as if God matters

When the very rich Zacchaeus heard Jesus’ teaching he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  If Zacchaeus got only 12.5% of his wealth through cheating that means this promise to Jesus would reduce Zacchaeus to having no possessions.  Calculate it: 50% to the poor right off the top.  Followed by 12.5% of unjustly acquired wealth paid back at 4x the rip-off rate = another 50%.  That’s 100% of his possessions he was willing to release.  Zacchaeus very conceivably was offering to give all that he had away to the poor and the people from whom he stole.  Even if he stole only 10% of his wealth through loopholes, coercion, and gimmicky accounting tricks he would be giving 90% of it away – leaving him with 10% of what he had before he climbed up that sycamore tree and listened to Jesus.

What was Jesus’ response to this amazing proclamation by Zacchaeus?  Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house!”  A wealthy person willing to give away his or her wealth – which is often unjustly acquired in at least a few ways – is a sign of the presence of God, of being saved and delivered from the gods of Wealth.  The Bull of Wall Street, fashioned after the ancient money god Baal, destroys lives in its path toward more and more.  People matter more than possessions, and Jesus heard this truth in Zacchaeus’ exclamation of freedom from wealth.

The lesson for #OccupyWallStreet is that Jesus supports the ‘re-redistribution’ of wealth and calls it salvation for all concerned.  When the wealthy give back some of what they’ve taken there is rejoicing and they can experience a freedom otherwise unattainable.  This is ‘re-redistribution’ because the wealth the wealthy have came from the many – it came from the blood, sweat, and tears of those who labor for minimum, more often less than minimum, and often no wages throughout the world.  In mines in Africa, in sweatshops in Asia, in factories in China – those lives of those actual people are transformed into dollars that accumulate in bank accounts and trading accounts on Wall Street.  Why protest Wall Street?  Why occupy Wall Street?  Because it’s where the hundreds of millions of human lives who have been sacrificed to the gods of wealth and industry are now represented – crushed lives who struggle to feed their families generate mountains of possessions and wealth for those on Wall Street and those of us in the USA.

A heart of the Baal, a heart of the quest for wealth and the domination and destruction it entails, is Wall Street.  And those who work within that system can be transformed like Zacchaeus and recognize and admit the injustice of their ways – their ways that are often our ways too.  We turn people into money, when people really do matter more.  To the degree that a society or culture or industry values money and possessions over people to that degree it will be harmful and deeply damaging to all.

Why do I support #OccupyWallStreet and the occupations of the cities of the USA?  Because right after Zacchaeus joyfully experienced salvation and gave away his possessions, Jesus told a parable about the opposite kind of person.  A person who values money more than people and who thus makes life miserable for most.

A man who wanted to be king gave money to his servants and told them to “put this money to work” while he was gone and “occupy ‘til I come.”  The people didn’t want him to be king because he was a hard man who “takes out what he did not put in and reaps what he did not sow.”  A few ‘worked his money’ – which means they worked people – and they were able to double his money while he was gone.  But one man did not do it and was chastised severely by the new king, “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas!”  The others protested that that man already had ten, but the hard king revealed the opposite attitude of Zacchaeus, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.”

This wealthy king reaped where he did not sow, rewarded the servants who became hard like him, punished the servants who would not participate in his oppressive practices of abusing lives so that his money could double quickly, and coupled these excruciating monetary policies with violence and killing so that the money could flow more easily.  High return rates on investments generally necessitate high loss of life rates from the people who make them possible.

This king in this story is not Jesus.  Jesus did not say the famous “occupy ‘til I come” as a line from himself, it’s a line in one of Jesus’ stories about a greedy king who uses violence and intimidation to increase his profits.  A story that Jesus told right after the Zacchaeus experience of salvation through reduction of possessions and wealth!

These two stories together can help us see that 1) in the Zacchaeus story re-redistributing of wealth from the wealthy to the majority (the 99%) is praised by Jesus, and 2) we need to conduct careful and critical analysis of the global trade realities and violent systems that allow lives to be transformed into high monetary returns for a very, very few people.  These kinds of leaders are not wanted by most people (as clearly shared in Jesus’ story) and when challenged they respond violently to protect their profits.

In addition, 3) US citizens can justly demand tight regulations and enforcement on these industries that generate such great wealth – again, it’s human lives that turn into those dollars so we must speak for the lives (we are the lives!) because once they become dollars their voices get co-opted by the ones who control the dollars.  4) US citizens can justly demand higher taxes on those with incomes of millions (and hundreds of millions) of dollars per year because it helps bring balance to a terribly unbalanced system – when the lifeblood of most people go to generate profits for the few, who pay them as little as they can, it is fair and right and just for those profits to be taxed so that social services are provided widely.  Healthcare, education, food programs, the “safety net” that is so important for a healthy civil society must be maintained if we are to be able to claim at all that we value people more than money.  For instance, one 5.6% tax on a million dollar income is $56,000 and that provides about 56,000 breakfasts for kids who wouldn’t get them otherwise.

Jesus said that people cannot serve both God and Wealth (Mammon), and based on his teachings, I think we must also ask whether we can serve both people and money.  I hope those within OccupyWallStreet stay focused on people and emphasize that money is at most a tool, an object to be used for the good of the many and not a goal in itself because then the quest for wealth subordinates and destroys human lives.  All of us, regardless of our social locations, can try to be more like Zacchaeus and less like the hard king who reaps where he does not sow.  And as we’re seeing so clearly, we can organize, re-think the system so that it prioritizes people (especially those most in need), modify our own behavior as needed, and influence policy so that the highest are brought lower a bit and the lowest are brought up a lot.  Hopefully, it can transform from occupations of Wall Street and beyond to elected occupations of executives and legislatures where wiser policies and practices can be implemented.