Jesus is all about free stuff.
His ministry is characterized by his giving away free health care. There is no record in any of the gospels of Jesus presenting anyone with a bill for healing them. Neither does he have any kind of means test or other set of requirements before he will heal someone. Nobody even attempts to pay him. The most he will say, and this only to some, is that they should come and follow him. The only requirement for him to heal someone is that they are sick. Usually, they come to him, but not always. He heals several people at long distance. He heals at least one person because his friends dragged him to him. Sometimes they have to believe in him, but not always. He heals some people who just happen to be there in the same place at the same time.
He converts six jars of water into free wine for a wedding reception. Free wine!
Several places he suggests, or even demands, that rich people give their wealth away to the poor. He doesn’t qualify “poor” with “deserving” or “working.” No. The only criteria that the recipients have to meet is that they are poor, that is, they have less wealth, fewer assets or possessions, than most people. In other words, Jesus feels these less-well-off people are entitled to free stuff, just because they are less-well-off. In other words, the rich should give free stuff to the poor.
In this, by the way, he is only echoing the requirements of Leviticus 25, in which all wealth is redistributed downward every 50 years. It’s called the Jubilee and Jesus comes to proclaim it. Free stuff.
In one of the few stories included in all four gospels, Jesus gives away free food. They have the option of going to the store and buying food for themselves. That’s the disciples’ idea, that they should all go find a Quick Chek. A market-based solution. Jesus has none of that. He produces and gives away food, so much food that there is a lot left over.
In one of his parables a landowner pays people who worked for one hour the same amount as those who worked a full day: free stuff.
In another a wealthy person places money or property in the possession of tenants or servants. It doesn’t work out very well, but still: it’s about free stuff, with the qualification that it should be used in the way God intended. Which is to give it away.
In one of his most famous and characteristic parables, a father throws a great banquet for a son who squandered his inheritance: free stuff. When the older brother complains that the father never gave him free stuff, the father is flabbergasted, and tells him that he has always been surrounded by free stuff he could take whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Jesus has no concern about “personal responsibility.” God made the whole place and offers it to everyone, as much as they need and more. If you think you worked for what you have, that’s a self-serving lie. The truth is that sinful humans have engineered a system by which some are allowed to hoard some of God’s stuff, and make you work for them to get some of it.
That’s not God’s plan. That’s not what we see in Jesus.
God’s plan is… free stuff.
Jesus implements a system in which everyone contributes what they have and receives what they need. We see the church actually doing this in Acts. Freely have we received; freely must we give.
God creates the universe and declares it very good. God makes sure there is always more than enough for everybody. All we have to do is make sure it is distributed so that nobody has too little, and nobody has too much. All we have to do is make sure the Earth continues to be able to sustain the many, many forms of life that the Creator placed here. All we have to do is give thanks and share.
How are we doing on that?
Jesus gives his life for the whole world on the cross. And his life is free. It’s a matter of grace.
And the main thing do when we gather, aside from hear God’s Word, is give thanks and share his Body and Blood. At no charge. It’s free.
And therefore so are we.
Free stuff is the mission of the church, God’s people.
Let’s do it.
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