life to ensure his future. As unsettling as this parable is, it is a challenge to use what we have now for our future. We could take that at face value and say it gives one license to cheat or be dishonest, but that would not align with the rest of Scripture. More appropriately, it is a challenge to invest in eternity – to take what we have and strive to use it wisely.

Then Jesus offers other teachings, about the importance of being faithful with little, about dishonest wealth and true riches, and that one cannot serve God and money – no one can have two masters.

It seems that it wasn’t just the disciples who were listening to Jesus’ teaching. When Jesus gets to the part that one cannot serve God and money, the Pharisees start mocking him, ridiculing him, sneering at him. They were listening to his teaching, which went against their own systems and beliefs. Luke says they were lovers of money. They were entrenched in their certainty, not just for their own personal comfort, but because their entire system was built upon it. When human beings get set and certain about how they think something should be done, those certainties often also bring an arrogance with them; self-righteousness. An “I’m right and you’re an idiot if you think differently” kind of arrogance. Which, we see here, in sneering and ridicule.

In fairness, they didn’t pull their love of money or system out of the air entirely. One can find their source of justification in Scripture by looking at particular texts, such as Deuteronomy 11:13-15 which promises that those who heed God’s commands will have rain, grain, wine, oil and good grass for their livestock; that they will eat in full. By looking at texts like this one on its own, it is possible to develop an understanding that those who have wealth are “heeding God’s commands” and therefore that wealth is a reward. This theology blends God and wealth; it merges them. In this theology, faithfulness to God becomes financially beneficial, and if one is struggling financially, this theology says, it is because they do not have faith. You may have heard such theology referred to as “health and wealth” theology, or “the prosperity gospel.” The problem is that this is not a faithful reading of Scripture. It is a selective one. The end product is not faithful to the Word of God. Rather, it uses the Word of God to justify something of human creation.

Jesus knows this. So, he completely upends their certainty. He tells a parable about a rich man who wears clothes that reflect his status and eats sumptuously every day. Outside his gate is a sick man, Lazarus, who is literally starving to death. Lazarus seems to be stuck there at the end of that gate – possibly he could not walk, possibly he was too weak to move – for whatever reason he is there. The rich man does nothing to help him.

They both die. The poor man goes to take refuge in the comfort of Abraham, the father of the faith. The rich man who had everything but paid no attention to the poor man in need at the end of his driveway ends up in eternal suffering. He had the words of Moses. He had the words of the prophets. He had all of Scripture, which, if he had really read and understood, would have told him that God has great, great, great concern for the poor, the sick, the refugee, the widow, the prisoner and so on. If he had really read and understood scripture, he would have taken care of the man at the end of his driveway.

Instead, he took comfort in his certainty of understanding. He took comfort in his presumed self-righteousness. He made his priority upholding a system of his own making. His arrogance and smug certainty had eternal consequences.

There are all kinds of arguments in the Church and in culture right now about who is right. What we forget in our human arrogance is that if we claim the name of Jesus Christ and call ourselves Christians, then it isn’t about my opinion or your opinion, or this side or that side, but about the way of Jesus. And Jesus isn’t on a side. He is the Way. He calls us to make him our Way which means we set down our certainties and our sides.

If Jesus is the Way we choose, then we have no choice but to set down our certainty and listen to him, to be formed, molded, and shaped to be and live like him.

He changed the game. In fact, he changed everything. 

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