Greed Gone Global

It is reported by relief agency Oxfam that the world’s 62 wealthiest people own as much as half the world’s population.
That’s a statistic that takes a while to absorb. It is a staggering figure. A tragic figure. A condemning figure. At its heart it reveals the corruption of human nature. As Jeremiah put it, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (17:9). How could that be?
Unfettered greed is always contrary to God’s way. Jesus talks about the spiritual dangers of money, it’s a master that takes control of us. Life does not consist of the abundance of possessions. Indeed, it’s harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
Yet it’s also why the story of Jesus encounter with Zaccheus is so moving. Jesus goes to this man’s house for lunch. Now Zaccheus has grown wealthy at the expense of the people, a tax gatherer who has extorted his way to wealth.
After his encounter with Jesus, he says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount”. Little wonder that Jesus should say, “Today salvation has come to this house” (from Luke 19).
Encountering Jesus always changes our relationship with money. If it doesn’t, then we haven’t encountered the Jesus of the New Testament. It doesn’t mean we are asked to live in poverty (though it may!), but it does mean sharing our resources for the common good, and for those most in need.
As the prophet Amos famously summoned: “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5:24). The statistic above is the antithesis of such justice.
In my view, Christians have historically been front-runners in responding to practical need, for they have a motive for doing so. In the face of global greed, may there be many more Zaccheus’s in the world, and may we who live amid plenty rise to the challenge of compassion and generosity.
Phil