The Rich and Poor in God's Economy

An invitation to be free from the burdens of prosperity and return what belongs to God.

My late brother Joe showed me the meaning of generosity not just with his words but by his example. Joe tirelessly served on behalf of the poor and needy. He advocated for the poor as an aid to a senator on Capitol Hill, in his community organizing for inner-city youth, in his service in Indigenous communities, and in his humanitarian work overseas in Bosnia. As he would walk me through the streets of Washington, D.C., he would often open his wallet to the homeless until he had nothing else to give.

I know his efforts often faced objections. His friends and family believed he was unwise, especially with his money. Perhaps my brother could have benefited from some financial literacy courses; I don’t think it would have been unwise for him to buy a couch for his apartment! But looking back, I can see how the objections my brother received likely frustrated him. Those who objected to his efforts were doing so as an ideological abstraction. The poor and downtrodden were not real people of genuine concern; the objections came as a response to an idea in theory, not from people with real skin in the game.

Serving the poor and oppressed was not an abstraction for my brother; it was a conviction born out of proximity to those whom Jesus would have called the least of these brothers and sisters of mine (Matthew 25:40). Joe knew that much was demanded of his energy and resources, much more than his objectors realized.

My experience over the last decade in churches is that many middle- and upper-class Christians often engage with Jesus’ teachings about money and economic responsibility in abstract terms. This is likely the result of congregations being economically separated from the poor and working classes in their communities. When the needs of those who suffer are not a constant reality, Jesus’ teachings on economic responsibility within his kingdom become little more than a theory. Such theorizing tends to take one of two directions.

For many, Jesus’ words about money and caring for the poor are reduced to nothing more than generic spiritual teachings. We interpret Jesus’ frequent references to the poor as solely relating to the poor in spirit. Although Jesus may have instructed the rich young ruler to sell his possessions (18:18-30), this was merely an extreme example to assess the man’s spiritual state. Jesus seems to have strong words for the rich (Luke 12:13-21; 16:19-31), but the real issue wasn’t their wealth; it was their hearts. You understand the idea.

Others, often unsatisfied by the first approach, adopt a radical and revolutionary take on Jesus. His strong words toward the rich are taken as the primary or only posture that Jesus has toward those of economic means. As a result, Jesus becomes a figure who is militantly against the rich who intends to upend all earthly economic structures.

Yet this latter approach often does little to change anyone’s hearts. Middle-class progressives claiming Jesus as a revolutionary defender of the poor makes for a good social media post, yet I’ve seen very few bank accounts change as a result. The irony of wealthy suburbanites claiming Jesus as their radical leader!

What if a different approach to Jesus’ teaching could invite us into a new way of seeing our money and the relationship between the rich and poor in God’s economy? What if there is a way for us to reconcile Jesus’ real demands on our money and his deep compassion on the burdens of the wealthy? I want to suggest that such an approach to Jesus’ economic ethics does exist and that it has the power to move those with means out of the theoretical and into proximate relationships with the poor and suffering.

Jesus’ Compassion for Those with Means

In Luke 12:22-34, Jesus comforts his audience over financial and material anxiety. Pointing to the ravens and the lilies, Jesus encouraged his listeners to remember that they have a heavenly Father who knows what they need.

I have generally understood this passage as a general promise of God’s provision if we seek the ways of his kingdom. However, having reconsidered this passage for some time, I no longer think Jesus was speaking to everyone in general.^[1]Instead, this passage appears to be first directed toward those with means. After all, Jesus’ instruction to sell our possessions and give to the poor (Luke 12:33) presumes that we have possessions to sell.

Let’s briefly consider some of the details of this text.

Jesus’ discourse about the ravens and lilies began with a man who asked Jesus for help in receiving an inheritance (Luke 12:13). Rather than answering the question, Jesus immediately responded with a warning about greed (pleonexia), a word that carries the sense of acquiring more than we need through fraudulent, extortive practices (Luke 12:14). Jesus illustrated this greed with a rich man who was not generous and was struck dead as a result (Luke 12:16-21).

As Jesus moved into his discourse on the ravens and lilies, he illustrated again with an example of wealth, this time the exuberant wealth of King Solomon (Luke 12:27). The language of selling possessions and giving to the poor (Luke 12:34) is repeated twice in Luke’s letters: In Jesus’ confrontation with the rich ruler (Luke 18:18-30) and again in Acts 2:45 and 4:34-35 when Christians with means were selling their possessions to provide for those in need.

Jesus appears to be directing this discourse about financial and material anxiety toward those in the crowd with means. He was speaking to those who have enough money to worry about it, those who have enough to fear losing it, and those who have enough to feel the crushing weight of always wanting more.

In other words, he’s addressing people like me and probably like many of you.

Jesus knows the heavy burden of wealth and financial prosperity. He knows that it is easier for us to fit through the head of a needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven (Luke 18:23-25). He knows our fears and anxiety, and he wants us to be free. How do the wealthy and those with means find freedom? Jesus says three things:

1. Remember who you are. You are not an animal nor a machine that merely produces and consumes. You are loved and valued by God! (Luke 12:22-26)

2. Remember who your Father is. He knows what you need. He takes care of the plants and animals, and aren’t you more loved than they? He is a good Father who loves you! (Luke 12:27-31)

3. Receive the Kingdom of God, for your Father is pleased to open the storehouses of his kingdom with you. Participate in the work of this Kingdom. Let go of your money and provide for those in need. (Luke 12:32-34)

Instead of generic principles for all believers, this passage first serves as a compassionate invitation to be liberated from the overwhelming burden of economic prosperity. More importantly, it invites us to embrace and engage in God’s new kingdom economy.

The Rich and Poor in God’s Economy

What is required of those with means in God’s economy? Jesus tells us clearly toward the end of the passage: sell your possessions, give to the poor, and thereby store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Basil of Caesarea said on this text, “If you want storehouses, you have them in the stomachs of the poor. Lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.”^[2]

I reference John Calvin frequently on this site because I have come to see him as much as an economic reformer as he was a theological one. Reading Luke 12 in this way, this passage becomes a wonderful invitation to the reciprocal roles John Calvin summarized for the rich and poor in God’s economy.

First, Calvin described those with means as God’s ministers, officers, and deputies who are responsible for providing for the poor:

We are taught that the rich have received more abundance on condition that they should be ministers to the poor by providing the good things placed in their hands by the goodness of God…^[3]

When God gives someone more than he needs… God makes me his deputy as it were… So all rich people, when they have the means to do good, are certainly there as God’s officers and carry out what is in their character as such – that is, helping their neighbors to live.^[4]

Second, Calvin described the poor as God’s ambassadors, God’s proxies, who are responsible for gathering up what is owed to God:

God shows us clearly how he wants us to serve him and by what means. We are to pay him homage with the good things he has given us in abundance; for indeed he sends us the poor as agents to gather in what is his… God credits it as if we had put into his hands what we give to a poor person.^[5]

In God’s economy, the rich and poor are brought together into a new reciprocal relationship where each relates to each other out of unique care and concern rather than hostility and separation. André Biéler, a scholar of Calvin’s economic thought, summarized:

The rich man has a providential economic mission. He is charged with sharing a part of his wealth with a man poorer than himself so that the poor will no longer be poor and the rich will no longer be rich. On the other hand, the poor man also has a spiritual mission to fulfill. The poor is destined to be the neighbor of the rich, to be the one who, on the part of God, offers the rich an opportunity of ridding himself of his goods and freeing himself from monetary slavery.^[6]

Consequently, in Calvin’s economic thought, keeping for ourselves what belongs to God in the hands of the poor is fraudulent greed.

What does all of this mean for us? For those who, like me, have struggled historically with making sense of Jesus’ economic ethic, the first step is bringing our financial anxiety and fears to him. We need not fear him as if he is a harsh judge. He knows our burden and wants us to be free.

Beyond that, we need to consider what it means for us to become recipients of the kingdom of God. Yes, God has generously opened his storehouses to us, providing every spiritual blessing and many material ones. Receiving his Kingdom does not permit us to be passive; it comes with a precious responsibility. Those of us with means are charged with placing into God’s hands what already belongs to him by caring for the poor. As I have written elsewhere and will elaborate on further, we will likely never grasp what God requires of us until we share our lives in close and meaningful relationships with the poor and oppressed.

Far from generic abstractions, the responsibility of God’s economy must come with a willingness to make our most significant life decisions in reference to participation in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus has promised that the freedom he offers is worth giving up our earthly treasures.

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^[1] Thanks to Greg B. for provoking this line of thought many months ago!

^[2] Basil of Caesarea, On Social Justice, 68.

^[3] John Calvin, Commentary on Acts 11:29.

^[4] John Calvin, Sermon CXLI on Deteronomy 24:19-22. Quoted in André Biéler, Calvin’s Social and Economic Thought, 284.

^[5] John Calvin, Sermom XCV on Deut 15:11-15 Quoted in André Biéler, Calvin’s Social and Economic Thought, 288.

^[6] André Biéler, The Social Humanism of Calvin, 33.