blood diamonds, blood money

Matthew 27.3-6
3 Judas, full of remorse, returned the 30 pieces of silver to the
chief priests and elders.. and went and hanged himself.

6 the priests said “It is not lawful to put [the money] into the
temple account, since it is blood money.”

Blood money. Blood diamonds. Weighed on a scale, or examined in the light, a blood diamond is no different than any other diamond. It’s the purpose from which or for which the diamond is used that gets it the name. Blood diamonds are used for barter to buy weapons. Blood money is cash earned by not caring on whose head you have to stand to earn it.

Recently I was given a large sum of money, which I initially looked forward to as a welcome bonus. The day before it arrived I received an sms from a friend “you are about to receive unjust money, reject it”. Well, let me tell you that belief is one thing when it is just a theory you read every morning or discuss every Thursday and quite another when you have two wads of notes each an inch thick in your grubby paws.

Giving it back was a decision. Telling the person who gave it why I wanted to return it was a little harder, but made easier by a decision I had made long ago. You see, I had decided that I would take God at his word. I have run away, cheated, manipulated,  and squandered enough in my life.  It was time to take to heart the promise in the Bible that He is able to look after me if I choose to do what pleases Him. I don’t get that right that often, but my choice is to move toward honouring His wishes, and making the likes and dislikes I see sprinkled liberally throughout the Bible my frame of reference in my decisions.

I gave back the money.

Money in itself is not wrong.  It consisted of notes bound together with rubber bands, pieces of paper stained by their passage through human lives. God’s words were that the money carried a curse, a curse that would apply to my life if I chose to use it.  A deliberate choice to obey in the belief that He is able to meet all my needs.

God is all about justice. The term sowing and reaping speaks of a weighing scale, with equal weights on either side. What you put in you get out. Justice works two ways: it’s great for the law abiding and it’s terrifying for the criminal.

We don’t talk much about curses these days.  It’s a word reserved for bad language. The chief priests and elders knew about them, readers of horror stories know about them, but it’s not politically correct to bring them to light in a modern conversation as if not speaking about them
makes them no longer apply.

One says that something is cursed when it doesn’t matter how good the intent is but the result always comes out bad. Land, objects, events can be cursed. Money can be cursed.  We all know the results in some way or other. We work really hard at something, yet for all that effort it’s as if there is a hole in the bottom of the bucket. Only half of what is poured in ever gets to be poured out. The rest just seems to evaporate.

Blood money. The priests to whom Judas wanted to return the silver knew that the silver itself wasn’t the problem it was the purpose to which the silver had been used that rendered it cursed, and cursed money cannot lawfully be placed in an offering basket. The curse lives on – its being placed in a theoretically holy setting doesn’t remove the stain.

It’s not as if God needs your money. After all, He made everything. It’s just that He chose that the temple is to be funded entirely by people’s giving, in the belief that the person giving is blessed when money is given with a generous heart. We are in effect furthering the kingdom by growing in faith that He is able to provide for tomorrow. Giving generously is the equivalent of a baptism – you make a public statement that money doesn’t own you. Once again we see the same old money being delivered, the difference being the attitude with which it is given.

Sure, earning millions would enable you to give thousands. The problem comes when the thousands are cursed by the intent that made them. Did
you really think of all the good it would do to the people or is your fervency based on what it can do for you? Any Sunday School child can tell you this deal is all about denying self.

It is not lawful to fund your place of worship with money dishonestly gained.

In God’s economy, justice demands that any source of income must be free of coercion, free of manipulation, free of any of the trappings of  “I’m doing it for their benefit; so what if I get rich along the way”.

Curses carry more weight than blessings. You can see that for yourself in Deuteronomy 28. Actually this is incorrect. Curses carry equal weight, only the effects are more visible as a result of the chain of events that becomes self feeding, fueled by the spirit of greed.

God promises to bless the work of your hands when the intent of your heart is to do what pleases him. It would be foolish to see your advanced earning power through greed as blessing from God. Rather consider it as enough rope to hang yourself by, just like Judas did.

Do you honestly see the repetition of the sales pitch as being evidence of a humble and contrite heart? How come it is the disgraced who is allowed to coerce the shepherds to walk off the path at the expense of the blindly following flock? How ironic that the reply given to my query as to why we didn’t see this fervency in getting the good news out there was “Yes! We should bring the whole church here to see how it’s done.”

It’s supposed to be that we trust Him. It’s supposed to be that the leaders lead the flock into the arms of God. Easy to say, I know. It’s all based on a decision. Have you made that decision?

Remember David’s words when offered the threshing floor for free.

“No, I will pay the full price,  for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which cost me nothing.” [1 Chronicles 21.24]

What was that sales pitch again, the one about doing nothing? All you have to do is find people more motivated by greed to serve you and you get to sit back and give your ten percent?

Oh please!