Posted on 08/07/2013 4:14:56 AM PDT by markomalley
Staying in a kind of reflective mode from Last Sunday’s Gospel on Greed and how to avoid it, there may be value in pondering why Jesus called some (or all) mammon (wealth) unrighteous. The phrase occurs in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus says: I tell you, make friends for yourselves by your use of dishonest wealth, so that, when it fails, they will welcome you to eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:9). We discussed yesterday what it means to be welcomed into eternal dwellings and who these friends who welcome us really are. But in this post perhaps we can consider what the expression “dishonest wealth” means?
More literally the Greek μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας (mamona tes adikias) is translated, “mammon of iniquity.” Now “mammon” is a Hebrew and Aramaic word and has a wider concept than just money. It refers to wealth in general and, even more generally, to the things of this world on which we rely. But what is meant by the expression “dishonest wealth?” Why is it called dishonest?
There seem to be various opinions and theories. None of them absolutely exclude the other but they do include some differences in emphasis:
1. It refers to wealth that we have obtained in dishonest or illegal ways. Now I personally think that this is unlikely since the Lord’s advice is to take this “dishonest wealth” and give it others. But the usual remedy, if I have stolen from others, is to return what I stole to them. It is true the Lord’s advice follows a parable where a man stole (or embezzled) money. But the Lord is not praising his theft, but rather, his determination to be clever in worldly matters. The Lord wishes his disciples were as clever and thoughtful in spiritual matters. Hence it seems unlikely that the Lord means by “dishonest wealth” merely things we have stolen. If we steal we ought to return it to the rightful owner, not make friends for ourselves of third parties for our own ultimate gain.
2. It refers to the fact that money and wealth tend to lead us to dishonesty, corruption and compromise. Since it tends to lead to iniquity it is called (literally) the mammon of iniquity. It is a true fact that Scripture generally has a deep distrust of money. For example:
It’s funny that, knowing passages like these, most of us still want to be rich! But at any rate, this interpretation sees the expression as referring more to where money and wealth lead rather than to money and wealth themselves. Of itself, money is not evil, neither is wealth. But they do tend to lead us into many temptations, to corruption and unrighteousness. Hence mammon is called “unrighteous” or “of iniquity.” Some also consider this manner of speaking to be a type of Jewish hyperbole since it assigns unrighteousness to all wealth, even though it only tends to lead there.
Over all this position has merit but I personally think it is incomplete and needs to be completed by a wider sense of unrighteousness. Simply chalking something up to Jewish hyperbole (exaggeration) may miss the fact we are not simply to dismiss hyperbole in Scripture. I have often found that the Jewish hyperbole found in the Scriptures is there for a reason. The usual reason is that we are being asked to consider that the exaggeration may not be a total exaggeration after all and, that there is more truth than exaggeration in the hyperbole. This notion is developed in the third theory.
3. It refers to the fact that this world is unjust, and thus, all its wealth has injustice and unrighteousness intrinsically attached. We live in a world where the distribution of wealth, resources and money are very unevenly and unjustly distributed. Now world wide economies are very complicated matters and there may be any number of reasons for this. Some areas of this planet are just more fertile than others. Other areas have more oil etc. There is often a role that corrupt governments play in unjust distribution as well. It is a true fact that we are sometimes unable to effectively help the needy in certain countries because corrupt governments and individuals divert what is intended for the poor. But there is just no getting around it, this world has a very unjust and unequal distribution of wealth and resources for any number of reasons. We, in America, live at the top of the system and we cannot wholly ignore that our inexpensive goods often are so because workers in other parts of the world earn a mere pittance to manufacture or harvest our cheap goods. Much of the convenience and comforts of our lifestyle are provided by people who earn very little for what they do, often without medical benefits, pensions and the like.
Now again, economies are very complicated and we may not be able to do a great deal to suddenly change all this. But we ought to at least be aware that we live very well and many others do not, and that our high standard of living is often the result of the cheap labor elsewhere. When I buy a shirt in the air-conditioned store and take it in my air-conditioned car back to my air-conditioned house with a walk-in closet, it ought to occur to me that the person who made and packed this shirt probably doesn’t live nearly as well as I do, earned very little for the work and thus I can buy the shirt for less than $20 for reasons like this.
Now I am not calling for boycotts, (they probably just hurt the poor anyway), and I am not sure exactly how we got to such inequities in this world. I know it annoys me when some people simply want to blame Americans for every ill there is. There are other factors such as international corruption, bad economic theory and the like. There’s plenty of blame to go around. But the fact is, this world is an unjust place and every bit of wealth we have is somehow tainted by that injustice.
So this final theory is not so quick to call Jesus’ expression “Jewish Hyperbole.” Rather it considers as quite real the notion that worldly inequities are so vast and and at so many levels that all the goods, comforts and conveniences of this world are tainted, are steeped in unrighteousness and inequity. None of it is clean, none of it is fully righteous. In this sense, Jesus rightly calls it “dishonest wealth.”
If that is the case, then what to do? Jesus is not unclear, for he goes on to counsel that we befriend the poor with our “unrighteous mammon,” that we be generous to others who are less fortunate. We who live so well need to remember that the monetary cost of a product may not fully express it’s true human cost. If we have been blessed (and boy have we been blessed) then we are called to bless others.
A final disclaimer – The question of poverty and or worldwide economies are complicated. I do not propose simple solutions. I am not an economist, I am not a socialist, I am not a communist. I am simply a Christian trying to listen to what Jesus is teaching. I am trying to internalize his teaching that I ought not be so enamored of the wealth of this world. For, it is steeped in unrighteousness even if I don’t intend that unrighteousness. I think I hear the Lord saying, “Be on your guard with money and worldly wealth. It’s not as great as you think. In fact, if you don’t learn to be generous, it may well be your undoing.” There is a powerful scripture addressed to us who have so much. It seems to offer hope for us if we follow its plan. I would like to conclude on it:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Tim 6:17-19).
You know I would value your thoughts, distinctions and additions.
About 20 years ago I toured an old coal mine in Pennsylvania near Scranton. I was amazed at the conditions and hardships the coal miners had to endure. I have often thought of them and that tour when I turn on a light or an appliance since our power plant is fueled by coal. My comfort comes at a higher cost than my bill suggests.
what sort of weird article is this
This is actually Shery’s daughter replying, rather than Shery herself. I like the way you said this. This has also been my conviction about this passage of scripture, though I was often unsure if I was correct about that. It makes me think of the documentary “China Blue” about the manufacture of blue jeans and what the Chinese workers have to endure for those jeans to be made. I often felt how I would love to go to China and rescue those poor workers and make sure they got a fair wage and much better living conditions at the factories. I myself have always been what would be considered extremely poor by American standards, but by Chinese standards, I would be considered rich, I’m sure. I don’t say this to brag - I truly do not. But I wanted to say that I have often been generous with my money to others. I feel I must. I just haven’t always been wise with my money - not that I didn’t know how to be wise. The few times in life when I did have a little extra left over, I often spent it on myself. I was often envious of how much more so many Americans had than I did. I felt it was only right I should be able to enjoy my money a little. But God convicted me about that. I had not truly given my finances to the Lord. I was holding that part back - not that I wasn’t tithing but just that I wasn’t willing to surrender my rights to my money to Him. I felt it was mine. But actually our money is His. Everything we own is really His. We are just stewards. Then He brought to my mind the scripture about the 3 men with the talents. That last man was foolish. I decided I didn’t want to be that last man. Even though that parable doesn’t necessarily have to do with money per se - it can also deal with gifts and talents God has given us. For me it convicted me about money. This whole process of God convicting me and dealing with me took a few years. I may not have much to give, but God wants us to remember that all we own is really owned by Him, not us. We need to be willing to die to self so that God can move unhindered in our lives. If God wants all of the little bit that I have, to use for His kingdom and His glory, then I need to let Him have His way in my heart. God knows our desires and our needs. He cares about all of that. But His purpose for our lives is far bigger than our little selfish wants. We need to ask God to help us see the bigger picture. I think the only way we’ll ever really be able to see that, though, is if we’re regularly spending time with God in a private quiet time of worship, prayer, and reading His Word. In doing that, we will learn to love the Lord more. We will want to make God first in our lives. Jesus said, “Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you”. If we make God first, and take time to actually get to know the Lord personally, growing in our love for Him, we’ll begin to find ourselves wanting God to have His way in our lives. The things of this world will then begin to be less important to us. We’ll find it easier to let go of the wealth of this world because we’ll love God more. This takes time; it doesn’t happen over night. But it’s necessary for us to do, if we want to be able to truly give God all of our hearts, all of our money, all of ourselves. That’s my two cents anyway.
Point #1 - The author dismisses it with reasoning that can be traced back to the bible.
Point #2 - The author provides direct quotes from Scripture that supports this position...and then he dismisses it without basis so that he can get to his third point
Point #3 - Is entirely the author’s opinion, and the author provided NO biblical references to back up his position. Point #3 is the viewpoint of a socialist: “distribution of wealth, resources and money are very unevenly and unjustly distributed”.
The socialism expressed by the author has no biblical basis, but he tries to make it sound like it does. The author is on solid ground for point #2, but I see only one man’s opinion for point #3.
With due respect, Msgr. Charles Pope has missed the meaning of the parable. He gets part of it but he didn’t put the quote from Luke 16:9 in total context.
He got it partly right that Jesus was contrasting how un-Godly people living in the world often are very shrewd and insightful in dealing with wealth, from how Believers miss spiritual truths and insights on what is truly important.
But, then Msgr. Pope goes off on a tangent about what “dishonest wealth” means. First off, that’s not how that word is translated there. It’s supposed to be translated, in this context, as “worldly wealth”. That doesn’t mean that it’s gained in a dishonest way or “ill-gotten”. That’s not the point of the parable. Msgr. Pope is focusing on the wrong thing.
We must read the whole parable in context:
1) Who was the audience that Jesus was speaking to? A Jewish crowd that included not only common people, but also the elites - the Pharisees. These guys were supposed to be the spiritual leaders and Biblical teachers to the people. These Pharisees were not only well educated, highly trained in the Hebrew scriptures and its interpretation, but also very, very wealthy and politically at the top. They had supposedly committed themselves to following God’s Law in every detail. But Jesus often called them “hypocrites”. Here’s why.
2) Jesus contrasts this dishonest manager’s shrewdness in dealing with worldly matters (in this case money), with how spiritually blind and “uninsightful” God’s people sometimes are in grasping real spiritual truth in dealing with Godly matters, or Godly wealth - truth.
3) Jesus is nowhere saying that “worldly wealth” is evil or always gained dishonestly. Look at the rest of the story:
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.’”
______________________________
In my humble opinion, the point of the parable is where Jesus said in verses 10-13, my paraphrase, “if you can’t be trusted to handle worldly wealth properly in a Godly way, how can you ever be trusted to handle God’s true riches of spiritual truth? If you’re incompetent with worldly things, how can you handle real Heavenly truth?”
And then Jesus adds the zinger, “you cannot serve both God and money. You cannot worship both of them at the same time. One will take precedence over the other”. And, that’s what the Pharisees were doing - serving money rather than God.
There is no teaching here that all wealth is dishonest. Money is morally neutral. How the money is acquired, is spent, and where one puts money in one’s life priorities is where the sin comes in.
re: “The socialism expressed by the author has no biblical basis, but he tries to make it sound like it does.”
Exactly right.
In Austin, we have a great many “homeless” begging on street corners or, worse, the infuriating windshield washers who think because they did something for you that you didn’t ask them to do (wipe your windshield with their filthy wiper) that now they deserve to be paid.
If they are an able-bodied man, they get nothing. They should go find a real job instead of panhandling and probably spending the money on drugs or alcohol.
If it is an able-bodied woman and I have just been to the grocery store, I will hand her some groceries (often grapes).
But I never give cash unless they appear to be physically infirm (wheelchair, missing limbs, etc). I do give money to Christian charities and some of that goes to benevolence.
Jesus also said, the poor you will always have with you - except today’s poor often have better phones than I have.
“It is a true fact that Scripture generally has a deep distrust of money.”
Especially the New Testament, where the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Deep dependence on the Father, not a fat bank account, is true wealth.
God is rich in one thing we desperately need: Mercy ! Let’s ask Him for that. We won’t be disappointed.
I think Unrighteous Mammon opened for Green Day a couple of years ago...
BTTT!
Pastors are free to preach the gospel, to teach from the bible, to express opinions on political issues. The only thing they aren't supposed to do is support a specific candidate by name.
So tell me, how can you equate that to the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas for betraying Jesus?
Catholic ping!
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