Title: What is Money?
Contents
Some of you may be surprised by the preparation of the Easter sermon in relation to the text on money. Some of you may be wondering what the hell is Easter Sunday, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, has anything to do with money? However, as I read the text to prepare for the sermon, I was shocked. It is worth noting that today's text was spoken just before Jesus' third foretold of His Passion and Resurrection.
The text begins with a question from a rich young man (a leader according to Luke). “Good Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?” In response to this question, Jesus lists the fifth through eighth of the ten commandments the rich young man already knew. Then the rich young man said that he had kept all these commandments from a young age. Jesus looked at him and loved him and said: "You lack one thing. Go, sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Then the rich young man goes home with sorrow, and Jesus says that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Astonished and excited, the disciples questioned who could be saved. Jesus ends the story by saying that man cannot do it, but God can do it.
Did Jesus say these words to leave the rich and the middle class plagued with eternal ethical conflict and guilt? Or was it to show off the power of faith that anything is possible if we only believe in the power of God? Judging from the fact that Jesus did not rebuke the rich young man for his lack of ethical behavior or accuse him of his lack of faith, we can foresee that Jesus' intentions were elsewhere. Jesus did not ethically generalize our command to sell all we have and give to the poor. Through this rich young man, Jesus only revealed the reality that we are not free from the love and attachment to money, that is, the real relationship between us and money. Jesus boldly shows how weak we can be in front of money. So, the reality that human beings need God's grace is expressed with the words, "Man cannot do it, but God can." Jesus neither underestimates nor overestimates the reality and power of money.
But what surprises us even more is why Jesus answered the question of 'money' to the religious and theological questions about 'eternal life' or resurrection. Until now, the debate on the resurrection has been mainly focused on very religious and theological questions such as 'resurrection of the body or resurrection of the body', 'resurrection or immortality of the soul', and 'is it the resurrection of Jesus or the eschatological resurrection of the dead?' has been unfolding. However, Jesus himself does not understand the connection of the resurrection to these religious and theological questions in any place where he foretells his death and resurrection three times. What does this mean? This is that the question of eternal life, the theological and religious question, is a real problem, especially material and money, is not simply a matter of ethics, but a theological one.
If there are people who claim that money is only a means of exchange for people, and that money cannot be a god, you should reconsider Jesus' words, "You cannot serve God and mammon together" (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). do. It was because of the divinity of money that Jesus used the word 'mammon' instead of using the common word 'money'. Moreover, by juxtaposing mammon with God, Jesus did not underestimate the power of money. Money is the authority to be served as the master of people and to rule over people. No one is free from money. Neither the chaebol, who seems to care about money, nor the monks who practice voluntary abstinence and moderation are free from money. Freedom from money can be disguised as self-deception and hypocrisy, but it is not easy to become a reality. Because money is not just an ethical issue, it's a spiritual issue.
But even those who acknowledge the two faces of money may shake their heads if money is a god. 'Money is a means, not an end in itself, and should not be an end. Then people will become subject to money and money will become idols. Doesn't Christianity forbid idolatry? How could you confuse money with God? That's right. However, it is also true that it is more difficult to keep this belief in real life. People who have had to give up on going to college or education for their children because of lack of money, people who have not been able to keep their minimum pride as a human being because they don’t have money, people who have been barred from hospitals with their dying family for lack of money, people who have been kicked out because they don’t have money for rent People, those who have starved because of lack of money, must have experienced the moment when money becomes God.