Rich and Poor Alike

Recently a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune commented in passing that Jesus would have spent time with the poor and told the rich to sell all they owned. I also recall reading a year or two ago in the Chicago Tribune Magazine a letter to the editor took Francis Cardinal George to task for hosting a swanky Christmastime soiree (and the magazine for covering it) and said that Jesus would have rather spent His time at some soup kitchen on the west side.

It is hard to disagree with the sentiment. Throughout the Scriptures God defends the poor, the widows, and the orphans. He opposes those who would victimize them. He urges people to give alms to them. Jesus commended the impoverished widow for her great generosity, though she could give only pennies while the wealthy gave wads of cash (Luke 21:1-4). How one treats the poor is a real hallmark of that person’s spirituality.

And yet the two letters miss the mark. The authors leap from the fact that God loves the poor to the conclusion that God loves only the poor. In truth God loves rich and poor alike. And this is shown in our Lord’s interactions with the rich and poor. He attended the banquets of many rich people—Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2, 7), Matthew (Matthew 9:10-13), and a ruler of the Pharisees (Luke 14:1), to name a few. Some of the banquets he attended must have been real shindigs because the guests vied for positions of honor (Luke 14:7). And there were people who were deeply offended by our Lord’s attendance at these lavish affairs. They grumbled because these people had gained their wealth unjustly and our Lord was dining in their homes (Luke 15:2; 19:7). His enemies went so far as to call Jesus a party animal (Luke 7:34). They were even more offended when lavish gifts were poured out upon him, especially when there were so many poor who needed help (John 12:5). What is more, our Lord demanded of only one rich man that he give up all his wealth and that because he loved his possessions more than he loved God (Mark 10:21-22). He said nothing to the other rich people He encountered.

In popular imagination the only way that our Lord could have cared for the poor was by hating the rich, and vice versa. Similarly, we imagine that if our Lord hated the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (which He did), He must have avoided them at all costs. In reality, He dined with them frequently (see Luke 7:36 and 14:1 for a couple of examples) and loved them no less than He loved His disciples. Jesus was one of the rarest of human beings—comfortable with rich and poor alike, loving hypocrites and open sinners equally. He was not offended by anyone’s poverty or wealth. He did not curry favor with either, but called all to fellowship and discipleship. I would fully expect Him to be hobnobbing with people in a Gold Coast penthouse one evening and to share a crust of moldy bread in a decrepit housing project on the west side the next evening—and to feel perfectly at home in both places.

Why cannot we have the same attitude? We human beings are tempted to think that we are more deserving of God’s love than others are. We are poorer and that is proof that we are more honest. Or we are richer and that is proof that we are more hard-working. We are more religious and that is proof that we are godlier. Or we can’t stand all the hypocritical claptrap and that is proof that we are more acceptable than the religious people. But, of course, these attitudes simply indicate how uncomfortable we are with ourselves. We are graceless toward others because we fear that there is no grace for us.

I don’t deny that rich people and poor people alike have their faults and sometimes it is hard to see them as human beings because their sins distort their humanity. But we need to learn our Lord’s attitude and see the person beloved by God, not a caricature of our own making or of theirs.

© 2010 James A. Kellerman