03.16
Money Pakyaw
Studying the life of Jesus will give us an idea on how He handles money. Once, He was admonishing the crowd to pursue lasting treasures than what the ambassador of money – Mammon – offers (Mat. 6:19-24). He had several meal dates with money-hoarding tax collectors – Matthew and Zaccheus; and even made one the hero in His parable against a religious elite. He once asked a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. He did not hate money; in fact He honored giving to Caesar, and even commissioned his disciples to fish in order to pay for taxes. He compared the Richie Rich king Solomon, to puny lilies (Mat. 6:28-29) just to bullseye His sermon: don’t worry over money issues.
Jesus never saw money as taboo, as somewhat devilish or as highly dangerous. He simply knew where it stands. He knew that in front of God, money is but a dust in the treasury of heaven. You can never bring money, no matter how much you work for it, to heaven. In one of his parables, Jesus tells of a rich man who was thinking of nothing else but maximizes his profits and possessions, but no thoughts of God. Jesus puts a twist to the story – the man fed his life with money, food and merriment. Then, death came. No matter how one puts gold and diamond studs on his coffin, death will still remind us that money can never buy life.
Jesus talked about money more than any other topics and reminds us that it’s never worth it. He compares the two kingdoms: first, the kingdom of Mammon – the world system of today. It’s currency is greed and operates via love of money. Its slogan would be: without “money”, life would be very empty. The other kingdom is God’s. And it adheres to the fact that God’s love makes the world go round, not money. It gives a rather opposite view: money expires, but God’s love doesn’t. The former gives us the crunch to acquire more stuff, pakyaw a lot of wealth and ensure good living; while the latter assures everlasting joy and contentment because its King has already paid it all.
These are the two kingdoms: that of Money’s, and of God’s. The citizenship

that we choose would change our entire perspective in life. Wherever our kingdom is, or whoever our ‘king’ will be, becomes the very definition of our lives. Jesus warned us that we can not be dual citizens: we only choose one.
What would it be?
does He own one man’s possession but He owns what the whole earth has.