As
they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you
wherever you go’. And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’.
Luke 9:57-58
Yesterday, I finished with a minister’s concern that I
had described Jesus as being middle class. At the time, I regret to confess
that I was slow on the uptake and thought that the minister was making a humorous
comment; I therefore smiled and moved on in my presentation. It only later
dawned on me that it had been a serious concern.
Although Jesus was not middle class by any modern
definition, it is nevertheless the case that a carpenter was a skilled worker
and as the eldest son he probably ran the family business and may have employed
people other than his brothers.
For the last three years before his crucifixion, Jesus
lived as an itinerant teacher. He usually travelled in the company of others
and it seems that the group were usually well supported. Some wealthy women
supported the ministry and the appointment of Judas Iscariot as ‘treasurer’, to
look after the groups’ funds, indicates that they were not living hand-to-mouth.
Moreover, as Judas was able to pilfer their money undetected implies they must
have had more than enough to meet their immediate needs. At least, for most of
the time.
Although Jesus was at times tired, hungry and thirsty,
and had ‘no place to lay his head’, this is not uncommon for an itinerant
preacher, musician or trader in any land in any age. Given the number of people
who welcomed Jesus into their homes, it is unlikely that he slept in the open
every night, whatever the weather. There is a clear distinction between an itinerant
and a homeless person: I do not think that Jesus experience can be compared
with the homeless poor sleeping rough in London, New York or anywhere else in
the world.
When the soldiers who crucified Jesus stripped off his
clothes, they found his robe to be of such good quality that they decided not
to tear it to share, as they did the clothes of most of the men they executed,
but to gamble for it. It was a seamless robe, artfully woven, and not the
attire of a poor man.
If Jesus did go without the possessions that were
common to many of his contemporaries, it was because he had no need of them.
When we think of his ‘poverty’, we are probably thinking of his lack of ‘middle
class’ security: he had no fixed income, nothing saved up for a rainy day and
no pension plan. This, however, does not amount to poverty. But if this lack of
financial security frightens us, perhaps it shows just where our ultimate trust
lies.
I realise that this weekend’s Reflections have
involved some speculation but I hope they serve as a thought-provoking introduction
to a series about giving and fundraising that I plan, God willing, to begin
next weekend.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
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