It's Not About the Money


Many years ago when I found myself working in network marketing, I met a man who wrote a book called "Sometimes It's about the Money".  That title always made me cringe as I felt the focus was on the pursuit of money.  As we read in Luke, there are side-by-side examples of two wealthy men who had entirely different outcomes so we are given instructions from Jesus showing us where to place our values.  The first story you will read in Luke 18:18-30, and the second story you will find in Luke 19:1-10.  Both stories would be familiar to anyone who sets their eyes upon this gospel.

In the first story we meet the 'Rich Ruler', and in the second story, we are introduced to Zacchaeus the Tax Collector.  In the first story we do not know how the man acquired his wealth, but what we do discover is the man considers himself to be righteous.  In the story of Zacchaeus, we learn that he knows he is unrighteous.  Both men come to Jesus and seem to be seeking the same thing.  We could envision these two men by their habits.  The Rich Ruler may be the man that is sitting well-dressed in the church pew next to you, offering his services and networking among other business minded people.  Zacchaeus, on the other hand, might not find his way into the church thinking that God would not welcome him there.

In the first story, we see the 'Rich Ruler' directly approach Jesus and ask, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  One might say that this man was a Christ-seeker, but as the story reveals, Jesus was able to see into this man's heart and found room to question motives.  For Zacchaeus, "the wee little man"  (if you are familiar with children's Bible hymns) took a much different approach.  "He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way."  One man seemed to have easy access and the other man had to put in more effort to have an encounter with Christ.

Next, we see the 'Rich Ruler' describing himself to Jesus when he learned of what Jesus expected of him.  To the criteria of (1) you shall not commit adultery, (2) you shall not murder, (3) you shall not steal, (4) you shall not give false testimony, and (5) honor your father and mother, his response was "All these  I have kept since I was a boy."  This man had pursued Christ in a legalistic way through obeying the ten commandments; whereas Zacchaeus with no prompting from Jesus confessed his sins outright when saying, "if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

Jesus had one more response to the self-righteous 'Rich Ruler', "You still lack one thing."  In this example we see Jesus explain to the man what he should do.  With worldly values, this man found himself incapable of following through on Jesus' next instruction.  With Zacchaeus, Jesus didn't have to give him further advisement because he was already willing to "give up half of his possessions to the poor."  Jesus didn't ask Zacchaeus to "sell everything you have and give to the poor."  Reading these two passages side-by-side as we are, one might question, why was the 'Rich Ruler' asked to give up 100% of his belongings and Zacchaeus only offered half and that portion was enough to earn salvation?  

Jesus detected a different issue with the 'Rich Ruler' than He observed with Zacchaeus, the man who had been labeled by his community as a sinner.  Jesus saw that the 'Rich Ruler' valued his possessions more than he desired what Jesus had to offer; for him, his wealth was his treasure.  Jesus spoke truth to the 'Rich Ruler' when he said, "you will have treasure in heaven", and then gave him the invitation "come, follow me."  The 'Rich Ruler' neither came nor followed.  To Zacchaeus, He spoke these words, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Salvation does not come by our ability to obey Biblical teaching, it comes from humility, repentance, and seeking God above all else.  I know that the author of the book "Sometimes It's about the Money" expresses his passion through helping people reach financial freedom.  I feel it necessary, to clarify that I am in no way speaking about the author's faith.  Even though I had an aversion to the title of his book, I have read it.  I would encourage you if interested to read it too.  My zeal is on teaching that worldly resources have no real value (other than survival) and have no comparison to the Kingdom to come.  I encourage you to make a decision on where you hold your treasure.  We need to keep our eyes on the prize!

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