Learning from Jesus: I want my rights
Scarcely a day passes without the headlines proclaiming a dispute about money. Whether it is Paul McCartney and Heather Mills wrangling over the terms of their divorce, public sector workers arguing about their wages, or children contesting their parents' wills - settlements and legacies give rise not to thankfulness but frequently to greed and a demand for justice.
A man approached Jesus and demanded that he act as a legal and moral arbiter in a dispute over an inheritance. Jesus replied, 'That's not my job', but he didn't leave it there. Going to the root of the problem, 'Be on your guard', he said, 'against all kinds of greed'.
Should we ask Jesus to intervene in our own financial complexities? 'Don't be anxious about anything,' Paul wrote, 'but in everything...make your requests to God'. Indeed, it is good to pray. But don't let us assume that God's decision will always be in our favour. His vision stretches beyond our legal claim for our rights and our entitlements; and our obsession with those rights may harden our hearts.
Jesus' reply to the man went beyond the justice of the case. Whether I am in the right, legally or morally, whether I have been unfairly treated or not, Jesus says, 'Why are you bothered about this?' Is it that money and possessions are more real, more immediate, than the peace and contentment that come from trusting God?
Jesus went on: 'a person's life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions'. The ubiquitous advertising to which we are exposed today seeks to persuade us that it does, creating a discontent with our salaries, our homes, and even an envy of those better off than ourselves.
And so it becomes easy to ignore the circumstances of the millions who surely have cause to envy us. But if we care about justice for ourselves should we not even more be concerned with the exploitation of the poor and the persecution of dissidents and minorities? Whose rights should we seek to defend?
Jesus challenges us every day to monitor ourselves by his standards of contentment, trust and concern for the welfare of others.
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