Give it away. All of it? Yes, and follow me.
Jesus was talking to a young guy who had, through inheritance or entrepreneurship, a lot of money. He was living knowing that he was doing good in life. He was comfortable in his golden shoes. He had a good status in society. He had a good status with the religious people too—at that time in the nation of Israel great profits were associated with having the favor of God. But when he came and knelt before Jesus inquiring as to what must be done to inherit eternal life, Jesus gave this shocking response, ‘Sell your possessions, give them to the poor, and follow me.’
Imagine the shock that must have filled the soul of this young man upon hearing Jesus’ response. This was a ‘good’ guy, he was morally upstanding and apparently wanted to know how to gain eternal life—seems like an admirable thing. But Jesus knew he was missing one thing, Jesus. This successful young man was lacking the Messiah, lacking the Savior he needed in order to be saved from his sin.
Money is fun. Money allows us to travel, to read, to eat exciting dishes, to gain entrance into theatres to experience astounding cinematography, music, or stories. Money is also a necessity. You are more than likely not going to eat anything without it, you need it to pay for shelter and clothes, you need it to live. But money can often get in the way. You want to gather a group of friends, you want to have a nicer than usual evening just for fun—maybe go to a nice restaurant and go to a separate place downtown known for their delightful post-entrée pleasures—, but that one friend never can seem to make it to these type of gatherings. You know he has the money, but you also know he likes to keep his money. He would rather save his money than enjoy a rare evening with his close companions. It says a lot about the guy doesn’t it? He values one thing over another.
This is exactly what Jesus was doing with the young stud: he was showing him that there was something in the way of him getting into eternal life, it was the guys love for money. Before you write this post off as ludicrous, narrow-minded, impractical, and too radical let me say that money and having lots of it is not bad or even sinful. That’s right, I said it: you can be the world’s wealthiest individual and still be on your way to heaven, if you love Jesus more than your money.
As the title suggests, money talks. Seriously. It talks about where you have gone, what your favorite items are, what, ultimately, you value. Sorry, but your money is ratting you out and even having an intimate heart-to-heart will not shut it up. But spending money is not bad either, we need to provide for ourselves and others. This area is where the Christian is weird. Christians are to work just as hard at their job and provide just as well for their families, but that hard-earned money is also to be given away. Just like that, no strings, no qualms, just give it away. (though not all of it) And not only give the money away but do it happily and willingly with zero expectation of receiving any of it back or getting the nodding approval of some high ranking official. In fact, Jesus tells his followers to do it secretly so that others do not know you are doing it or how often or how much.
I will say it again: Christians are to give away their hard-earned money with no expectation of approval from others or financial return or compensation for so doing. Why? What is the cause of this nonsense? Gratitude. You see, for the Christian we realize that absolutely nothing good in this world do we deserve. In fact, what we deserve is for the Creator of this earth, the One who gives us breath and makes our heart beat, this powerful Being to kill us; He has the right to obliterate and extinguish our existence. But He has not and more so He has decided to rescue us, to have Jesus pay for our sins which so set alight His just wrath and fury. With that understanding then, one way His followers show appreciation to Him is by sacrificing. Throughout history followers of the One True God have given their money, their live-stock, their land and its fruits to God. IT is an act of worship it is a selfless megaphone to God saying thank you for loving me! And God loves it in return. He does not need it—He owns it all already—but he enjoys the heart of worship that the giver brings to Him.
The rich kid who Jesus talked with went away confounded and sad because he had lots of money. Jesus does not command ever who follows him to immediately give all their money away, but he does say you either serve me entirely or not. It is easy to be quasi-committal but Jesus demands it all. Jesus says you can have all the money in the world has long as you hold it with your hand opened so that if I want to take it all away at some point you are okay with that.
Jesus and his followers always say there is a cost to following Jesus, and this does not avoid your wallet. This is so because money talks.
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