In the film Wall Street,
the character Gordon Gecko announces in front of a meeting of corporate
stockholders, “Greed is good.” It is a very provocative, shocking thing to say.
But it turns out to be something that many people do believe.
People will work hard out
of self-interest. One of the joys in life for many of us is to have extra money
to use however we want – to treat ourselves to something special. And one of
the things we hate is to feel like most, or all, of our paycheck goes to
someone else – taxes, mortgage, utility bills. We want a bigger piece for
ourselves. Some will say that desire to have a bigger piece for ourselves will
motivate us to work harder, work smarter. That may be true for some. Others
might just feel resentment.
The Jews of Jesus’ time
seemed to feel resentment about too much of their paycheck going to someone
else – namely, the Roman Empire. They were heavily taxed and mightily
oppressed. The system employed tax collectors who worked out of a profit motive
– they collected as much as they could squeeze out of people, because the more
they could get, the more they could keep in their own pockets. Greed inspired
many tax collectors to take advantage of their fellow Jews. It is not
surprising that they were resented by their own community. This included many
of Jesus’ followers, who knew firsthand the suffering people endured at the
hands of greedy tax collectors in the employ of a greedy empire.
But for some of the Jews,
it wasn’t just a matter of paying too much. They resented that they had to pay
anything at all to this idolatrous Roman government. The emperor was god and
all things belonged to him. The coin Jesus held up for an object lesson not
only had a picture of the emperor’s face but also would have had an inscription
to the emperor’s divinity. Whereas our coins say “In God We Trust,” the coins
of Rome said essentially, “The Emperor is your God, trust him or not.” The
Pharisees were certainly offended. They were, like the people who go crazy
every December railing against folks who fail to wish them a Merry Christmas,
indignant at the fact that not everyone believes the same way they do.
Now, the Herodians in this
story – those Jews who are apparently in league with Herod (no doubt, out of
greed) – also have an interest in this issue. This group would include the tax
collectors and any other Jews who are employed by the empire. The whole sordid
system is working for them, so they strongly support the payment of taxes to
the emperor.
Everyone standing around
Jesus at this moment has an interest in the question. Everyone is waiting to
hear what he will say. Is it lawful, according to the Law of Moses, to pay
these taxes to the emperor or is it not?
He says, “Whose face is on
the coin?” It is, of course, the emperor’s face. Once that is established he
says, “Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s.” His picture is on it, so it
must be his. Give it to him. And, of course, it naturally follows, give to God
what belongs to God.
I’ve always thought his
answer to this question is one of his most brilliant moments. It dumbfounded
his listeners that day. It dumbfounds us today. Because, when we try to break
it down, we can’t quite figure it out.
If all the money belongs to
the empire, what is left for us? and what exactly belongs to God?
Does this mean that God is
not interested in money? That would certainly have an impact on our pledging
and offering, wouldn’t it?
It has been suggested that
since the Bible commands a tithe from Israel, 10 percent of all their livestock
and crops, this means that 10 percent belongs to God. But that seems a paltry
amount, especially in light of Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s and
everything in it; the world and all who live in it.”
But, if everything belongs
to God, then how can any of it belong to the emperor? And, most important of
all, what is left for us?
This seems to be an
impossible problem to solve. It will remain an impossible problem for us, as
long as we continue to see life as a zero-sum game, where anything that goes to
God, or the emperor, means less for us.
It will remain an
impossible problem as long as we believe that giving to you means taking away
from me. It will remain an impossible problem as long as we are succumbing to
the problem of greed.
Even if we don’t agree with
Gordon Gecko that greed is good, we still need to face the truth that it
exists. We need to acknowledge that we all struggle with the sin of greed.
Known as one of the seven deadly sins, greed has been a human weakness
throughout our time on earth. And it is, like so many sins, a matter of
something good or innocent taking a deadly turn.
It is not wrong to take
care of yourself, clearly. But when taking care of yourself turns into the
belief that anything that is good for me is good, period, we have entered the
realm of greed.
Another film that helps us
think about the problem of greed is the old Capra film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
Longfellow Deeds is a man who lives a simple life in rural Vermont, when he
learns he has inherited a fortune from a distant relative. His first reaction
is to say he doesn’t need it; he already has enough. But he is convinced that,
like it or not, he is responsible for managing this fortune now, so, Mr. Deeds
goes to New York. The money men who surround him in New York quickly decide
that Mr. Deeds is hopelessly naïve and will be easy for them to manipulate –
which is exactly what they want to do, manipulate his fortune away from him.
The mere proximity of
wealth seems to make most men and women greedy for it. The men and women Deeds
encounters in New York are blinded by their greed, losing touch with any
ethical underpinnings they might have once had. Somehow, the character of Deeds
is immune to it. He decides he wants to give his new fortune to the struggling
farmers back in Vermont, giving them a hand up. He almost gets committed to a
psychiatric hospital for it. His notion that he has enough – enough – seems
positively lunatic to others.
In Wall Street, Gordon
Gecko is asked by his young protégé, “When will it be enough? How much is
enough for you?” Gecko’s answer is that there is no enough. It’s not a question
of enough, it’s a question of winning or losing.
And so, in this scene from
the gospel, where Jesus is surrounded by Pharisees, Herodians, and Jewish
taxpayers, let us consider it from the perspective of winners and losers. The
Pharisees and the Herodians want to make Jesus the loser; they want him gone
because his very existence takes away from their authority or wealth. The
followers of Jesus who hope to see him overthrow the empire want to see Jesus
win, thereby making the empire lose. Those who have no more of an interest than
that they are tired of paying taxes want to see the empire lose so they can win
a little more of their wealth. But Jesus doesn’t play that game.
He will take up the matter
of greedy tax collection when he talks with Zacchaeus, but for the moment he
will simply remind his listeners that the game of zero-sum is not the way God’s
economy runs. In God’s economy, the more you give the more you will have, the
less you give the less you will have.
Everything in this world
belongs to God. Everything. All that we have is a gift from God. And while it
is ours to use, we are to live every day mindful of how we can best serve God.
If our first thought is to how we can best serve ourselves, we are missing the
mark.
Everything in this world
belongs to God. You and I are the stewards of all this wealth. Therefore, every
decision about how we use these wonderful resources must be made from the
perspective of how well it serves God and all of God’s creation. It won’t ever
be a matter of mindlessly following a rule of thumb because God doesn’t want us
to ever stop thinking about how much we have received, and how much we can
give.
God gives to us out of
God’s grace and generosity, asking us to do the same for the sake of this
wonderful world God made. And for this we can truly be grateful.
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