Everything Jesus ever had to say about Money: Part 3 (Luke)

Below is every passage in the Gospel of Luke that specifically mentions money, categorized according to the pattern I began when i did the same thing with Matthew and Mark.

Luke’s gospel contains more material in this category than any of the others. For completeness’ sake, there will be a few entries here that go beyond the direct quotes from sayings of Jesus, starting with a portion of the Magnificat, other relevant events of Jesus’ birth and infancy, and in at least one instance a quick reference to a related Old Testament text in order to give proper context to what we read. Here goes.

From Mary’s Song of Praise (The Magnificat)

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. — Luke 1:52-53

A Homeless Family

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. — Luke 2:7

Too Poor for a Sheep

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord*, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” —Luke 2:22-24

*This passage specifically quotes from Leviticus 12:8:
When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. He shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement on her behalf; then she shall be clean from hr flow of blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, male or female. If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf, and she shall be clean. —Leviticus 12:6-8

John the Baptist on Fruits Worthy of Repentance

And the crowds asked him [John], “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” —Luke 3:10-14

Jesus Announces His Ministry

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” —Luke 4:16-21

Jesus Associates With Tax Collectors

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” — Luke 5:27-32

Jesus Teaches His Disciples

Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” — Luke 6:20-21

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” — Luke 6:24-25

Teaching on Giving and Theft

“Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” —Luke 6:30

Teaching on Lending

“If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” — Luke 6:34-35

Giving and Receiving

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” — Luke 6:37-38

An Answer to John the Baptist

When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” — Luke 7:18-23

On Forgiveness: An Illustration

Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” — Luke 7:40-43

“Is God Violent?”

In the January 2011 issue of Sojourners magazine is an article by Brian McLaren which deserves a wide and thoughtful readership.  Readers of this blog will perhaps recognize some themes, as I have posted here and elsewhere about my own thought processes about the practical implications of taking the Way of Jesus seriously and reading the Bible through a red-letters-first filter. (Everyone who reads the Bible reads through some filter or other, whether secular, doctrinal, political, analytical, historical, devotional, or something else; I choose to begin with Jesus, of whom scripture itself testifies that he is the beginning and the end).

McLaren admits,

I remember the first time I heard of something called pacifism: My response was that it sounded terribly impractical and dangerous.

but in this piece outlines how he has come, through his discipleship to Jesus, to recognize something that (in my view) everyone who claims too be a follower (student, disciple, imitator)  of Jesus sooner or later will have to come to grips with, in terms of what approach to take with respect to human conflict:

And the staggering reality is that Jesus didn’t kill anybody — something that can’t be said about Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, or Mohammed (no disrespect intended to any of them). He didn’t hit anybody. He didn’t hate anybody. He practiced as he preached: Reconciliation, not retaliation. Kindness, not cruelty. A willingness to be violated, not violation. Creative conflict transformation through love, not decisive conflict termination through superior weapons.

Since the purpose of this piece is evidently to stimulate further discourse within Christian circles about this matter, my purpose here is not just to regurgitate his views, but to build on them, perhaps, by expounding some thoughts of my own.  I have a bit of an advantage over McLaren, maybe, in that I grew up in a family where pacifism was not a bad word, where I knew that I had two uncles (my mother’s brother and my mother’s sister’s husband), who did alternative service as conscientious objectors during World War II.   I thought about going that route during Vietnam, but did not see my way clear to do that, not because I had no objection to the war, but because I did not at that time have a way to honestly say that I could base that objection on religious faith.  My faith came later, and it was only later that I also came to understand that the radical position my two uncles took was actually the generally accepted stance of the Christian movement during its first two or three hundred years of existence.  That is, until Augustine introduced something we call the Just War Theory.

These days nobody much argues that Augustine’s theory, when brought into service, can successfully justify most modern conflicts.  The weapons are too deadly, the politics too murky, the responses too disproportionate, to pass muster by the standards he articulated.  But we moderns tend to take some sort of comfort in thinking that, in the dimness of antiquity, a respected Christian leader propounded what was then a novel way to justify institutionalized violence.  But over time, as I have thought about this, I realized what, I think, others more famous than myself are now struggling with. Namely:  the argument starts somewhere other than Jesus.

A Franciscan Benediction

 

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice
and kindness to all our children and the poor. Amen.

Christ-centered Bible reading

A worthwhile thought-starter here on the difference between modern ways of reading the Bible and the approach taken by the ancient Fathers, including the writers of the New Testament.

Here’s an excerpt, but I really suggest you follow the link and read the excellent comments as well:

….several key points about the Fathers’ nonliteral and image-laden reading of the Bible.

1. The New Testament authors clearly applied Old Testament texts in ways that departed seriously from the plain, surface meaning of the text. When Paul cites Psalm 19 in Romans 10 (“their voice is gone out into all the world”), he applies the Psalmist’s statement about the heavens to the preaching of the apostles. This runs against the plain meaning, said Wilken.

2. The books of Scripture do not bear their own significance. They must be united to something greater, which is Christ. Thus Paul interprets the creation of man and woman as a great mystery, which is Christ and the church; and he interprets the water-giving rock in the Sinai desert as Christ.

3. Typically, such creative renderings of the Bible are focused on the Old Testament. That is because the Old Testament text signifies Christ, but the New Testament text does not signify another Christ. It requires no allegory or analogy to reveal the Incarnate Word.

4. The Fathers also understood the interpretation of Scripture to require the reader’s participation in the spiritual reality of the text. Thus it is not enough to say that Christ was crucified. We must also say, “I am crucified with Christ,” and thus also I am raised with Christ.

On point #3, above, I’d like to make a further comment.  While it is true that it is not “another Christ” that the NT signifies, we do see Paul saying, “even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, we now know him [in that way] no more; therefore if anyone be in Christ there is a new creation… (2 Corinthians 5:16-17),  Thus Christ in the NT is not just the historical figure of the rabbi from Nazareth, but is the salvation of the world, good news to the nations (ethne, Gentiles), the beginning and end of history.  As such, the full application of the meaning and presence of Christ in all situations, “in whom is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” requires, it seems to me, a continual re-envisioning of the world as it is (not just as it was in the first century) and, it seems to me also, we have ample precedent in scripture and in the work of the Fathers for  applying by extension and analogy the truth of Christ to emerging circumstances, just as the Fathers and the NT writers did with respect to ancient Hebrew texts.

Jabez revisited

One of my online friends has posted a very thoughtful take on the Prayer of Jabez.  You should read it. An excerpt:

Many people interpret this as, “If you ask God to bless you, He’ll shower you with material wealth and whatever else you want.” But as I learned Sunday at Amy’s church, that’s not the case.

Did you notice verse 9 when it says Jabez got his name because his mother “gave birth to him in pain?” As the pastor explained, the name Jabez basically means “pain.” Can you imagine being called “Pain” all your life? That’s where verse 10 comes in, where Jabez prays that he would be “free from pain.” He wasn’t asking God for a life free from trouble (which is dumb, because Jesus said in this world we’ll have trouble), but that He would be able to turn Jabez’s curse into a blessing. And He did.

I like it when people think.  Especially preachers.

God and Mammon

One of the pastimes that goes on in my feeble brain, almost without me noticing, is coming up with titles for books I would like to read, or would like to know how to write.  I’ll toss this one out in the hopes that somewhere in the ether-tubes will be a person with the right expertise to actually put it together.  Ready?

God and Mammon:  The Big Business of Evangelical Religion In America

Or, for a slightly different emphasis:

God and Mammon:  Christianity and Capitalism in America

This book would review the history and current state of churches, denominations, individual religious superstars, and mega churches, and would provide analysis of how much money is involved in these various organizations, where it comes from and especially how it is spent.  Under the second title it might actually go broader, dropping the rubric “evangelical” from the subtitle, so as to also look at mainline churches, the Catholic Church and its various organizations, questionable cults, non-Christian religious movements, and so on, but that would be a much broader project.

One focus of such a project might be to try to understand how it is that somehow in the United States Christianity has become wedded to capitalism, whether that has always been the case, exceptions to this rule, and how such an emphasis has developed over time. I would definitely buy and read such a book. It could also,of course, do some analysis of the extent to which funds are actually spent on human development, healthcare, housing, education, nutrition; how much on political activism, left and right; how much on real estate, salaries, and other measures of institutional maintenance.  Then, of course, the question would have to be asked, to what extent these things map to the priorities actually laid out in the New Testament by Jesus of Nazareth, who said:  ”where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Associated Baptist Press – Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?

Associated Baptist Press – Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?

So, why are Christians so willing to believe unsubstantiated rumors? And more troubling, why are Christians, who should hold the highest standards of truth-telling, so eager to spread such rumors — and even downright libels?

A detailed, thoughtful review and analysis of a disturbing, ongoing phenomenon in American culture.  Recommended.

Verse of the Month — October 2009

Generosity

Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

Luke 6:38

Are Christians too judgmental?

I took part in a panel discussion a few weeks ago on this topic.  A discussion ensued in a private forum where some posters expressed views that suggest people like me, who insist on emphasizing the love of God for all persons, are, let’s say, not really Christians at all because we appear not to have any standards, and because we don’t simply state whatever the Bible says.  I think I hold myself and others to a very high standard, however, and I think I am pretty clear on what the Bible says also.  Here’s my response, in part:

What then do we make of Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, John 8:15, and Romans 2:1?

Jesus was faced with people who ultimately condemned (judged) him because he refused to judge a sexual sin (the woman taken in adultery: immediate context for the John 8 passage) even though they could point to chapter and verse to say she should not only be condemned but punished; because he was so lacking in (their idea of)  discernment that he tolerated uncleanness (eating with unwashed hands) and moral failure (eating with tax collectors and “sinners”). These were the sorts of things that incensed the moral gatekeepers of the day, the Pharisees. He healed indiscriminately; touched a leper, refused to rebuke a woman known to be immoral (at the house of Simon the Pharisee, the muttering round the table was, “If he knew what kind of woman she was….”, obviously a question of their judgment concerning his evident lack of discernment). Of course, Jesus knew in every case what was going on, and made conscious decisions not only to do these things but to use them as occasions for teaching about the scope of God’s love for people and the nature of love and forgiveness. He speaks without compromise about the absolute condemnation from God which is to fall on those who, having received mercy, fail to offer it to others in turn. “So will my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” This says to me that love and forgiveness, not moral rightness or knowledge, are the essential beginning-point of any real discernment “in the Spirit.”

One day soon I will lay out my understanding of the thrust of the argument present by Paul in Romans chapters one through three, which I take to be an extended exposition of Luke 6:37, remembering that Luke the evangelist was Paul’s traveling companion, they worked together, and are likely to have  drawn from one another’s material.

Verse of the Month — July 2009

Fulfillment

Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10