It’s amazing how often Scripture read out of context takes one down the wrong road and ends up far from its intended destination. Take, for example, the teaching that Jesus was poor.
The idea is derived mainly from His comment to the man who requested to follow Him. His reply suggests that He was too poor to sustain another permanent follower.
Jesus was by no means poor. Firstly, He was a rabbi and would therefore have been well supported by his many followers.
Secondly, a group of wealthy women supported Him with their resources and adequately saw to His needs and the needs of His disciples.
Luke 8:1-3 NLT
[1] “Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, [2] along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; [3] Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.”
Thirdly, we must not take 2 Cor 8:9 necessarily to refer to material and financial wealth.
2 Corinthians 8:9 NLT
[9]” You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”
It might, in the context of Paul’s teaching on giving, but Jesus’ wealth in heaven far outweighed anything He might have had on earth. His so-called poverty here was relative to His vast resources in the universe.
Psalms 50:9-12 NLT
[9]”But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. [10] For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. [11] I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. [12] If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.”
Here on earth, Jesus had enough to sustain His life. He could even multiply loaves and fishes to feed a multitude or send Peter to catch a fish to pay their temple tax!
Another suggestion was that Jesus was apparently homeless, moving around from place to place with no permanent address.
Said one interpreter,
“Those that followed him in this work required them to leave their families and not have a place to call home. This homeless state is not pleasant for humans. Even animals have a place to call home here on earth, but not the Son of God.”
And another,
“He does not own a home. He doesn’t even have one to use, as a slave would. Despite His humanity, He does not belong in this world and has no safe place to dwell. Jesus’ itinerant lifestyle acts like a metaphor for the world’s rejection.”
And a third,
“The implied statement Jesus makes here is something like “this is not going to make you rich and famous, nor is it going to be easy.” Would the scribe really follow Jesus everywhere once he saw how tough that journey could be? The lack of response or further information about this man suggests that he would not and did not.”
Contrary to the ‘prosperity gospel, the Bible does not teach that God wants us wealthy. Jesus spoke more about the dangers of money and wealth than any other subject.
For example,
Matthew 19:23-24 NLT
[23] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. [24] I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
Such a variety of interpretations hint at the fact that teachers and scholars don’t really understand what Jesus meant so they invented an explanation.
The first principle to understand is that the ancient Hebrew language, in which much of Scripture was written and in which Jesus would have thought, is very different from our own. Hebrews expressed themselves and originally wrote in picture langauge. Their pictures conveyed concrete ideas which formed comic-strip-like concepts. They did not think or write in the abstract. The meaning of their pictures is found in the context since one picture could convey more than one idea, depending on what was added to the root word.
To understand what Jesus was saying, we need to look at His pictures and find out what He was conveying.
Matthew 8:19-20 NLT
[19] Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” [20] But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens (to live in – writer’s brackets ), and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
(The word ‘kephale’ translated ‘head’ can mean ‘cornerstone’, the place where two walls meet. Jesus is the cornerstone of the church).
Jesus contrasted Himself with foxes and birds. What do foxes do in dens? What do birds do in nests? Foxes do not live in dens nor do birds live in nests. They reproduce in dens or nests.
Jesus was referring to His own situation. By contrast to foxes and birds, He did not yet have a ‘body’ on which to lay His head. (He was not yet the cornerstone of the church). He was not yet spiritually complete to reproduce Himself in others. The day would come when His body, the church, would be born, on the day of Pentecost. From that moment on, Jesus was the head of His body, and He could begin to reproduce Himself through His people.
Ephesians 1:22-23 NLT
[22] “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. [23] And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”
For that reason, He was not ready to take on more followers than His twelve disciples whom He had chosen to train for the task of reproduction after His death and resurrection.
On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the Twelve in the presence of thousands, Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled. Three thousand believed Peter’s message and became the first of multiple millions who are still coming to faith in Jesus.
To be continued…