Robbery

“For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.”  Matthew 23:25

Robbery – When we confront our hypocrisy, we begin to understand why Jesus speaks about robbery in parallel with self-indulgence.  We are likely to dismiss this connection.  After all, we don’t steal from people, do we?  Heaven forbid.  We are moral.  We would never think of robbing someone.  The Greek harpage suggests taking by force.  That can’t be us!  But maybe Jesus is suggesting something a bit deeper (he usually is).

Can a man rob God?  If you know your Old Testament prophets, you know the answer to this.  Yes, God suggests that we do rob Him when we refuse to give Him what is due.  Here’s a news flash:  God owns it all.  He has graciously allowed us to use 90%, but the truth is that it is ALL His.  When we begin to act on the basis of what is “mine”, we have already started down the robbery road.  It was never mine.  That is sometimes a difficult lesson to learn, but it is an essential one if I am going to follow the Master. 

I think Jesus had this in mind.  But he also saw something else.  When I take what God has graciously loaned to me for my use, and put it in the service of the power of possessing, I am not only robbing God, I am robbing those that God intended to bless through my stewardship.  God did not give me all that I have so that I could keep the abundance for my “storage barns”.  He gave me all that I have so that I could get plenty of practice being like Him – giving it away.  Whenever I sink His capital into what only serves me, I rob one of His children of the gift of God’s goodness that was intended to come through me.  I cheat myself out of the experience of God’s life in my life and I rob another of the gift of God’s provision.

Thousands upon thousands will die this year because I had to have gourmet coffee, the best wines, the newest DVD’s and another set of clothes.  What is the connection?  My economic choices affect the labor markets of the poor and when I buy only for my desires, I often contribute to their economic oppression.  Human beings are all connected.  God designed it that way. 

Jesus understood economics quite well.  It’s a matter of desire.  Do I desire to please the Father or am I looking out for Number 1?  Hypocrisy comes in very tiny doses.