Money consumes resources leading to Earth's destruction [did you know Jesus hates money?]

Money always dominates the news. FIRE - the newest acronym - stands for Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, all paper money related. Money rules the economy, reflected in such sayings as: Money makes the man ... Time is money ... Money is power ... Money makes money ... Bad money drives out good. Let me add one of my own: Money consumes.

Nevertheless, money, as a tool to facilitate the commerce between human beings, is an inspired invention, reason why, originally, it was administered by priests. Today more than ever, money makes the world go round and it goes around the world with a velocity equal to the speed of light and in torrents of trillions of dollars daily. Because of money, the global economy is like a jet plane, fast, comfortable and when it crashes, its fall is also spectacular.

The Bible is quite frank about money. It says, "The lust for money is the root of all evil," and since evil always harbours the seeds of its own destruction, we better be prepared for some unhappy happenings, happening to money.

Allow me to explore what Jesus thought about money. It might give us some hints why "money consumes."

When Jesus came to Earth, He could have been a human being of any description, stature, degree and condition; and yet he chose to be poor. The English poet Christopher Harvey said of him in the seventeenth century:

Not surprisingly that throughout the Middle Ages, Jesus appears not just as God, but as a pauper. Compare that to Joel Osteen, who dominates the largest church in America in Houston, Texas. He preaches the theology of prosperity, promising material success, a complete reversal of what Jesus portrayed in his life.

I am convinced that Jesus had basic misgivings about money. We sometimes have this as well because we all know that wealth and its acquisition makes people often do dishonest things. The Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry centres exclusively on money. I think that Jesus felt quite uneasy about money because his betrayal, his suffering and death, was directly associated with money. After all He was sold for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave.

How would I feel if I knew - as Jesus did - that money would eventually kill me? I believe that this view governed Jesus' attitude towards money and perhaps even towards economic theory.

Take the feeding of those thousands of people: Jesus knew that if these men and women had gone off to buy bread and fish in the surrounding villages, the merchants, being good businessmen, would have quickly increased the prices of these basic food items. After all, the law of supply and demand is not a latter-day invention: it has existed as long as people have traded. That's what economics is all about: charge high when everybody needs it. So what did Jesus do to forestall price gouging? He simply bypassed the economic law of supply and demand and created bread and fish out of nothing - well, almost out of nothing.

Then there is that so uncharacteristic incident where Jesus almost went berserk when he chased the money changers out of the temple, upsetting much more than the tables. I think it was money and its abuses that made Jesus so angry.

Also, to me, a tip-off was Jesus' great disdain for the nominal value of currency, evident when Mary spent perhaps a year's income on that precious oil. "So what," Jesus remarked, "so what if such a large sum was spent. It is only money."

Or consider the occasion when Peter was asked if Jesus would pay the temple tax. "Of course," is Peter's immediate reaction, "of course Jesus pays." And Jesus does. In an ironic twist Jesus shrugs his shoulders and says: "Go to the lake, catch a fish and there you'll find a silver coin enough for the both of us." I like that. Jesus is never skimpy. Also, with this gesture he shows that all the fish in the sea and - by implication, the cattle upon a thousand hills - are his.

Here we see Jesus' royalty coming through. Queen Elizabeth never carries a wallet. Wherever she goes on an official visit, she goes free. Jesus is the same and much more so.

For us everything has a price: the dollar is king in the world and its possession a holy grail. We sacrifice the rain forests for money. We pave the best farmlands for money. We mine the mountains for money. We eat the seas for money. We eliminate any and all species for money.

Our careless FIRE actions assure that money consumes. My economic text book defines capitalism as 'creative destruction,' which presumably will cease only when there's nothing left to destroy.

I think that Jesus felt quite uneasy about money because his betrayal, his suffering and death, was directly associated with money. After all He was sold for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. How would I feel if I knew - as Jesus did - that money would eventually kill me? I believe that this view governed Jesus' attitude towards money and perhaps even towards economic theory.

How clueless! Jesus said "For this reason I have come... to lay down my life...". This guy makes it sound as if Jesus was minding his own business, thinking about a happy retirement and that "evil money" ruined everything.

First, real estate is NOT “paper money related”. Real estate has inherent intrinsic value. Second, there is no virtue in being poor. The socialists NEED people to be poor and miserable to gain power by promising to make everyone equal. Equally poor an miserable, that is.

It isn’t money that is a problem. It is the heart of the person using the money. The motivation behind it. That is why the bible says the “love” of money is the root of all evil. Not that ‘money’ is the root of all evil.
There are many who feed the homeless with their own money because they are motivated by their love for God because they sincerely have compassion on those who are hungry and they want to do something to help.
There are many who feed the homeless with their own money because they are motivated by pride. To make themselves feel good. Same deed, different motivation.
Every instance in the bible where Christ is discussing money or money is at the root of the issue, it is the heart Christ sees.

When Jesus came to Earth, He could have been a human being of any description, stature, degree and condition; and yet he chose to be poor.

The author needs to explain why He chose for the wise men gave Him gold, frankincense and myrrh. (all very valuable at that time)

The author needs to explain why He chose for the wise men gave Him gold, frankincense and myrrh. (all very valuable at that time)

Or why Jesus wore underwear too valuable to tear (unlike his outer garments)...

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece.
So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be"; this was to fulfill the Scripture: "THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS."

I am convinced that Jesus had basic misgivings about money.

Nah, but He did know that the lust for money was destructive and sinful.

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