The Camel and the Needle

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." —Matthew 19:21-24

This seems fairly straightforward to me. It's not the only time Jesus suggested giving away money was a godly thing to do, of course, but this passage seems to sum it up nicely. The message I take from this is that concentrating on keeping wealth—caring about doing so—is detrimental to your relationship with God. Note I say "detrimental", not "an absolute bar", yet either way, I'm not sure I understand why so many Christians seem to be amongst the most greedy wealth-seekers, and I definitely don't understand prosperity preachers.

By "prosperity preachers", I don't mean those who say "trust in God, and He will provide". That's always been the hope of the poor, those whose needs or even wants are out of their reach... that God will decide to elevate them to a place of comfort and plenty, whether in this life or the next. I'm talking about those Christians who concentrate exclusively on taking the money of those who need it most with a promise that it will be returned ten-fold, those who say that by being good Christians, you'll be rewarded purely in this life with material wealth and comfort.

If it isn't clear from my phrasing above, I believe most of these people are scam artists, using the trappings of Christianity to bilk money from the poor with empty promises. They may profess be Christians, but with their eyes only on the money, it sure seems like they don't have much attention to spare for God. And it definitely seems like they haven't read Matthew 19 (or any of the other places in the Bible where Jesus urged charity upon his followers).

The people who "invest" in these schemes aren't to blame. If you're poor, or even not really poor but definitely don't have much beyond what you need, you're going to want to believe there's a way to get a better life. If you're poor and a Christian, you'll want to believe that God hears your pleas and can and will help you. Maybe sometimes He even does; I imagine at least once in a while a happy circumstance like a raise or a person referring you to a job or even a lottery win might have been His work. When you're one of the poor, focussing on the desire to get out of poverty is understandable.

But once you have plenty, what need do you have for more? It seems like once you reach a certain level of comfort (and leaving a generous cushion for emergencies), Christians should focus more on spending than making money. Helping others, not hoarding. I don't just mean giving up all your excess wealth to charity (although clearly I encourage people to give if they can); setting up a new company and hiring 100 workers would also help spread the money around to those who need it. Or setting up a trust fund for your best friends' kids to go to college. Or paying off your parents' debts. There are dozens of different ways one can use money to help people out.

Yet, here I live, in a country with some of the wealthiest people in the world, many of whom are Christians, who care more about using their money to make more money so they can make more money still than what the money is good for. And here I live, in a country full of preachers asking you to send them money because, they claim, you'll be repaid by God... like God is some ultimate bank or lottery. I live in a country full of camels... and that eye in the needle is looking mighty small, even from here. I imagine it looks even smaller to them... except they aren't looking.