I have a problem with this “doctrine” because it seems to fly in the face of things the Bible reports Jesus actually said, and my understanding of what it means to be a Christian is based on what Jesus (reportedly) said and did.
I find it difficult to reconcile trends among many believers to expect their reward in this life with what Jesus said in passages like this one from Matthew 19:16-24 (New Revised Standard Version):
16 Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.Jesus says that the wealthy will have a hard time entering the kingdom of heaven, almost impossibly hard, “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” So I have a question for those who subscribe to the Prosperity Gospel: Did Jesus Stutter?
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus does not tell the young man that obeying the commandments will bring him wealth. The young man already has wealth; “...he had many possessions.” Rather, he tells the man to surrender what he has and “give the money to the poor,” and if the young man should do as Jesus commands, he will himself join the ranks of the poor.
As I was pondering this scripture today, I got a glimpse of what one of Jesus’ motives may have been. Then (as now) most wealthy young men inherited their wealth. This young man likely had no real experience with or understanding of poverty. So maybe in addition to providing needed resources for the poor, Jesus wanted this wealthy young man to experience firsthand the tragedy that is poverty; maybe Jesus wanted this seemingly good-hearted young man to get a reality check.
It is easy for anyone who has lived a life of relative ease and security (myself included) to discount the horrors of poverty. But without intimate experience with the actual condition, we will get it wrong. Being poor is not a symptom of weak character or morality. Being poor is not always or even usually a choice. And poverty is not something that any strong-willed, determined person can bootstrap out of.
Being poor is not one thing. Being poor is a systemic problem, and those who are poor have the deck stacked against them. A child raised in poverty may be more sick more often than a child of the middle or upper classes, because poor parents often have to choose between food or shelter and medical care. A child raised in poverty is more likely to have an unstable home life. A child raised in poverty is more likely to be educated in a poor school because school funding tends to follow neighborhood affluence. And a child raised in poverty is more likely to have a disrupted education—poor families tend to move often as the parents seek opportunities to lift themselves out of the hole in which they are trapped.
A child educated in a poor school (and having missed more school due to illness) is less prepared to break out of the cycle of generational poverty, and may additionally be demoralized in a culture where a person’s worth is often measured based on the things s/he has.
Poverty disrupts basic health and well being. Poverty disrupts social stability and educational opportunity. Poverty begats poverty, and that is a human tragedy. Poverty is a slap in the face of humanity, and ought not to be tolerated. And Jesus had a heart for the poor.
Time and again in the Gospels we read about Jesus feeding the hungry, healing the sick, speaking for the downtrodden and against the powers that be. Time and again Jesus scolds the rich: for their complacency, for their arrogance, for their neglect of their fellow human beings. And Jesus did not spend a lot of time with the wealthy. He was himself a poor man—it is possible that he turned his back on affluence when he left Joseph and Mary to begin his ministry, but regardless he was a homeless itinerant throughout that ministry—and although he said that the poor would always be with us, nowhere in the Gospel do I get the idea that Jesus thinks that’s cool, or that it’s cool with Jesus if the wealthy lord it over the poor and let them suffer.
So this notion that “Good Christians” are going to enjoy comfort in this life strikes me as strange. Jesus was not a “family values” kind of guy—he told people to abandon their families to follow him. Jesus was not a “free market” kind of guy—those who knew him best established communities of believers where all things were held in common (Socialism if not Communism). And Jesus was not militant—he told people that if they were struck on one side of the cheek that they should turn the other cheek and allow themselves to be struck again.
Following Jesus is hard. Maybe that’s why many choose other paths—easier, more comfortable, more profitable paths—and claim that they’re Jesus’ paths. I don’t know.
Maybe that’s why so many young idealists, looking for something that gives them purpose and identity, are turning away from the Church. Maybe what they’re looking for is the path Jesus actually trod, and maybe they aren’t finding it in church.
That’s certainly why I tend to distance myself from Christians who point to their affluence as signs of God’s approval, or who have a thousand reasons why they don’t feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, or visit the sick or imprisoned. I can make no excuses; in my opinion, Jesus clearly expects all his followers to do those things, and while I am certainly imperfect in my compliance, I will not claim that my failure is somehow virtue in God’s eyes.
Maybe those other Christians are right about this and I’m wrong. Maybe the reason I’m not wealthy is because I’m not a good enough Christian. Maybe I should be more like (many of) them: arrogant, condescending, judgmental, superior, exclusionary, condemnatory... Maybe if I were more like that, I’d be richer.
If so, I’d rather be poor.
