Bear fruit worthy of repentance!
March 21, 2007 – 12:36 pm | by Mark Cornford
There once was a Christian Businessman, wealthy, well liked, respected and full of integrity.
One day he heard that Bishop Tutu was coming to town. As he had influence he was able to organise a meeting with the Bishop.
‘Bishop’, he said, ‘I seek to be a good Christian and dedicate my life to the LORD, but I find that my Spirit is at unease, What do you think I need to do’.
The Bishop looked at him, liked him and said ‘there i sone more thing you need to do, sell your business and come with me to Africa and use your money in service of the poor’.
The businessman thought long and hard about this, but refused for he had worked hard to build his business.
And that day there was sorrow in heaven.
Elsewhere Bono was stopping off on the Gold Coast. There there was a man who owned a poker machine business and was ruputed to have links to the underworld. When he heard Bono was in town he wanted to see him for had heard about his work for the poor of the world. However when he was at the airport, the body guards kept him at a distance, so he jumped up and down , ran around in circles and tried to catch Bono’s attention by yelling ‘Love your work!’. When Bono saw him, he went over to him and said ‘mate, tonight I am coming to your place - so get all your friends and let’s have a party!’
At the party the man stood up and said ‘Tonight I will give half of everything I own to the poor, and if I have cheated people I will pay them back 4 times’.
And there was rejoicing in heaven, for Jesus came to seek out and save the lost.
Based on Luke 18:18-25 (Rich Ruler) & Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)
The story of Zacchaeus is told to us in Sunday school as a nice story about a man who no-one liked but Jesus found.
How is it that we continue to strip the Gospel of Jesus of any of its substance and meaning, and domesticate it so that no-one can take offense at it?
This story of Zacchaeus which follows close on the heals of the Rich Ruler is no nice story, but one that would have rocked the worldview of any pious Jew, and I would say rocks the world of us western Christians. These two stories are meant to be read together, and together they give us a view of what Luke saw that following Jesus really meant - particularly for the wealthy.
We know that Luke was particularly interested in what the Gospel of Jesus had to say about wealth, for there are more stories and teaching on wealth, money, mammon than in any other Gospel. Luke gives us the much forgotten about blessings and woes - blessed are the poor, woe to you rich! How we prefer Matthew’s version!
These two stories leave us in no doubt that Luke considered that what we do with our money is linked to our salvation!
I can hear now all the howls of protest - salvation is about faith not works. True but people who say this often emasculate what faith is and reduce it down to some nice vague feeling of trust in Jesus. Faith is trust, is belief - but to be real trust & belief must come with obedience. How can we say we trust and believe Jesus and then refuse to obey him?
These stories of two very different rich men show what Luke saw Jesus was teaching about discipleship and wealth.
First, just to highlight how scandalous these stories really are, let us look a brief comparison between them.
|
Ruler |
Zacchaeus |
|
Social elite |
oucast |
|
wealth is ok |
wealth is ill-gotten |
|
comes to Jesus |
is unable to come to Jesus |
|
comes seeking spiritual knowledge |
just wants to see Jesus |
|
comes respectably |
makes a fool of himself |
|
keeps commandments |
breaks commandments |
|
Questions Jesus |
Jesus invites himself to dinner |
|
Asked to give up money |
Voluntarily gives up money |
|
Refuses to follow Jesus |
Finds salvation |
|
Goes away sad |
Rejoices |
The Ruler would have been considered by Jewish society the model Jew - kept commandments, was a good person and his wealth showed that God had bestowed favour upon him.
While Zacchaeus is a comical character - short, a hated tax collector, someone not afraid to run and climb a tree (very undignified for Jewish man - only children run and climb trees). Zacchaeus was not only hated, but out of the bounds of good religious society. In those days, the way taxing worked is that Rome decided how much it wanted from a region (independent of how much the region actually made), and sold that tax contract to the chief tax collector. So the tax collector paid in advance the amount of tax due from a region. He would then sub-contract out amounts to other tax collectors. Obviously the aim of the tax collectors was to make a profit, so they would collect more than the amount required by Rome (this was legal and expected). What made tax collectors particularly hated, was not so much that they collected tax - but that they did it for the Romans, the hated invaders. This made them the worst sort of collaborators. Not only did thet collaborate with Rome, but they then made a profit out of taxes (of course many tax collectors abused the system and the expense of the Jews).
In both cases, Luke presents their response to Jesus - one refues Jesus call, the other doesn’t even need Jesus to tell him what to do! The strength of the difference between them is highlighted by Jesus pronouncement ‘TODAY, salvation has come to this house. Nowhere else in the Gospel (or any of the other Gospels) is this repeated where Jesus that salvation has come HERE and NOW to a person.
So what is the difference between them?
Ok first lets make sure we are clear what is NOT said. The Gospel story does NOT say
‘Zacchaeus trusted Jesus in his heart’
‘ The Rich man didn’t trust Jesus in his heart’
or ‘Zacchaeus believed in Jesus’ etc … etc …
Now of course it looks obvious that Zacchaeus DID respond our of some sense of belief and trust to Jesus, while the rruler doesn’t. But the point is that according to the story THE ONLY WAY TO TELL THE STATE OF THEIR FAITH WAS BY WHAT THEY DID WITH THEIR MONEY!
Bear fruit worthy of repentance (John the Baptist) Lk 3:8
The issue here is that Luke understands that there can be no repentance without the fruit of that repentance - that is a change in life
For wealthy people, Luke shows us that one of the singularly most important criteria is what we do with our wealth - NOT our attitude to it. Will our wealth be put in the service of God’s kingdom (Good News to the poor)? or will it remain OUR wealth and God just gets his bit - usually 10%.
There is no doubt that Luke understood, that to be a disciople of Jesus means putting EVERYTHING at Jesus dispoal. Including all our money. And that to follow the command of Jesus is to neccessarily put our wealth into service for the poor.
One last thing to finish.
If you are in a western country - then you are wealthy - no matter how much you have. You are richer than 90% of the world.
So the story of these two rich men is for us.
Which rich man will we be?
Who will put their wealth in service of the poor?
And how may will choose to ignore Jesus command to follow.
