Thursday, March 4, 2010

Article Du Juor - "Passions over 'prosperity gospel': Was Jesus wealthy?"



Passions over the "prosperity gospel": Was Jesus Wealthy?

"'Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey,' says Anderson. 'Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation.'"

What this pastor is forgetting is the importance of Christ coming from humble origins. The Israelites had certain expectations of the messiah - that he would be a conquering king.

The problem for the pharisees, Sanhedrin, Saul (before he became Paul) and even at times the disciples was that Jesus did not meet their expectations for the messiah. After all, what good comes from Nazareth?

Wealth would have meet one of their expectations for the messiah. Instead, God sent Jesus to be laid in a manger, to grow up in back-water Nazareth and to enter Jerusalem on a donkey, each as symbols of a humble messiah.

We can have confidence that Jesus was not wealthy in terms of worldly wealth. Praise God that he sent his son to humble himself even to death on the cross!

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