Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us

by Kabir Sehgal

  Anthropologist David Graeber points out that influential religious leaders like Pythagoras, Buddha, and Confucius all lived during the sixth century BC in areas where coinage was invented—Greece, India, and China.15 He suggests that it’s not a coincidence that from 800 BC to AD 600 both money and several lasting religions were created. It’s plausible that some organized religions spread as a response to the rising importance of the marketplace. Many of Jesus’s earliest followers, for example, were poor and receptive to his paradoxical, liberating wisdom regarding material wealth.

  Here we explore the paradoxical wisdom embodied by the teenager I met in the hospice, but through the lens of the three Abrahamic religions and Hinduism. There are countless interpretations of religious texts from these faiths regarding money. But one can surely make a case that elements of this spiritual logic can be found in each.

  No Two Masters

  As Jesus traveled through Galilee, he taught and healed the sick. He reserved his most famous teaching for when he came upon a throng of followers and delivered the “Sermon on the Mount,” a meditation on how to live. Most biblical scholars consider it to be a template for life as a Christian. It’s a comprehensive instruction, as Jesus spoke about a range of topics from adultery and divorce to fasting and prayer.

  When it comes to money, Jesus’s paradoxical wisdom shines through when he says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”16 He points out that earthly treasures erode and can lose their value, and are meaningless in the afterlife. What’s the point of being the richest man in a cemetery? Most important, your treasure reveals your priorities, allegiances, and values. Jesus says as much: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”17 He summarizes his views on money with lucidity: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”18 His instruction is clear: Reject the pursuit of money; treasure and cherish God.

  Jesus doesn’t qualify his instruction. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus urges his followers to detach from money entirely—to renounce it. A rich man asks Jesus about achieving the heavenly treasure of eternal life. At first, Jesus advises the man to follow the commandments, yet the rich man insists that he has. Jesus ups the ante and urges the man to embrace the paradoxical wisdom of less is more or even nothing is everything by advising him to “sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”19 Upon hearing this, the rich man grows sad because it wasn’t the answer for which he had hoped.

  Turning to his disciples, Jesus emphasizes his point: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”20

  Jesus’s remarks undoubtedly surprised the disciples, since the threshold to achieve heavenly treasure is high—to forgo completely earthly riches.21 Because the disciples had given up their earthly treasures and filled their hearts with God’s message, Jesus promises that they will sit “on twelve thrones” and “receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”22

  There must also be a place in heaven for a certain teenager from Toulouse. By giving up his material well-being and serving lepers, he took to heart the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”23 To be poor in spirit means that one humbly realizes the need for God, the treasure above all others. This young man subscribed to the spiritual logic that less is more, and that nothing is everything. He believed in the paradoxical wisdom of detaching from earthly treasure in order to receive heavenly riches.

  But many find the ethical standard for Christians to be unattainable—the renunciation of material items and external success. We desire more money, status, and material success through the economic reasoning of more is better. In some cases, we even pray for more money. Christian author Bruce Wilkinson wrote a bestselling and controversial book, The Prayer of Jabez, which made famous two sentences in 1 Chronicles:

  Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.24

  This prayer suggests that it’s okay to ask God for material goods. Wilkinson explains one application of the prayer: “I think God doesn’t want you praying for a pink Cadillac, but he may not say no if you say, ‘I need a new car.’ ”25 Putting the prayer in historical context, Chronicles was written after the Jews had returned from exile to the last remaining province of Israel. Professor Alan Cooper of the Union Theological Seminary says that the prayer makes sense considering the times, as Jews wanted to expand their territories.26

  Jabez’s prayer has served as one of the bases of the “prosperity gospel,” which teaches that Christians are rewarded with economic prosperity because of their faith in God. The prosperity gospel is controversial because of the messengers and the message. Many televangelists, some of whom have been implicated in financial scandals, have trumpeted it. The prosperity gospel also runs counter to the teachings of Jesus, who was crystal clear in his call to renounce material wealth.

  Jabez’s prayer seems to sanction greed, which, according to the scriptures, is a sin. Paul says that those who practice “jealousy… selfish ambition… envy… will not inherit the kingdom of God.”27 Rev. Daniel Gard, a dean at Concordia Theological Seminary, takes issue with Wilkinson’s book, saying, “American culture is very oriented toward paychecks and big houses. This basically [let’s you] feel good as a religious person and at the same time go after all the stuff in the world.”28 This prayer, this instance of greed, is easy to spot. But the economic logic of wanting more money can also blind us from recognizing greed in ourselves. The blinding nature of greed is a topic that Jesus returns to frequently during his meditations. In the middle of his commentary on money in the Sermon on the Mount, he summons this subject:

  The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!29

  Jesus is warning about the blinding nature of greed, according to Pastor Timothy Keller of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Jesus is saying that if you value the right things, and your eyes are working and healthy, you won’t stumble. But if your eye isn’t working, and you treasure the wrong things, you will “darken” your entire body. It’s vital that one’s eye takes in light and works because greed is a sin that’s difficult to spot.

  Pastor Keller remembers when he was giving monthly talks on each of the seven deadly sins, such as lust and pride. His wife predicted that his talk on greed would attract a smaller audience. Sure enough, she was right. He concluded that many in the audience thought that greed simply did not apply to them: They couldn’t see their own greed. In his many years of advising church members, he can’t remember a time in which someone confessed the sin of being too greedy or materialistic.30 That’s because, as Jesus indicates, greed has the power to blind us.

  When most people think of greed, they envision someone who is wealthier than them. I think of a private equity billionaire I once met who drives a Bentley Continental and owns a Gulfstream V plane. In contrast, I’m a guy in the lower rungs of an investment bank who works hard and saves money for retirement. But it’s all relative. Some friends of mine who don’t earn as much may think of me as greedy or too showy with money.

  We infrequently compare ourselves to those who have less. We rarely face the man in the mirror and recognize our own greed and materialism for what it is. In her book The Overspent American, Juliet Schor writes that “the comparisons we make are no longer restricted to those in our own general earnings category
, or even to those one rung above us on the ladder. Today a person is more likely to be making comparisons with, or choose as a ‘reference group,’ people whose incomes are three, four, or five times his or her own.”31 As a result, she discovers that many Americans are dissatisfied with their status and financial well-being. The Internet has exacerbated these comparisons. In a study of six hundred Facebook users, almost one-third reported feeling envy because of making upward social comparisons.32 What the researchers call “rampant envy” exposes what can result with economic logic. If we are always comparing ourselves to those with more and chasing external success, is there room for an inner life or any peace?

  What is equally troubling is that greed can prevent us from recognizing “right” from “wrong.” Greed can blind us from the problems around us. One of my acquaintances worked at a hedge fund that was accused of insider trading. He told me that he wasn’t personally involved in the alleged crime and frankly didn’t want to know what happened or who was involved. He preferred to turn a blind eye to the suspected crimes in his midst. He’s not alone. When a company engages in improper or illegal activities, an employee who asks unwelcome questions may be committing career suicide. Instead, the employee closes his eye, which darkens the body. In other words, it pays to remain silent, but at a terrible spiritual cost from the Christian perspective.

  Many of us subscribe to the blinding economic logic of more is better, and we live in a world in which external success is celebrated widely, but money and greed can still be uncomfortable and unwelcome topics. Jesus didn’t shy away from talking about them. Brigham Young University finds that eight of ten parables in Matthew and nine of twelve parables in Luke reference money in some manner.33 Some of these parables are well-known, like the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the Sower.

  In the parable of the Sower, Jesus returns to the theme of blinding greed. He describes a man who scatters seeds in various places. Seeds are strewn in fertile areas, rocky regions, and among the thorns. Seeds in fertile areas yield an abundant harvest, as much as a hundred times over. Seeds in the rocky regions grow quickly but don’t have deep roots. Seeds in the thorns don’t flourish.

  Jesus interprets the story for his disciples. The seed is “the word of God,” or message of Jesus.34 The identity of the sower is unclear, but one can infer that it’s Jesus who spreads the word of God. In another parable, Jesus refers to the sower as the “Son of Man,” a term he uses to describe himself.35 Each seed has a different outcome, which depends on the conditions. Because Jesus speaks of his message being “sown in their heart,” the soil likely represents the heart. In the case of the fertile soil, the heart treasures the message, which yields heavenly fruit. In the case of the soil in the rocky regions, the heart welcomes the message, but the person lacks commitment and vanishes at the first sign of persecution. Regarding the seed that is thrown in the thorny areas, Jesus says that it represents “someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”36

  Jesus is again warning of greed’s blinding nature. The worries of the world, such as money, status, and reputation, make blind the eye to the word of God. They darken the body to the message of Jesus so that it cannot be let in. The message is that a mind or heart caught up with earthly treasures is empty of heavenly ones. Money has the power to deceive one from the true path of eternal life and impair recognition of the paradoxical wisdom that renouncing money leads to spiritual wealth.

  This paradoxical wisdom is difficult to accept. Yet Jesus doesn’t advocate the easy path; he urges the righteous one. To buck the buck and renounce money would be a significant change to life as most of us know it. Detaching from money even seems unnatural and anachronistic, guidance that may have been easier to implement in earlier, less complicated times. Yet human greed stands the test of time. In one of his first apostolic exhortations in late 2013, Pope Francis took aim at the idolatry of money found in modern society:

  We have created new idols… The worship of the ancient golden calf… has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.37

  He reasons that it’s greed that leads to an “economy of exclusion” in which the poor suffer. The pope is aghast that many focus more on the daily fluctuations of the stock market than on the plight of the poor. The pope makes the same prevailing point as Jesus, who asks a piercing and paradoxical question that shakes the foundation of a society in which market values reign supreme:

  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?38

  In order to retain one’s own soul, Jesus says, we must subscribe to the spiritual logic of less is more and nothing is everything. For the promise of this paradoxical wisdom is great—heavenly treasure. Though it seems counterintuitive, in the end we must have faith.

  I was impressed with the scale of the operation at the Kolkata hospice: copious staff, food, and medicine. All of these things require money, so I asked one of the sisters how they raise funds.

  “Providence,” she replied, beaming. I must have looked incredulous, so she further explained, “God’s will. Faith.”

  I took out five hundred rupees, about nine dollars, and gave it to her.

  “You see, God sent you here. That is the work of Providence. Would you like a receipt?” she asked.

  As much as I admire the work of the sisters, relying on “Providence” struck me as an unrealistic way to cover the costs of daily life, from taxes to taxis. Pastor Ben Witherington III notes that Jesus recognized that money and material items were necessary for daily life on earth. This is exactly what Jesus prays for in the Lord’s Prayer when he asks for daily bread, not supplies that last a year.39 Jesus instructs us to ask for that which we need, not what we want. When it comes to material needs, he advises us to consider the present over the future:

  So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.40

  In raising these questions, Jesus acknowledges the material needs of daily life—food, water, clothes. Before he began his ministry, Jesus was a woodworker or artisan and was probably remunerated for his work, so he understood the links among labor, money, and sustenance.

  Indeed, Jesus promised heavenly treasure while also recognizing the necessity of some material things. He was mindful that money was a powerful force in the human world, and being from a small town, he was aware of the agrarian economy around him. The weather greatly impacted the harvest and the economic well-being of farmers, fishermen, traders, and merchants. Galilee and Judea weren’t societies with an incredible amount of specialization or division of labor. People were self-reliant, having to weave their own clothes and grow their own food. It followed that many prayed for the weather to cooperate. That so many of Jesus’s parables involve farming suggests that he understood that it was the economic lifeblood of the people.

  Even the beginning and end of Jesus’s life were marked with monetary exchanges: A wise man offered Jesus material wealth, and a foolish one sold him for some. There were many types of money circulating throughout Judea that are mentioned throughout the New Testament: the Tyrian shekel that bore an image of Hercules; the lepta, a coin of low value made from copper; “procurator” coins that were typically made from bronze and were issued by Roman governors like Pontius Pilate.41 Because Galilee was part of the Roman Empire, Jesus came in contact with Roman money. Jews had to pay various taxes, some of which were passed on to their Roman rulers. An amo
unt of one denarius per year was collected for each boy older than fourteen and each girl older than twelve.42 One type of denarius coin circulating in the first century had the inscription “Nero Caesar the divine son of Augustus.” Each letter was given a corresponding numerical value that added up to 666, or the “number of the beast.”43 According to Rev. George Edmunson, it is “a generally accepted solution” that Nero was the beast mentioned in the book of Revelation.44 Devout Christians would later refuse to carry or transact in coins bearing this image.

  The denarius is of special interest because Jesus comments directly about it in the Gospels. One of the large Jewish groups known as the Pharisees repeatedly challenged and tested Jesus. Once they tried to trap Jesus by asking him questions about taxes: “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”45 It was a loaded, “no win” question. If Jesus opposed paying taxes, they would turn him over to the Roman authorities for sedition. If Jesus answered yes, then he would anger fellow Jews who loathed paying taxes to Roman overlords. First, Jesus calls out their deception. Next, he asks for them to show him the coin in which taxes are to be paid, since he isn’t carrying any money on him. They show him a denarius that has an image of Caesar. Jesus responds: