Jesus on Economic Fairness

Jesus told a story that revealed more than what the original intent might reveal. As Jesus was teaching his closest friends about the Kingdom of God, he was giving them different stories or parables that would put truth on display. One such story he told dealt with a manager who entrusted three servants with different sums of money. You can find the story in Matthew 25. Jesus said that the manager left a large sum of money with one servant, a smaller sum of money to a second servant, and yet a smaller sum of money to the third servant. The manager than went away on a long journey. The manager gave these sums of money to the three servants "each according to his ability." (v.15)

Now we will pause here to make an observation. Part of living in the Kingdom of God means accepting what is given to us with the responsibility to manage it and care for it according to our ability. Obviously, we do not all have equal ability, so what is given to us is not equal.

Point #1 = Jesus sees us and deals with us according to our ABILITY, not our rights or what we think is fair.

Picking back up with the story, Jesus continues to tell that the first two servants went and traded with the money they'd been given and created more wealth. In both instances, the servants doubled their manager's money. They applied their ability to generate wealth for their manager. The third servant, however, did not use his ability to grow the manager's money and, instead, hid it in fear. After a long time, the manager returned to settle his accounts with the servants. To the first two servants he exclaimed, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." (v.23)

Pause for another observation. Another aspect of living in the Kingdom of God means working. God expects each of us to work according to our ability. Again, not having equal ability, we will not all produce the same. But the manager said to both productive servants the same thing and they each received the same reward.

Point #2 - Jesus expects us to work and be productive and will reward each of us according to our faithfulness, not our net worth or how high we climbed the corporate ladder.

Now the difficult part of the story is this; the third servant did not work, therefore, he did not produce any wealth for his manager. This upset the manager and frustrated him greatly. It angered him so much that he took everything from the third servant and gave it to the first servant who already had the most money. He said to "take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents." (v.28) Then Jesus says something outside of the immediate story. He proclaims, "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (v.29)

Final observation. God's idea of justice, fairness and equality is vastly different from our ideas. The servant who started out with the least, who was the poorest, is the one who looses everything and what he looses is given to the rich servant. In the Kingdom of God, what you do is far more valuable than what you have!

Point #3 - Jesus is interested in productivity and using what we have for His glory. The money in the story always remains the manager's money. It never was the servants' money. We are only stewards of someone else's resources and if we fail to produce, we fail to live.

Conclusion - The most recent attempts by our government to redistribute wealth to the less fortunate or those who cannot afford health insurance are not supported by Jesus' teaching. Some of you reading this note will find this a hard pill to swallow, but it is truth. When those among us refuse to work and refuse to produce, it is not just to take from those who have worked and produced to equalize wealth. Redistributing wealth or promoting economic fairness policies is completely the opposite of Kingdom living.