WWJD?

Jesus is hard to figure out. You think you can nail him down on some topic or another, then you read something else in the Gospels and end up confused again. You can't nail Jesus down (which, by the way, might be a good title for an Easter sermon ... or a grunge band).

Jesus talked a lot about money. Some say that Jesus talked about money more than any other topic, although I am not sure. Some of his parables about money aren't really about money; he just uses money as an illustration to make a larger point. I've read several books by die-hard capitalists who try to use Jesus' parables (such as the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and Luke 19) as proof that Jesus was a capitalist. I think they miss the analogy Jesus is making. Jesus isn't actually talking about money every time he uses money as an illustration.

If the Gospel of John is right, Jesus and the disciples had a "common purse" or a treasury (John 12:6). Judas was the treasurer. So presumably Jesus and his disciples used money. Presumably people like Mary Magdalene, Joanna (the wife of Herod's steward Chuza), Susanna, and many others, donated the money for their common purse. (Luke 8:2-3)

The only place that I can think of in the Gospels where Jesus actually spends money, or orders it to be spent, is the strange story in Matthew 17:24-27. Here Jesus instructs Peter to catch a fish and tells him he will find a coin in the fish's mouth and that he should use that coin to pay the temple tax.

I can't figure out how to interpret this story. Either Jesus was doing a miracle in order to pay the temple tax or else he was being ironic, saying in effect: I am as likely to pay the temple tax as you are to find a coin in the mouth of a fish you randomly catch in the sea.

I don't know. I'd like to hear an edifying interpretation of this odd little story in Matthew.

Another time Jesus makes a pointed observation about money is when he is asked about paying taxes to the empire. The common coin in those days was the denarius, as someone reminded me this week. The denarius was actually minted by the emperor and had his image on it. It literally was made by him and belonged to him. He is the one who stood behind its value. So Jesus says to give back to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and to give to God what belongs to God ... which is our very selves since we are made in the image of God.

What would Jesus do about having and spending money? It is my sense that Jesus used money but was not at all attached to it. Jesus obviously enjoyed life. (You don't report miracles of making wine about someone who is an ascetic.) He enjoyed parties. He certainly frequently advocated giving money to the poor.

But it is hard to nail him down.