Battle Lines: Giving It Away
“For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem” (Romans 15:26).
When Gentiles were incorporated into the early Church, it created a chaotic blessing. Because Judaism, with its ceremonies and laws, had been the framework for understanding the one true God, it was difficult to know how to work with people who had no knowledge, no allegiance, and no love for what had always been so carefully observed. It is no surprise that there was some confusion and friction. At the same time, no one could deny God was at work as Gentiles by the thousands were turning to Christ. But for a good Jew who had been told that Gentiles were filthy dogs, to now sit down with them at a picnic – that was going to take some getting used to.
The Gentiles also had mixed feelings about their brothers and sisters in the Faith. They traditionally had thought the Jews to be snobs, entitled, and just plain weird.
As the Church began to take shape, bigotry began to subside, although pockets of it remained. The stronghold among the Jews was Jerusalem. Paul, that former zealous Pharisee and now apostle to the Gentiles, saw an opportunity through a tragedy. A famine had devastated the poor in Jerusalem. What better way to show that the Church was a genuine new creation in Christ than to ask people who knew they were formerly detested by another ethnic group to take up a collection to meet their need?
It wasn’t that the Gentiles were lacking their own poor, but the body of Christ was already showing it could look beyond with a love that defied anything the world had seen before in its selflessness and sacrifice. The suffering of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem was severe. Whether or not they were holding on to their prejudices, it was their need that was speaking. And that is what the Church around the Mediterranean world heard.
Paul and other believers presented the need, but getting the money there presented as much of a problem as convincing people to give. There were no money transfers or QR codes; there were no checks or even paper money for ease of transport. The gift would be in coins that would have to be concealed so as not to attract attention from robbers or the extortion of soldiers and tax collectors. Would some believer, himself desperate for money, betray the ones carrying the funds for a cut of the money with a band of thieves along the way? The long journey took weeks; people often got sick or died on the way. There were many things that made the transport of money perilous. Even so, the collection was taken and delivered.
When the Church sought to care for the needs of the suffering saints in Jerusalem, it demonstrated the first tangible lessons in Christian brotherhood: Believers love people who might not love us back. We give even if we can’t afford to give because the need exists. We love and care for people who do not look like us, who have different cultures than ours, and who speak different languages. We provide for those who can never pay us back, not because we will receive any benefit but because they are part of the body of Christ. We give it as a gift to the Lord, releasing it fully into His hands for His purposes.
What had Jesus said? “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Or can we say, where our hearts are, our treasure will follow?