JESUS BECAME POOR THAT WE MIGHT BECOME RICH
When we talk about poverty and riches, it’s profitable to look at who Jesus was in his humanity. Paul wrote, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
To leave the glory of his preexistence to be born as an infant was a huge step in his humiliation on the way to the cross. But this was not all. Jesus was born into humble circumstances. There is no record that Joseph owned a donkey on which Jesus’ pregnant mother could ride from Nazareth to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no guest room for them, so Mary gave birth in a place where animals found shelter, and laid her first-born in a manger (Luke 2:7). Their first visitors were humble, rustic shepherds who heard about his birth from an angel who appeared to them at night, along with a chorus of the heavenly, angelic army (Luke 2:8-20). When it was time for Mary to go through the purification rite demanded by the law, and for Joseph and Mary to go through the rite of redemption of a first-born son, they presented an offering of a pair of doves and two young pigeons (Luke 2:24) because they could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8).
Evidently Joseph and Mary settled down in Bethlehem where they found a house and Joseph provided for the family by exercising his trade of carpentry. Before two years had elapsed (Matthew 2:16), magi from the East supplied them with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But these gifts did not make them wealthy; because that same night, Joseph being warned in a dream, fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s murderous threat. There Jesus lived as a refugee with his family among others of the Jewish community.
By the time he entered his ministry, Jesus’ family consisted of his mother, his brothers James, Joseph, Judas, Simon and two or more sisters (Mark 6:3). Joseph probably had passed away. Mary was a widow but not destitute since she had children who could provide for her. Jesus was a carpenter, having learned the trade from his father. His brothers may have learned the same trade, although we have no way of knowing for sure. This put them in the category of the self-employed, not servants in a wealthy landowner’s employment or share-croppers on his land.
During his ministry Jesus and his disciples stayed at other people’s homes (Matthew 10:9-11) and were supported by donations, some of which came from wealthy women who accompanied them (Luke 8:1-3). Judas Iscariot, acting as treasurer, carried the money bag, bought provisions for the group and distributed some of their funds to the poor (John 13:29). He also stole from it (John 12:6). Jesus’ only possessions when he died were the clothes that he wore (Matthew 27:35).
Never did he use his divine power to accumulate wealth, prestige and power for himself or his immediate associates. Witnessing the multiplication of the loaves of bread and the fish, the people wanted to make him king, but he sent his disciples in a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, dismissed the crowd, and withdrew up a mountainside by himself to pray (John 6:15, Mark 6:45-46).
When Jesus next met the people in Capernaum, he explained why he would not repeat the miracle every day: He was the Bread of Life (John 6:48). If manna was a sign for the people to be faithful to God and follow Moses through the wilderness as his appointed leader, so now through this sign Jesus was making his appeal to the people to follow him as the One whom God had sent to give them eternal life (John 6:35-40, 53-58). They wanted him to serve them and supply their needs, but Jesus wanted them to accept him as Lord Messiah and to follow and serve him.
Jesus’ life was in stark contrast to the Sadducees, especially those of the priestly class, and the Pharisees and teachers of religious law, all of whom held positions of authority, prestige and power. They enjoyed the wealth that came with their position.
Jesus was poor commoner and that was a scandal to the vested interests. Nevertheless, he saw everyone with a heavenly perspective. Everyone in his eyes was poor, needy, helpless, lame, lost, foreign, refugee, wretched, and sinner. He told the Pharisee Nicodemus, a prestigious member of the ruling council, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” (John 3:12). He needed to be born again. (John 3:3). He had to receive the kingdom like a little child (Mark 10:15). Children saw and understood. They accepted without reserve, without measuring the consequences, implicitly trusting the One who was leading them. On the other hand, the learned scribes and Pharisees were “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16), unable to discern the truth.
The man born blind, most likely a beggar, was healed by Jesus, He accepted and defended his Healer before he saw him (John 9:31). Then, when he saw Jesus, he believed (John 9:38). To the Pharisees who were observing, Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41).
Likewise, the rich man would not receive the “treasure in heaven” unless he sold everything, gave to the poor, and followed Jesus (Mark 10:21). Had he done so, he would have received a hundred times as much in the present age—with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30). He, like so many, was blinded by the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has and does (1 John 2:16).
This was not the full extent of Jesus’ poverty. That was exposed by his ignominious death. Betrayed by one of his disciples and defended by a scared fisherman with a sword, Jesus was arrested and led away for trial and death. Even his clothes were divided among the soldiers who crucified him. But God did not abandon his Son to the realm of the dead, nor let his faithful one see decay (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27; Acts 13:35), but raised him from the grave and gave him all authority in both heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). Paul in his letter to the Philippians tells us to have the “same mindset as Christ Jesus,” who made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, and humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. “Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11).
Now if that is the way God heard the prayer of the Son he loves, rejected and abandoned by men, God will also hear our cry for help considering his love for us (Ephesians 2:4-6). He will not abandon us to death, but raise us up at the coming of Christ at the Last Day (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 1 Corinthians 15).