Was Jesus A Poor Man?

by John Stallings


First let’s define poverty.

  If I understand what poverty is, it’s living without the basic necessities of life.

Let’s go back to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem’s manger. The three kings who came to see Jesus brought expensive gifts to Him. I don’t think Mary & Joseph can be categorized as thoughtless so they no doubt saved these gifts & used the money for the support of their child. They knew their Son was divine & no doubt they kept the money for Him. Perhaps it was used to help Jesus start His ministry. Maybe Joseph even used some of the money to start his carpentry business in Nazareth.

Jesus grew up working as a carpenter & though it wasn’t a rich man’s business, in Jesus’ day carpenters were fairly well paid. Jesus wasn’t a poverty stricken waif, floating around trying to eek out a living. He obviously had enough funds that a treasury was required. Even though His treasurer was steeling from Him, as far as I can see there’s no hint that His needs weren’t met.

I’m won’t go as far as some T.V evangelists & say that Jesus was dripping with wealth because I suspect they preach that to justify their opulent lifestyles. But God certainly wouldn’t have allowed His Son to the walk the earth & establish His kingdom without the basic necessities of life.

Also Jesus had the first “MasterCard.” When The Master had need of anything the “heavenly MasterCard” was used. You will remember when He needed money to pay His taxes, Jesus sent the disciples fishing & they found money in a fish’s mouth. In Luke 8:1-3 we’re told when Jesus started His ministry there were some who “ministered to Him out of their substance.”

In John 1:38 some of John’s disciples came to Jesus & asked Him where He stayed & He said “Come & see.” The narrative said they came to where Jesus stayed & stayed with Him for a day. He must have had a dwelling place that was fairly spacious.

If wealthy Joseph cared enough about Jesus to give Him his tomb for burial, he must have also been a contributor to Jesus’ ministry.

One thing is evident to me & that is Jesus didn’t consider Himself poor. In Mark 14 while He was dining in the home of Simon a woman came in with an alabaster box of expensive perfume & started to pour it on Jesus. Some who were present became indignant & remarked that the money should have been given to the poor. Jesus said,--“let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to me. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Jesus didn’t count Himself among the poor for the simple reason that He wasn’t. He wasn’t necessarily wealthy (earthly speaking) but Jesus wasn’t poor. Jesus didn’t shy away from wealthy people. He stayed in their homes & ate at their tables.

To this writer Jesus wasn’t poor if we use the above criteria. But in another way He was poor.

2 Corinthians 8:9 says….though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. Though Jesus didn’t carry title deeds in His pocket, without question He owned every piece of real estate He ever walked on.

I think we can safely say that anything on earth when compared to heaven is lean pickings, & of course Jesus left heaven to come to earth. That’s what Paul is speaking of when He said Jesus was rich but became poor.

When Jesus said He had no place to lay His head He couldn’t have meant He couldn’t afford a place to live. He wasn’t commenting on His financial status or lack of a home but on the itinerant nature of His ministry that allowed Him little opportunity to sleep in His own bed. As an evangelist I’ve “been there, done that, & have a back & knees that predict the weather to show for it.”

The disciples didn’t consider themselves poor men & there’s a story that bears this out in Mark 10:23-27. Jesus said how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at His words……it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Did you notice the surprised response of the disciples? They said…then who can be saved? --- Would poor men respond in that way? I can’t see how they could, do you? If they were poor they’d have acted joyous over that comment but instead they were shocked by it.The narrative uses the word astonished twice, in other words if you'll pardon my expression they were "Flabbergasted" that Jesus would say such a thing.

We’ve established something about Jesus’ personal finances, so let’s look at the most important issue; what did Jesus think about money? What did He teach about giving & what were His warnings? We know that Jesus warned about the peril of riches. Of the 43 parables He told, 27 (62%) of them were about money.

One out of 10 verses in the four gospels (288) deals with money. The Bible has 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 on faith, but more than 2,000 on money. Money is inanimate & can light up a church or a brothel; it all depends on the way it’s used.

In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth & rust destroy & where thieves break through & steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys & where thieves do not break through & steal; for where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

In Matthew 6:24 ---No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one & love the other or else he will hold to one & despise the other. Ye cannot serve God & mammon.

In Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said….there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sister, or mother or father, or wife or children or lands, for my sake & the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time ,houses & brethren & sisters & mothers & children & lands with persecutions; & in the world to come eternal life.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said,--But seek ye first the kingdom of God & His righteousness; & all these things shall be added unto you.

So we see that Jesus teaches us that the problem isn’t having money but loving & trusting in money rather than God.

Exactly what is money?

Money is first & foremost a medium of exchange. No one invented money, it simply developed. In past history, many things have served as money. However, people who wanted to exchange things in a barter system found it hard to find someone with exactly what they wanted. Money became a convenience making exchanging more efficient than bartering. Now a farmer needing a truck doesn’t have to figure out how many cows he has to exchange for it.

Money soon morphed into (& here’s where it gained its psychological power) a measure of value. Now a man could know what things were worth & sadly he could think he knew what he was worth. Personally I can respect a man worth a million dollars who doesn’t have a cent, more than a man who has a million dollars who isn’t worth a cent.

Now a man could store up wealth he didn’t need immediately. It would be hard to “store up” vegetables or animals. Money also made it possible to put off payment until some later time giving the owner of the money an opportunity to charge a fee (interest) for the deferment.

Hence money’s power; money slowly & subtly gained a sinister power over peoples minds. Now money has morphed into “mammon.”

Watch this carefully; Jesus didn’t say, “You can’t serve good & evil.” He didn’t even say “you can’t serve God & evil.” What Jesus did say was….You can’t serve God & money. What does that tell you? It tells us that money has transformed itself into a God or an idol. Man is sinful by nature & prone to construct Gods. It was just a natural course of events that money would be turned into a God & this is exactly what it is in many peoples lives.

In His Luke 16 story about the rich man & Lazarus, the rich man didn’t go to hell because he was rich but rather because of his godless, self-centered lifestyle. Paul tells us that… the love of money is the root of all evil.

A few translations of the Bible have changed it to--- “the love of money is the root of many evil things,” but the Bible says, --- the love of money is the root of all evil.

 I’m going to make a few statements that might shock you but I think if you’ve read this far you’ll give me a little slack here.  In our affluent society what do people really need God for? As Christians we all know we need God in a thousand ways no matter how rich we may be, but just humor me for a moment. The way a person blinded spiritually by money would see it, why does he need God when he carries a Blue Cross Blue Shield card in his pocket that will take care of any health problems he might have? He has a wad of credit cards, plenty of money in the bank & when he gets too old to be alone he’ll go to a nice nursing home & probably die painlessly some day.

Can you see how money can deaden a man’s responsiveness to God? Money can & does foster in man feelings of self-sufficiency. That’s why Christians are warned to be on guard & beware the enticements of money & not fall victim to materialism, selfishness, greed or idolatry.

We are mandated as Christians to work hard & generate wealth if at all possible & we are also told to use our money in ways that are consistent with Christian values.

As someone aptly put it; if your treasure is on earth, you are headed away from it. If your treasure is in heaven you are always headed toward it.

Aim at heaven & you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth & you will get neither.


Blessings,



John