Money - love it hate it use it!

Money, in the first century, was still a relatively new technology, so they were still working out its morality. We are now debating the ethics of mobiles: should we read a text message in church, or during a conversation? In the same way, people in Jesus’ day were wondering if money was good and when it was bad – something we still struggle with.

If it weren’t for taxes (which had to be paid in coinage), most people could have gone through life without using any money. They could grow much of what they ate and could barter for other things. Coins were easier to carry than chickens, but using them could be expensive. Every time you made a transaction, you lost a percentage, so bartering was cheaper than money.

Jesus’ teachings are surprisingly full of stories and advice concerning money, especially considering that most of his hearers didn’t have much. Perhaps he knew how important this technology would become.

Jews were more positive about money than many people because of coinage as part of their religious life. Moses initiated a religious tax of half a shekel whenever a baby was born (Exod. 30.11-16). When the Temple was built and costs soared, this became an annual tax (2 Chronicles 24.5). Perhaps paying the Temple tax made Jews, in general, more familiar and comfortable with the concept of coinage before other nationalities were. Their writings suggest they wanted to pay this tax because it meant that they contributed to sacrifices made to God. So this made them feel good about money.

Jesus and Money

Jesus, however, was sceptical about the Temple tax. When a collector asked Peter if Jesus paid this tax, he said “Of course”, and was gently rebuked by Jesus (Matt. 17:24-27). And Jesus was famously antagonistic towards the Temple money changers. Some contemporary rabbis complained about the 8% fee they charged for changing coins, but this wasn’t the reason for Jesus’ anger. What Jesus hated was the bustle of a marketplace in the “house of prayer” (Mark 11:15-17). But did his dramatic and violent scattering of coins all over the Temple precinct mean that Jesus was against money itself?

Some people regard Jesus like an impractical hippie-type who didn’t worry about clothes or food because God clothed the flowers and fed the birds (Matt. 6:25-31). However, he was practical enough to appoint a treasurer among his disciples – though Judas was perhaps not the most trustworthy choice! (see John 12:4-6). And Jesus had much more to say about money than you’d expect.

More than a third of the parables involved money: stories about buying a field, buying a pearl, owing money, complaining about wages, investing money, a rich man who retires, a rich man in hell, reducing amounts in an invoice, coins to help the Samaritan, or looking for a lost coin. Some of these stories involved poor people and some involved the rich – because Jesus’ stories included the whole of human life.

In general, the wealthy are criticized more often than the poor. They have problems getting to heaven (“through the eye of a needle”- Mark 10:25) and the rich man who worked hard for his retirement falls dead before he can enjoy it (Luke 12:18-20). And of course, Jesus portrayed a poor man in heaven and a rich man in hell (Luke 16:19-31) – though he may have done this merely to undermine normal expectations.

Jesus knew about poverty because he was poor himself. When travelling, he couldn’t afford to stay in an inn (Luke 9:58) and his daily prayer was that of a poor man. Jewish beggars were given food every week if they stayed in one village, but they moved from village to village they were only given daily food. Jesus’ prayer for “daily bread” is unique in Judaism – it is the petition of an itinerant beggar who is happy with his lot.

But Jesus didn’t reject fine things. He accepted invitations to banquets – rather too often according to his critics (Luke 7:34). When he changed water into wine, it was good wine, and he owned an expensive seamless robe (John 2:10; 19:23). However, this robe wasn’t bought with money: it was no doubt a gift of love from his mother, who chose to do the much harder work of weaving a wide piece of cloth, rather than two narrower pieces.

And Jesus didn’t reject money-making. In his story about the master who entrusted his three servants with money while he was away, Jesus criticized the servant who kept it safe and didn’t try to make a profit or even make interest on it (Luke 19:23). And the story of a treasure in the field revels in the triumph of buying the field for less than the treasure was worth (Matt. 13:44). Even the man who filled his barn for his retirement is implicitly ridiculed for waiting too long before enjoying what he had (Luke 12:16-20).

Lovers of Money
It isn’t money that is criticized, but only those who loved money. The Aramaic word mammon (“money”) almost always referred to bad things – paying fines, or escaping responsibilities, or fleecing an ex-husband {Mishnah Ket.3.2; m.Yad.4.3; m.Yeb.15.3}. It was like our English words “lucre” and “lucrative” which usually have a negative meaning. So it isn’t surprising that Jesus used this word when talking about the worst aspect of money-worshipping it instead of worshipping God (Matt. 13:44). Timothy is warned later that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10), though this is often misquoted as if money itself is evil.

The Bible doesn’t condemn money itself, because it can just as easily be used for good. The good Samaritan paid money to care for the mugged man, and the “good” servants invested it (Matt. 25:27). Presumably, Jesus himself gave money from their purse to the poor, because the disciples assumed Judas was going to do this at the last Passover (John 13:29).

Jesus’ conclusion about money is that we should use it to make friends. In a rather difficult parable, a dishonest accountant made friends by reducing their bills, and Jesus commends him! Of course, he was commending his shrewdness rather than his dishonesty. Jesus explained that he had the right long-term strategy: to help people rather than accumulate money. He said: “children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke 16:8).

Christians and Money
Christians are often good at thrift and poor at giving. I like the example of John Laing, the UK building contractor who made a fortune building motorways and power stations. He lived simply and carefully planned how to distribute his money. His executors found he had just a couple of hundred pounds left in his account. According to Jesus, he will have a lot of friends in heaven.

David Instone-Brewer, author of Moral Questions of the Bible: Timeless Truth in a Changing World (Lexham Press, 2019).