Admittedly, I always thought He cared much more about my consumption, and, being a rich American was almost a curse–so many temptations to consume while other parts of the world struggled. Shame ensues, then inaction, then a demotivation to produce. That doesn’t sound like a useful spiral to me!! Hmm, obviously I’m writing this to explore then opposite–He cares more about our production??!!
He does NOT like ACCUMULATION for the sake of Consumption, it seems. Luke 12:18-21.
But, He does seem to care about production — sewer and seed, increase, parable of talents, sheep and goats, etc. He didn’t mind the costly purfume poured upon him (just take a moment and you try to imagine defending a woman who just ‘wasted’ A LOT of money on YOU!! Jesus was walking a very tight rope!! but, He wasn’t fazed) He didn’t shame people for throwing big banquets….
I’m definitely open to some pushback on this–I certainly haven’t done an exhaustive search and don’t want to be drawing wrong conclusions.
You know, one thing I’ve noticed about communists and socialists is the preoccupation of them to discuss the allocation of consumption, not the allocation of production. It is always about splitting up the resources produced, not splitting up the efforts to produce. Interesting….Jesus seems more interested in discussing production efforts–it is because we bless our fellow man and make this world a richer, better place when we produce more than we consume.
Let the pushback begin 🙂