Re(Tro)View: Follow the Money

Follow The Money Few statements more succinctly explain any political process better than the phrase, "follow the money".  If you have not come across this little bon mot before it means simply this:

No matter what someone says, does, or implies if you want to know where their true motivations and allegiances lie look at where their money comes from and where it goes.

In other words, money does not lie.  As we swiftly approach what most people agree will be a contentious and potentially disastrous presidential campaign one might want to keep the advice to "follow the money" in mind while considering candidates. We live in an era of carefully crafted sound bites and 360 management of candidate's public persona. Everything from the color of their ties to the position of their cuffs (rolled up, or down with a cuff-link?) has been carefully crafted with teams of experts vetting each choice through polls and focus groups. Every word of every speech has been "spun" by political gurus.  Every move is carefully considered to tell the voter who to vote for with pinpoint accuracy.  The only thing not carefully conveyed these days is actual policy and political agendas.  I fear that we all fall woefully "out of the loop" when it comes to knowing what our candidates really plan for the political future of our nation. So, I tell people to follow the money.  Where do your candidates get their cash from?  Well, that's who they will probably work for.

Just remember before you turn over that rock and look under it, you may not like what you see and you cannot un-see it.   Political realities are often unpleasant and while we hope for better of our leaders often we find less than flattering truths out about those we follow.  In today's Gospel the political leadership of the day had some serious concerns about the current religious celebrity known as "Jesus". Luke 7:36-8:3 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."    He seemed to have simply appeared from the backwoods of Nazareth and no one knew what his political agenda was, or how it would all play out in, or not in, their favor.    Worse yet, his finances seemed confusing and inexplicable. He seemed penniless and destitute and yet he offered astounding miracles, apparently for free. He consorted with the worst kind of people.  Even when approached by wicked individuals like this sinner woman he seemed more than happy to accept them on equal terms with the political elite.  He was seen walking around the countryside with the former demon infested Mary Magdalene and his chief financier was a woman named Joanna who's husband was a close personal aid to the evil Herod himself.   While everyone else seemed to charge some fee, or make some profit from the work of serving God's people this Jesus seemed to offer his advice, and worse yet FORGIVENESS OF SINS, for free!  He wasted God's grace on those who had no money to pay for it.

In Jesus' parable he points to the economy of God as being drastically different from the world's economy. God is interested in winning back the lost with no thought of personal gain.  Jesus points to those with the worst debts and says that those are the greatest victories for the kingdom of God when they return. The "money" here being spent is the very grace of God.  The wealth being leveraged is the life of the Son.  The riches being tapped are the very forgiveness of sins.  If you want to know about God, Follow The Money. Where has God spent his wealth?  Purchasing the salvation of the most indebted and broken of his children. Where does God allocate his limitless resources? Returning his lost children and seeking the wandering sheep. If you want to know who God truly is, look at what God does. God's grace, love, and mercy are spent on the least deserving....you and me.