Jesus was a Rich Man: Analyzing Jesus' Financial Wealth

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance are investigating the financial practices of six of the country's mega-churches. Consequently, the topic of a prosperity gospel is getting a great amount of attention. Just when I hear a pastor preach that this world does not matter, when I hear a "pastor" tell me that Jesus was financially wealthy, I feel the bile rising. It is this latter claim that the mega-church leaders use to justify their "love offerings" and untaxed income.

It's pretty clear that Christianity has been hijacked by modern-day Pharisees. The "prosperity gospel" teaches that God will reward your faith with health, and, more important, wealth. Like the Pharisees believed, these new prosperity "Christians" believe that if you are rich it is a sign of God's favor (make sure you don't confuse "favor" for "blessing" here). This movement is also called positive confession, word-faith, health and wealth, and name-it-and-claim-it.

The emphasis in this teaching is not on what we do, but on what we say. The belief is that if you ask God for something in a positive and unfaltering way, God must give it to you; faith is a force controlled by the spoken word. This emphasis on talking rather than acting is the basis for the modern conservative Christian movement-as long as you tell people that Jesus is their savior, you don't worry about loving them or helping them or even being nice to them, because you've already done your Christian duty. Go ahead and ignore all of things Jesus did and said before he died. It's not your job to help them anyway; if they are poor or sick it's their own fault for not having enough faith.

Jesus must not have had enough faith when he asked God to take the cup from him. God didn't take the cup. Christ: a bad example of faith.

I believe that God answers all prayer, but in a much wiser way than to just give me what I want. When I was in grade school I prayed almost every night to be shorter and less skinny. I really wanted to be shorter and less skinny. I knew completely that God could have made this happen for me, too. Now I count my height as a great blessing, as I'm sure many shorter people now do who used to ask God to make them taller. And sure, I would absolutely love to have more money, but I'm not going to make demands of God, and instead am going to trust that I am not financially rich for good reasons.

Money is not a bad thing. Money is necessary. In fact, it's OK to like money. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14-28) Jesus warns against not being a good steward of money. Granted, I believe he was using the talents as a metaphor for faith, but nonetheless he chose money as an example of something not to be squandered. It's loving money that is the problem. Jesus never made money a top priority. In fact, he spent a great amount of time warning against the consequences of the desire for money. I don't believe Jesus wants you to live in a cardboard box (though some may be called to this); it's the desire for more money than you need that hurts your soul. It's not the money itself that hurts your soul, it's the desire. Isaiah 55:2 (NIV) says, "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Don't waste money. Don't love money. "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless" Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV).

You'd have a very, very hard time convincing me that the leaders of mega-churches are not mainly if not solely motivated by money. I don't think a private jet and Rolls-Royces are what Isaiah meant by "richest fare."

What I've found in researching the topic of a prosperity gospel are three basic arguments supporting the claim that Jesus was rich: (1) Kings came to visit him when he was a baby, and gave him expensive gifts. First of all, the three men weren't kings. They were magi, priests and educated men, who came to pay homage to the messiah. Jesus warranted these gifts because he was the messiah, not because he was born into a rich family. (2) Jesus was so rich he needed an accountant or treasurer to travel around with him. By "treasurer" they mean Judas, whom Jesus asked to simply carry the money bag for all of the people traveling in their group. (3) Jesus' clothes were so expensive that the Roman soldiers gambled for them after his death. Gambling for an executed person's clothes was common practice for the soldiers, and gambling is more about simply winning that it is about what is won. In addition, Herod's fancy robe had been placed on Jesus, which may have been a more enticing prize than Jesus' robe.

The churches and pastors being investigated are Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn ministries in Texas, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries and Rev. Creflo Dollar's World Changers International Church in Georgia, Joyce Meyer Ministries in Missouri, and Paula White Ministries in Florida.

A copy of the letter sent to Rev. Dollar can be found here, and the NPR article offers more information and links to the other churches' letters as well as to Joyce Meyer Ministries' response.