Jesus talked a lot about money and money was at the center of a number of Biblical events. For example, the only time we see Jesus vent his anger is when he grabs a whip and chases the money changers out of the temple – his father’s house. He also tells the rich man who approached Jesus about being a disciple that he first needed to go sell everything he owned. And then there is the story about the widow and the profound gift she gave at the temple – even though by worldly standards the monetary value was very small.

One of Jesus’ trusted disciples – Matthew – was a tax collector, a wheeler dealer in money. Another one of Jesus’ disciples – Judas – was the group’s treasurer.

And what about Solomon’s wealth? It was almost incalculable. Was Jesus poor? Were his disciples without any wealth? You could argue that Peter and his brother had at least some measure of wealth as professionals in the fishing business. I have heard arguments both ways – there was money, and there was not. But let me point this little gem of information out that might give us some insight.

The apostle Luke records the story of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. In it, he says that in the late afternoon the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat”. The disciples answered Jesus saying, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish – unless we go and buy food for all this crowd”. Then Jesus takes matters into his own hands and miraculously provides. But what is telling is that the disciples, thinking only in earthly terms, offered to go BUY food for 5,000 people. That, of course, implies that the disciples had the money to do that.

So, how much might that be? Well, if we figure say, a Subway dinner might cost about $10 today, $10 times 5,000 people is $50,000. And what is not said in the dialogue between Jesus and the disciples is that IF they bought all that food it would clean out their purse. Now, I don’t want to over analyze this, but I think the scriptures are quite clear on the issue of money. Money itself is not evil. Having money is also not evil. After all, how can you give to the poor, or pay for someone’s lodging as the good Samaritan did, if you have no money. Rather, as Jesus so aptly admonished, it is the love of money that is at the root of all kinds of evil.

I like to put it this way using the four words: Life, Purpose, Plan, Money. The world says to make as much money as you can, then you will be able to plan your life, from which plans you will derive your purpose in life and when it’s all said and done – that will be your life. Jesus puts the order in exactly the opposite way: first there is life – life in Christ – which needs nothing else. It is in itself complete. From that life in Christ springs our purpose, our meaning. And with a real Christ-centered purpose to our lives we are then free to develop plans based on our talents and interests for the kingdom. And once we have those plans figured out, we then need to determine how much money we need, when we need it and in what increments.

Money, then, simply is a resource that serves our Christ-centered purpose.