People Over Profits--February 26, 2025

People Over Profits--February 26, 2025

[Jesus said:] "Give to everyone who begs from you; and if someone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again." (Luke 6:30-34)

The old line says, "To the one with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That is, if you are already holding the implement for pounding, you'll be inclined to see the whole world in those terms--as a project that can be assembled by pounding.  The hammer turns out to function also like a set of lenses that affect your view of the reality.

We might say something similar for us who live in the age of the market: when we see everything in terms of making deals, other people just become a means toward a bigger profit.  Maybe we don't realize just how much we are affected (or infected) by the greed-driven logic of our time and place, but it's everywhere.  Right after the headlines, what does the morning news move to?  Which stocks made the most money today, and how much profit the exchanges notched.  Who gets on the cover of the magazine? The listing of the richest people, the CEOS who made the biggest profits for their companies, and the trailblazing entrepreneurs who found the latest way to turn something into a product for sale. We are constantly told by the loudest talking heads of our day that it's only worth doing something for someone else if we will GET more in return than we give out: that spending time, money, or resources on other people, other countries, or other needs that don't affect ME directly is all foolishness and wastefulness.  And in open defiance of that whole way of thinking, Jesus says, "What a rotten mindset that is!" before pointing us toward radical generosity and selfless giving.

Jesus, in other words, has come to take the old earnings-obsessed lenses from our eyes and to see human faces again--in order that we might prioritize, as God does, the worth of people over profits. And in a culture that still is hypnotized under the spell of getting more, winning more, and making more, letting Jesus heal our vision that way will be uncomfortable.  It will mean allowing Jesus to help us unlearn what we had been told by so many voices were the most important things in life, in order to learn a new way of thinking and assessing worth. Jesus is teaching us not to care nearly so much about getting a bigger pile of money with our day's efforts, but investing our lives in the good of other people.  Jesus intends for us to see other people as beloved of God, not merely transactional partners in commerce.  

If all that matters in life is what I get from other people, then, absolutely, I should only help people who will do something for me in return.  If all that matters is getting "ahead," then I should only do favors for people whose potential for return favors could be even more profitable for me.  If the value of my life can be boiled down to my income versus expenditures on a spreadsheet, then I should only ever expend effort if it will increase my net worth.  And if those things are true, we should probably find a different Lord other than Jesus, because he wants nothing to do with that kind of assessment. But if we are going to listen to Jesus, then we should be prepared to have it rearrange our priorities in every area of our lives.

Think about it--what happens when we value people over profits? We would change the way we advise young people in their pursuit of careers and education, and instead of saying, "What kind of money will you make in that field?" we would find ourselves saying, "How will this kind of work allow you to love neighbors well?" And our kids would know that even if they didn't get rich in their fields of study or employment, we would be there to support them, because that, too, is our calling.  We might change how we invest money as well--instead of only looking at what businesses are making the biggest profits, we might ask better questions like, "What kind of businesses do I want my resources associated with? How do they treat their workers, and what kinds of things are they doing that make the world an honestly better place for everyone?" We would have a different perspective on the needs of people or countries far away, too--and instead of asking, "What do we get out of helping them?" we might ask, "Who might die if not for the resources we can offer?" When we value people over profits, everything shifts in our lives, from international relations to the way we raise our children to the money in our wallets and bank accounts.  That's the kind of change Jesus has it in mind to make with us.  He knows it will be an adjustment, and one that takes us outside of our comfort zones, but he is convinced that he has come to bring us the life that really is life.

Today, then, let's allow Jesus to remove whatever hammers we have wrongheadedly put in our hands, and to take away the dollar-sign-shaped spectacles in front of our eyes, so that he can teach us again how to see truthfully; that is, to see the way God does.  Let's dare to let Jesus heal our vision to see faces made in the image of God as the priceless wonders they are.

Lord Jesus, transform our view of the world to see one another--and all that we have--as you do.