Let me tell you a story about a gentleman I know; a little boy who grew up to be a man and one of the ways in which Jesus led him to obedience. It is a true story, but I won’t use real names—except for those of the Trinity because we all know who they are. The story involves only one Christian discipline; but it contains elements of success, failure, sadness and happiness, discipline, chastisement, love and anger; as well as reward beyond our wildest dreams.
You may choose to read what follows as a story of material wealth. If you do, I cannot stop you. But you will be in error and will draw wrong conclusions if you submit to the material lust that besets us all. So fight that impulse and hear the story as I tell it.
As a little boy, he lived with his grandparents on a farm in a remote region of a State in The Northern Tier. Life was simple but good in the place where the boy lived and he loved the farm animals and helped his grandfather with chores. In the evenings his grandmother helped him with his homework at the kitchen table and on Wednesdays and Sundays they went to church. They were warm and dry and had good food.
Nothing particularly noteworthy happened for a while but one day there came a knock on the door.
The boy opened the door to find a rather average-looking man. Even so, the man was possessed of a striking confidence and was very clear of eye and had a marvelous smile. The man said, "Hello, I'm Jesus. May I come in?”
The boy opened the door wide to allow Jesus to come in and said, “If you’ll wait a minute, I’ll get one of my grandparents.”
The man replied that he wasn’t there to see them. In fact, he was already well-acquainted with them.
He said, “I’m here to see you.”
“Oh,” said the little boy. “What for?”
“Well,” Jesus said, “I want you as a son and I'm here to let you exercise your child's faith and believe in me and be my own son.”
This pierced the boy’s heart-of-hearts because the boy had never met his own father. And he wanted one badly. And his grandparents talked about Jesus all the time but now he had actually met him. So, he believed. And from that moment, Jesus’ Spirit was with the boy wherever he went or whatever he did.
Again, not much happened for few years. The boy went to school and church and did his homework and scripture memorization. Then his grandparents thought perhaps he should develop some business acumen and they gave him a calf of his own.
The boy loved the calf and cared for it by feeding it and keeping it clean. Once it got sick—unto death as it were—and the boy nursed it back to health. After it had grown a little bigger it came time to sell it in the marketplace. So the boy sold his calf and ended up with more money than he'd ever seen in his life!
His grandfather said, "That’s a lot of money. What are you going to do with it?"
The boy responded that he didn't know.
His grandfather explained that it wasn't really the boy's money. Actually, all the money in the world belongs to God; God was just letting the boy use some of it for a while. Of course, this was slightly confusing to the boy because his natural inclination was to get those greenbacks in a death grip until he could find something he wanted to buy like a chemistry set or a ship in a bottle or BB gun.
His grandfather patiently explained that we need money to live but we don't really need all of it because God gives us more than we need so we can develop our faith by giving the excess away. We are supposed to use what we need and give Him back what we don’t need so that the church could use the money to keep up their work of introducing people to Jesus.
The boy thought about this and it made sense to him. So, he said, "OK. How much should I give?"
His grandfather said, "You should tithe it."
"Huh?"
"Tithe. Meaning, you should start by giving a tenth."
"What's a tenth."
More patience, “Well, if you divide the total into ten equal parts, one of the parts equals a tenth."
The boy thought this might be a lot and said so to his grandfather.
His grandfather replied that, "If it doesn't hurt a little it's not a good gift."
The boy considered this and agreed. So, the coming Sunday, he put one-tenth of what he had earned into the offering plate at church and forgot about it.
As the years passed, more veal calves were born, grew, and were sold in the marketplace. The boy made more money and always gave one-tenth of what he had earned in the Sunday offering.
The boy grew into a young man and one day when he was 18 years old he looked out the window and saw a man dressed up in a funny top hat and clothes that looked like an American flag coming down the dirt road where the young man lived. He was knocking on certain doors. Every time a door opened the man in the funny clothes would adopt a serious look and stand tall and say, "I want you!"
The young man thought, that’s my Uncle Sam. I've heard about him, too. So, after giving the situation about a nanosecond's thought, the young man hurried down to the Navy recruiting station and signed The Articles. He mysteriously appeared in an exotic place called San Diego just a few hours later. He was satisfied that he had joined the Navy because the Navy promised he would be warm and dry and would eat good food. It didn't exactly work out that way, but that's for another story around another campfire.
Military service, being what it is, strengthens some personal characteristics and sometimes weakens others. One of the character traits that didn't fare too well was the young man's willingness to give of his pay to God’s work. When his four years were completed he found himself destitute, standing outside the main gate, and having the only things to his name as the dress blues he was wearing and his final paycheck in his pocket.
This continued for a number of years with the young man living a beggar's existence and one step ahead of the collection agency. He blamed it on the penury of a college student's life but he really knew better. It was because he wasn't giving.
Came a knock at the door one day. The young man, by now a perfect tatterdemalion, opened the door and guess who was there. Yes, it was Jesus, with a somewhat grieved look on his face.
The young man invited Jesus into the room and to sit down but Jesus refused the offer to sit saying, "No thanks, this won't take very long. And, I've got other stops to make. You're not the only one who's been behaving badly."
"What do you mean, Lord?"
"Behaving badly. You're robbing me."
"Robbing you!?"
Kindly. Patiently. Jesus explained, "Yes, robbing me. You never give me any of your income any longer. Why did you stop? My church needs money to continue their work.”
The young man had no answer, so Jesus said, "I knew you had no answer. The question was rhetorical. Read Malachi Chapter 3. You've got a Bible around her somewhere don't you?"
The young man knew that Jesus knew he had a Bible so he humbly allowed that he did and promised to read Malachi Chapter 3 after Jesus left.
Satisfied, Jesus said, "Ok, Son. Listen. I love you. You know that. I didn't come here to slap you around. I came here to reinforce that you and I have a relationship. A relationship that can't be broken. Ever. By anything. Part of that relationship is that I need you to submit to me and cheerfully give to my work."
So, the young man started to give again. As the years passed, God got him an education, then another, and then another. It cost the young man nothing. His shoes didn't seem to wear out. And neither did his bicycle. All went well. The young man got a little older and met a princess. The man made the princess his bride and he and the princess bride begat three children and life was good. They were warm and dry and had good food.
Then one day the man got a really good job! It was a gift from God in no uncertain terms. The man and his princess bride and their three begotten children were in high cotton!
Then they quit giving. No one knows why. Material lust, I suppose. He didn’t tell me and I’m not sure he even knows why he did it. But shortly after they quit giving their entire financial picture went south and the man watched his paychecks swirl around the drain every week. They were making more money than ever before and had nothing to show for it.
Then came a knock on the door. Yeah, you guessed it. It was Jesus again. The man invited him in again and, as before, Jesus stood so the man stood, too, out of respect.
Jesus said, "Listen, son. Do you remember the last time I knocked on your door and told you I loved you and that you needed to start giving again?"
The man said that he did remember.
Jesus went on, "Well...like I said some time ago, and in another place, a father chastises and corrects the behavior of his children exactly because he does love them. So, consider this present financial pickle you've got yourself into as a form of loving chastisement and behavioral modification. Remember reading Malachi Chapter 3?"
The man remembered that he had read that passage and that it had changed his life.
"Well," Jesus said, "perhaps you might not know that this is the only place in the entire Bible that I invite you to try me—to hold me accountable for my promise. That's significant, no?"
“What promise, Lord? I don’t remember.”
With consummate patience, Jesus recounted what he had inspired the prophet Malachi to write a long time ago. He said, “I said,‘Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe.’ In your case, since you’re no longer farming, you’ll have to read this as an allegory. But I think you get the picture because you’re pretty smart.”
The man said, "Yes, Lord, that is significant. I get it. Does that mean I’ll become wealthy?"
Jesus responded with, “Yes, you’ll become wealthier than you ever dreamed. But remember that I said this. There are many different definitions of wealth.” At that point, Jesus forbore to explain further and took his departure saying that he had other children to love and nurture. But he’d be around. Call on him anytime. And not to forget that his Spirit would be with the man to continue his tutelage.
So the man and his princess bride began giving again.
As before, life went on unremarkably. But, oddly, their clothes didn't seem to wear out. Their shoes lasted forever. Their old car just didn’t seem to break down like it had. Their children stayed healthy and what doctor bills they incurred got paid on time. Their creditors were satisfied and they continued to have everything they needed.
Then one day came a knock on the door.
Jesus, again. The man was hoping for purely a social visit this time but Jesus had teaching and nurturing and loving to perform. This time he accepted the invitation to sit down with the man and the princess bride.
He said, "Son, it's time for you to take the next step in your submission and humility to me in regards to this giving thing."
The man asked apprehensively, "Have I done something wrong?"
"Like one of my other sons, his name is Aaron, said recently, relax. Have I ever knocked on your door so you would open it to have me slap you upside your head?”
"No, Lord."
"Okay, then. Good. Here's what I've got for you today."
The man waited.
Jesus put his hand on the man’s shoulder, made direct eye contact, and said in a still small voice, "First I want to say, well done thou good and faithful servant. You've stewarded my financial resources well. You’ve done what I’ve asked and I want to tell you I appreciate it."
It was a happy moment for all.
He continued, "I must remark that although you're stewarding my resources well, I can't help but notice that you're giving is based on a percent of your net income and not your gross."
Surprised, the man spluttered, "But, Lord, the government takes a huge cut out of the total. I never even see that money. It wouldn't be so bad except that you know as well as I do that governments are wasteful...ours particularly so. Million dollar hammers and billion dollar toilet seats and stuff like that. It's wasteful. If I really got anything for it I’d tithe it!"
The Lord said nothing.
The man waited.
After a little while, the Lord said, "Son, it's not my fault that your government is wasteful. They, too, are part of a world broken beyond any repair save what I can provide. And, after all, you elected them. Never mind that, though. You need to start giving of your gross income. Show me you have faith. Test me. Take a shot at it. Live at the edge of your faith."
The man said nothing. There was really nothing he could say in the face of perfect logic and perfect reasoning from a perfect God. He was humbled. So he and the princess bride began giving of their gross income and God was faithful to his promise and fulfilled the allegory of his promise in Malachi.
We can fast-forward a bit now and I will tell you that the little boy has become an old man. His children are grown and gone and he and the princess bride live in a not-quite-so-remote region of a State in The Northern Tier.
As they grew older it seemed that Jesus talked to them more and more. Perhaps he spoke to them no more or less than he ever had. Maybe they were just more willing to listen. These days Jesus more often says, “Well done…” than, “I think you should consider…” but that still comes up from time-to-time.
Like with his other children, Jesus would use all kinds of ways to speak to them. He spoke through his word, through situations, and through other people. Jesus is like that. He’ll use anything he can to love his children. One day Jesus spoke to the man through the princess bride using her voice and said, “God has been so good to us. Why don’t we increase our giving amount?”
The man remembered the lesson from his grandfather about how God gives us plenty and expects us to give what we don’t need to God’s work. He also remembered if it doesn’t hurt a little it’s not a good gift. He thought increasing their giving to be a good idea and agreed with the princess bride. So they increased their giving a little bit each year that followed and have continued to do so each year until this day. God was honored and he continued to fulfill His promise.
They prospered and lacked for nothing. They lived happily ever after and were warm, dry, and had good food.
Which is more than anyone could ever hope for.
