Money, Society, Wealth, and James
The rich are the problem!
They oppress you. They harass you with litigation. They blaspheme God!
James is pretty outspoken against the wealthy in the second chapter of his letter. I’m not sure what assembly he was writing to, but apparently they had a problem with the wealthy. James sees them favoring the rich over the poor and thinks this is ridiculous. The poor aren’t making your lives any worse. The rich are. And there are many who share that sentiment today. If only Jeff Bezos weren’t accumulating so much wealth, I could make some decent money and live more comfortably! If only the top one percent distributed their wealth for the public good, college tuition could be free! Eat the rich!
There are a few problems with this way of thinking. If we would get rid of the richest people on earth right now and redistribute their money, people would rise to fill their places before too long. A system of technologically advanced global trade makes ultra wealthy people an inevitability in our current system. And even in James’s letter, he identifies a preference for the rich among those who are not rich. We admire their style, their influence. We idolize them because we feel like if we fixate on them long enough, we will slowly grow more like them. We listen to their advice, hoping that we will become equally successful one day. Obviously, not all of us do this, and not all to the same extent, but as a society, we are very concerned about the rich. So maybe the rich aren’t the problem.
Society is the problem!
That’s right. James is not really criticizing the rich directly. Rather, he is condemning our treatment of the rich. They aren’t the problem, the fact that we idolize them is the problem. If we didn’t give them the best seat at parties and started treating them like everyone else, maybe they would be humbler. Maybe we poison their minds enough to give them a god-complex. Popular culture today looks at people who have become rich and famous for ridiculous reasons and shines a spotlight on them that is far brighter than their contributions to society are worth. But we can’t stop it. Finding celebrities to love and hate together gives us shared meaning and understanding in a space otherwise devoid of common identity. We idolize the rich and famous.
But then again, society isn’t really a good thing to blame either. On the one hand, it is a relatively difficult thing to pin down. Many of society’s rules are unwritten and understood differently by various people. Furthermore, blaming society, a sometimes loosely defined concept, is nothing more than using a scapegoat to deflect blame from the true culprit. The one thing that truly underlies all our problems.
Money is the problem! Or at least the love of money!
One of the most famous verses in the New Testament is 1 Timothy 6:10, which states clearly, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.” We are driven by a desire to have power ourselves that causes some to become rich and hoard their money, while it drives others to simply idolize the rich and be envious of their wealth. Our obsession with money causes several rifts in society. If everyone could just be satisfied with what they have, we would have peace and comfort. We wouldn’t need to hate or love the rich any differently than anyone else. It is our indefatigable pursuit of what they have that drives us to hate. Money is surely the problem.
And yet, once again this theory doesn’t ultimately work. First of all, money is a useful tool in facilitating exchange. If we don’t have a good replacement for it, abolishing money would probably just lead to numerous problems. Furthermore, to hate not the object but our desire for it is really pushing the blame even further away from something that can be held accountable. Money isn’t causing us to do evil, and not all people who behave badly love money equally. And on top of all of this, criticizing people for loving money can be dangerous rhetoric when used by the rich as a way to keep the poor in their place. If the underclass fear their own desire for monetary resources is becoming a source of evil, all the upper class needs to do to keep them in line is remind them that they don’t need more money than they are currently getting. They shouldn’t be chasing after money. That will lead to problems.
So then, what really is the problem? There is an obvious answer that certainly sounds very Christian. It sounds like what I have been pressing toward this whole time. It’s us.
We are the problem.
Unfortunately, bringing this all back on us would be reductive. While it isn’t right to blame the rich for all our problems, it wouldn’t be honest to say they don’t contribute to problems uniquely. While it isn’t helpful to blame society for everything, it would be wrong to pretend that the social norms and mores we have in place don’t contribute to wealth inequality and the problems that go with it. Of course love of money puts us in this mess, even if it isn’t the only culprit. And naturally, our sinful nature underlies all the problems we have in relationships between us and other people. It is the confluence of many factors that leads to the challenges we have in the world.
There are a lot of voices in society that tell us what the problem is and what the possible solutions are, and I’m sure you’ve heard several widely varied and oppositional views on the topic. However, the fact that you are currently reading a church blog says that you are interested in what Jesus has to say about it. What does God think the problems with our society are and what does God propose as a solution? Unfortunately, the Bible identifies several problems. Much like the world we live in now, many voices compiled the Bible. Finding a single theory to account for all evil in the world isn’t easy, and even if you found one, you would have to ignore others. However, Lutherans understand that the Bible does give us a specific direction as far as the solution.
Christ came to save us from our sins, not only the consequence but also the effect. We don’t need to be defined by our sinful nature. We don’t need to make our decisions or base our values on our fall. We don’t need to be obsessed with money because Christ fills us with treasure beyond what money can buy. We don’t need to obey the rules of society when that society opposes God. We can follow Jesus to the cross, and become countercultural. We don’t need to hate or love the rich for being rich. Christ fills our hearts with love for all God’s children and lets us see even the rich as the broken sinners loved by God that they really are. I don’t know for sure what the problem is, but I can say with confidence that the solution is Jesus.
