The Meaning of Wealth Distribution – A Short Political Sermon
Luke 18: 18-27, New English Bible
by Peter K Bullock,
“A man from the ruling class” came to Jesus inquiring what to do to “win eternal life.”
What is a “ruling class” (euphemism for those in power) person doing seeking out this itinerant rabbi/teacher and his lower class buddies to ask questions? My guess is like any good politician he wanted to “test the waters” – so to speak – and – perhaps having heard of this Jesus and his teaching of the “
The politician refers to Jesus as “good master” which prompts Jesus to reply with the famous “why do you call me good? – only God is good” – which interestingly enough, put dampers on the notion of merit (ie, goodness) as a measure of worth and value.
Jesus’ response to the question; “You know the commandments” (the Old Testament Law of which there are 10) and he reiterates only five – all pertaining to how one treats other human beings:
“Do not commit adultery”
“Do not murder”
“Do not steal”
“Do not give false evidence” and
“Honor your mother and father”
Apparently, Jesus focuses on how one treats others as key to his persuasion and insight.
The ruler (ie, politician) points out that “he” has kept all these commandments since he has been a boy” ie, not only is he a good man, he has had the same moral development since he was a child. All one has to do is observe the morals of any child or adolescent and one sees how ludicrous this statement is(but politicians are known for stretching the truth in the service of self aggrandizement.
Jesus then replies “only one thing you lack – sell all you have and distribute it to the poor and then you can follow me.” Dismayed (the text says “his heart sunk”), evidently because he knew immediately he could not qualify for the standards of following Jesus. He went away and Jesus uttered his familiar aphorism “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
If the rich young ruler was dismayed, the disciples of Jesus were dumbfounded, stunned, and in their amazement cried out, “what?! – who then can be saved? (If not the one who obviously was blessed by God because he was rich and powerful). The disciples, like others of that time and even today, believed in a prudential morality. Prudential morality simply holds that good people have good fortune, undeserving people have less good fortune, and bad people have poor fortune – ie, the rich must be good and the poor must be bad because God has favored the rich and punished the poor. It is no wonder the disciples were stunned. Jesus had upset the apple cart of their most ingrained paradigm – that the world is made up of two classes of people – the good and the bad, according to God’s reward and/or retribution. In significant ways Jesus and his teaching of the
Evidently the reason the rich ruler went away dismayed, was not because he was being asked to give all his money away to the poor, but because he was being asked to transform his belief system about the worth and value of persons; he would have to give up his claim to being a “favored” class of person. In order to “distribute the wealth” he would have to come to terms with the worth, value and indeed the equality of all people. Jesus was not just a social reformer – we have plenty of those and need more. He was striking at the deepest issues of the business of being human – all people – rich, poor, powerful and powerless, regardless of race or creed or color or circumstances, are of worth and value. All of creation is precious and valuable and are equally deserving – so says Jesus, true to his Judaic heritage, true to himself, and true to his God in this conviction that all people are of worth and value.
Among those who would be influenced by Jesus’ insight were the framers of the US Constitution that reflects this truth in that “all men are created equal.” To distribute the wealth is to embrace the idea that all are deserving of equality; it is not earned or worked for or demanded, but is inherent in the very humanity of all people. What the rich ruler could not give up was not his money, but his station, his credentials of value and worth; his class mentality, his desperate clinging to an ego that sustained his only way of being meaningful; his only way of mattering; being among the special ones and the notion of seeing all people as equal (the poor in this case) and special in the eyes of God was more than he could accept. Distributing the wealth means equal station, equal education, equal opportunity, equal access to goods and services, equal acceptance, equal rights, equal treatment and equal justice. The very notion of equality represents an insight into the value and worth of human beings.
If someone is not impressed or influenced by this Jesus that is OK – this is not an apologetic for Christianity. It is an argument for policies, laws, attitudes, beliefs, value systems and convictions that underscore the great American experiment. This experiment that sees persons – all persons – as of value and worth and that all are equal.
Distributing the wealth is not just giving money away; it is seeing to it that the wealth of the American spirit of generosity and equality be at the core of our political, economic, social, and constitutional personality.
