Hello Mammon, My Old Friend…

Background

My family didn’t teach me very much about money. For the most part, I am grateful for that. Finances were simply not a major priority in our household. My father was the pastor of a small church and had to work part time as a bank courier to make ends meet. We were far from wealthy, but I was largely ignorant of that fact. I realized that many people lived in nicer houses, or drove nicer cars, or went on more vacations, but my childhood was mostly happy and carefree. When it came time to go to college and think about a future career, money was a non-factor in my decision making process. I never searched for high paying careers or thought about becoming wealthy. So naturally the careers I considered were the military, teaching, or being a missionary, before eventually landing where I am now: a bi-vocational pastor…just like my father.

About five years ago, I was awakened to the world of financial planning. I was working as a full-time pastor, living quite frugally while renting an old, run down house. Much to my surprise, the amount of money in our bank account was increasingly rather quickly and I began to wonder what to do with it. I started reading and researching extensively, frequenting finance blogs, investing resources, and podcasts about how to become financially independent or retire early. During this time, we began saving for retirement, got a credit card with cash back rewards, put our savings in a high yield savings account, and began budgeting and tracking our net worth. They were exciting times, and the financial benefits accrued quickly. The picture of financial independence is very appealing. It largely rejects the excesses of our consumeristic society. It eschews debt and commends an entrepreneurial and self-sufficient attitude toward life. It felt like wisdom.

Then God called us to bi-vocational church planting. We gave up a consistent income and I began working an hourly construction job to learn a trade that could work with church planting and entered an unpaid church planting residency. We stopped contributing to retirement and watched our savings stagnate as we struggled to break even. Surprisingly, we began to feel more freedom rather than less. You see, money promises freedom but actually puts you in bondage. Christ offers us freedom from money.

Have you heard the one about the rich young ruler?

It is rather embarrassing for a seminary trained pastor to suddenly realize that Jesus has a lot to say about money. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I stopped explaining away what Jesus had to say about money and came face to face with the full weight of what he taught for the first time. I realized Jesus’ teaching on money is incompatible with the prevailing values and practices of modern Western culture. But even more surprising, I realized the evangelical church’s teaching about money has much more in common with American culture than with Jesus’ teaching.

Simply put, American culture teaches that wealth is to be desired, while Jesus says having wealth is a formidable barrier against entering the kingdom of God. While there are many examples in Scripture, looking closely at one will suffice for now.

Jesus told a rich, young, moral man, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21). The most common teaching I have heard on this passage is that this command is only given to the “rich young ruler,” not to everyone generally. In other words, don’t worry, this passage doesn’t apply to you so you don’t have to do it.

While the command was specifically given to this man, it seems to me the most significant thing is not that Jesus didn’t say this to everyone, but rather that he did say it to someone. Jesus came across a man whose accumulation of wealth prevented him from following Jesus and entering the kingdom of God. Why, in the richest society in human history, more addicted to wealth and consumerism than the most opulent societies of antiquity could even imagine, has the church seemingly failed to find a single additional person to whom this condition applies? I would go so far as to suggest there is hardly a pastor in the U.S. who has counseled a single person to sell all they have and give to the poor. I know I haven’t. Was the rich young ruler so exceptional and unusual a case that we should expect to never come across one like him again?

If this condition was so very rare and singular, why did Jesus turn immediately to his disciples and conclude, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.” And then, as his original audience found it as difficult to believe their ears as we do, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” According to Jesus, the condition of the rich young ruler—of a wealthy person finding it especially difficult to follow Jesus and enter the kingdom—is not only a common one, but he appears to make it universal. He clearly states that all rich people will find it difficult to enter the kingdom, specifically because of their wealth. And the solution Jesus offers to the man in question is not that he should try hard to internally trust God rather than riches, but rather to rid himself of his wealth in order to enter the kingdom of God.

My suspicion is that if someone in our churches today chose to sell everything they had and give it to the poor in order to follow Jesus, the reaction within the church would be general confusion. The action would probably be considered financially irresponsible. They would perhaps even be accused of being legalists and misunderstanding the gospel. You cannot earn salvation by giving all your money away…so why would you?

This isn’t really about money, it’s about the legalism vs. the gospel…right?

After explaining that Jesus’ command doesn’t apply to everyone generally, but only to this one man, the next most common explanation of this passage I have heard is that Jesus is really saying that it is very difficult/impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven, their entry being made possible only through the coming death and resurrection of Jesus. In this view, the young man being wealthy is of little consequence, rather Jesus is highlighting the nature of all salvation as being by grace through faith. The point is that it is impossible to make it to the kingdom any other way.

While this teaching is certainly true in and of itself—salvation is only possible by grace through faith and by no other means—to say that is Jesus’ only point here makes a mockery of the passage.

Indeed the most important point to be made should be the most obvious one: the story is actually about the antithetical relationship between accumulating material wealth and entering the kingdom of God. Consider the major points of the narrative:

• Jesus specifically tells the man to sell all his possessions and to give the money to the poor, after which he will have treasure in heaven and be able to follow Jesus.
• The man doesn’t follow Jesus because he had great wealth and material possessions he is unwilling to part with.
• Jesus tells his disciples it is very difficult for people who are wealthy and have great material possessions to enter the kingdom. Twice.
• Peter says he and his fellow disciples have left whatever wealth and material possessions they had in order to follow Jesus and asks what they will get in return for doing so.
• Rather than chastise Peter for misunderstanding his point about the futility of legalism, Jesus replies that everyone who gives up wealth and material possessions in order to follow Jesus will enter the kingdom and be rewarded a hundred times over and given eternal life.
  

Certainly Jesus taught that you cannot earn your salvation, but only receive it as a free gift by grace through faith. But to try to make the case that this passage has little or nothing to do with wealth and possessions is simply ludicrous.

Looking at what follows, we find that Jesus’ comments about the rich astonished his disciples, who responded with the question, “Who then can be saved?” To this Jesus replied, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” This exchange is the source of most misunderstandings of this narrative.

The standard explanation goes something like this. The disciples thought if anyone could earn their way into heaven, surely it was a rich, moral, impressive young man whom everyone admired. Once Jesus says it is impossible for him to earn his way into heaven, they despair of anyone being able to do so. Jesus then points them to the gospel of salvation by grace through faith.

It is certainly possible that Peter and his companions were under the same misconceptions about the Old Testament Law as the Pharisaical legalists of the day. In that case, Jesus could be correcting their false belief that salvation can be earned by highlighting that even the best of the best, as personified by the rich young ruler, were not able to earn their way into the kingdom. But that seems to completely miss the point.

The point is that Peter and the other disciples had already done the very thing the rich young ruler was unwilling to do. They had chosen to give up their money and possessions and livelihood in order to follow Jesus. It is more logical to conclude this was the reason for their shock. They were astonished to find out that their level of sacrifice and obedience in order to follow Jesus was not exceptional or extreme, but simply the cost required of anyone who would follow Jesus. While they had given up a small amount of wealth and material possessions to follow Jesus, the idea of having to give up the great wealth possessed by the rich young ruler surely struck them as being a far greater sacrifice, one they intuitively felt would have been extremely difficult for them, or anyone else, to do.

An appropriate qualification…but not really

There is one sense in which I think Christian pastors and writers are right to try to qualify Jesus’ teaching about wealth for a modern audience. Modern society is money-centric. In most times and places in history the average person engaged in some form of subsistence living. They worked to produce the things they needed to live. There have always been those who are unable to do so out of disability or poverty, or who specialize in such a way that their daily needs must be met through the exchange or purchase of goods, but this was always a minority. Today, nearly everyone trades their labor for money, which they then use to purchase the commodities they need to survive, as well as countless things which they do not need.

Because of our modern context, when we hear Jesus speak of the rich we naturally think of those who are paid comparatively more money for their labor than we are. But Jesus is not talking about comparative salaries, he is decrying the accumulation, laying up, or storing up of wealth for oneself, one’s family, and one’s future. This next point requires significant nuance and precision. When a pastor says there is nothing wrong with being rich, he is right in one sense and deeply wrong in another. He is right in saying there can¹ be nothing wrong with being paid a salary of $300,000 compared with being paid a salary of $30,000. Jesus is not here concerned here with how much money enters your hands, but what you do with it once it is there. If you use your money to lay up treasure for yourself, or trust your material possessions to give you future safety and security, you are serving and trusting Mammon and not God. If you use your money, possessions, and whatever enters your hands to serve God and his kingdom and love your neighbor as yourself then you will lay up treasure in heaven, enter the kingdom, and inherit eternal life (Jesus’ words, not mine).

Understood rightly, this qualification does not let the high wage-earner off the hook, but ensures that both he and the (comparatively) low wage earner are securely on the hook. High wage earners simply have a larger number of dollars pass through their hands. But the manner of responsibility is the same for both.

Mammon Gone Incognito

Jesus’ focus on wealth being a barrier to entering the kingdom was also made abundantly clear earlier in Matthew’s narrative.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:19-24).

The either/or choice is unavoidable. You can lay up treasure on earth or in heaven. You can serve God or money. Perhaps there is great value in preserving the actual word that is used by Jesus, “mammon.” While it is not wrong to translate it as money or wealth, mammon carries the connotation of a being, a master who seeks to dominate and rule over our lives and demands our wealth and service like a substitute deity. Christians understood it this way from the early church through the Middle Ages, often personifying mammon as a demonic being or at least as a demon-supported force for evil in the world. In grave contrast, common Christian teaching of our day reduces this passage to something more like, “While you go about storing up treasure on earth, make sure you don’t forget about also laying up some treasure in heaven through appropriate charitable donations of your time, talents, and treasure given from your excess wealth.” Indeed it often seems our greatest objective in explaining such passages from the pulpit is to make it clear that Jesus is not saying Christians cannot store up wealth and possessions.

Such an objective goes against the clear teaching of Jesus about money; that Christians should not live in such a way as to store up wealth and possessions, that wealth and possessions are a barrier to entering the kingdom, that giving all your possessions away in order to follow Jesus is a reasonable step for someone to take, that the love of and desire for wealth is a demonic force opposed to God seeking to enslave us, that contentment with what you have is godly and desire for more than you need is the root of all kinds of evil, that Christians who find themselves in a position of wealth (having more than they need) should share it with other believers and give generously to the poor.

In the face of this biblical teaching, how is it that the modern church has little to say to Christians living in a society that has elevated the desire for riches and the accumulation of wealth and the consumption of material possessions to an art form? Where are the examples of American Christians selling all they have and giving it to the poor? Where are the Christian communities demonstrating a way of life counter to the materialistic way of the world around us?

Jesus says you can serve God or Mammon, never both. Our culture is enslaved to Mammon, yet we in the church have conveniently forgotten Mammon exists and have found ways to reassure faithful Christians there is no incompatibility between laying up treasure on earth and in heaven at the same time. Is it any wonder that belief in God and involvement in the church is declining rapidly? Worshipers of Mammon look at the church and see a God incapable of overcoming the reign of Mammon amongst his own followers. The church talks as if the most God can hope for is a maximum of 10% of your income, an hour of your time each week, and for you to be part of the worship team if you have musical talents. If God has less of a claim on a Christian’s wealth than the government and his 401k, perhaps the world is justified in concluding Christianity has little to offer the world.

Destroying the high places

In Scripture, whenever God’s people repented of their idolatry they would proceed to go through their nation destroying idols and the “high places” and altars where those idols were worshiped. Where have idols to Mammon been erected within the lives of Christians and the church as a whole? What are the high places and the altars on which sacrifices to Mammon have been given?

In Matthew 6, Jesus’ warnings against the worship of Mammon are immediately followed by instructions not to be anxious about tomorrow. He tells his followers not to worry about how they are going to be taken care of in the future: what they will eat or drink, what they will wear or where they will live (another passage pastors and commentators love to explain away). Mammon enslaves us by causing us to trust in our wealth and possessions for present happiness and future security. Jesus says to trust God for those things instead.

I realize many within the church are engaging in lifestyles of conspicuous consumption due to envy of their neighbor, living beyond their means due to lack of contentment, and taking on copious amounts of debt at usurious interest rates they may never be able to pay back. In such an environment, advising Christians to budget, save, and invest seems like the appropriate advice to give out. But deceiving us into replacing one sin with another is one of Satan’s oldest tricks. Getting Christians to stop feeding their envy and gluttony and lack of self-control by appealing to their fear of the future and desire to be wealthy and be able to depend on Mammon for their future security is not the answer. Jesus wants to do something much more radical with our lives and our wealth than to enable us live like “responsible” pagans.

When you start to dig a little deeper, it becomes apparent our cultural obsession with laying up treasure on earth is a root cause for many of the ills in our society. Many lament that Amazon has been allowed to destroy local and regional bookstores before turning to taking over the rest of the world of retail. We realize that a world in which people who would previously have owned and operated small businesses that breathed life into their own communities now having to put on a blue vest and stuff boxes or drive trucks for Amazon is a verifiably worse world to live in. However, no one could resist Amazon because they offer lower prices and greater convenience. The reality is that individuals making decisions in the world based on how they personally can save money and accumulate wealth leads to a less good and just society.

This phenomenon is known as the race to the bottom. In a society where everyone is motivated by personal gain, whoever can offer a product or service of similar relative quality at a lower price or greater level of convenience wins. This force is how we have come to accumulate more cheap goods and services than have ever existed in human history, most of which end up in a landfill one day. But the bottom line is this: in order to produce the cheapest and most convenient goods and services, companies are lead to do business in a way that is worse for their workers, the environment, and the world as a whole. To reverse engineer ourselves out of the current predicament, it is obvious the way out must include individuals being willing to pay more money and accumulate less wealth in order to produce a better and more just society.

But that is only scratching the surface of questions the church must ask. Is it immoral, unethical, or both for Christians to invest in the stock market in order to increase their personal wealth? Is it against Jesus’ teaching for Christians to save for retirement, something that wasn’t practiced widely until the 1980s? Is it problematic for Christians to leave large financial inheritances to future generations of their family who may or may not follow Jesus rather than using that money for the kingdom during their lives? Does it make sense for Christians to purchase insurance for their cars, houses, possessions, health, long-term care when they are old, and even insure their very lives against unexpected death? Is it wrong for churches, denominations, and Christian colleges to tie up considerable funds in investments and trusts meant to protect against the vague fear of a future where the institution is no longer financially viable?

For many of these questions I sincerely do not know the answer. But I am certain we should be genuinely asking those questions, while being willing to do whatever Jesus asks of us. Perhaps some of these things fall in a category we have forgotten about, things that are not required but are morally praiseworthy. It is not sinful to get married, but to remain single for the express purpose of being able to single-mindedly serve the Lord is praiseworthy. Perhaps some of the activities listed above are permissible, yet Christians need to be told that if they choose to forego them for the sake of following Jesus it would be morally praiseworthy to do so. And the church needs to be prepared to support Christians who choose not to trust Mammon for their future security. Indeed, if many Christians took this step it would become necessary for believers to begin bearing one another’s financial burdens, having all things in common, selling extra possessions to provide for those in need, having a system for taking care of widows and orphans, etc. It should be no surprise that sounds eerily like the early church.

If you can only serve God or Mammon, and our culture is bent on choosing Mammon, Christian pastors, teachers, and leaders do a great disservice to followers of Jesus by not giving them every available weapon to fight against enslavement to Mammon. One of the tools Jesus has given us against greed is to give all our money away. One of the tools Jesus has given us against trusting Mammon for future security is to not store up money for our ambiguous future needs. One of the ways the church learns to love like a family is to be in a position where you might actually need each other. One of the tools God has given us to help us love our neighbor is to actually give them money when they are in need.

There is a problem with the state of the church when the way of Jesus looks like foolishness and the way of Mammon looks like fiscal responsibility. There is a problem when the treasure of entering the kingdom of God no longer appears valuable enough for it to make sense for someone to give up everything else in order to obtain it.

No solitary Christian or even local church can provide all the answers and solutions for how to follow Jesus in a society constructed as a temple of Mammon. Real progress can only be made if many churches and Christians are all working toward a different way of living together. I pray that God will spark this movement throughout his church in America.

1. I put in this qualifier because in our society people can obtain vast salaries as a result of a disordered society over-valuing their work. Obviously this means I do not believe the theory that whatever price a market sets for labor or a product is automatically its just value. ↩