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Does Jesus Love the Rich?

Jesus Loves the Rich

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Many people have a conception of Jesus that is–to put it as bluntly as possible–substantively deficient. Many envision Jesus as the prototypical religious leader who only cared for the outcast, the socially marginalized, the sick and the poor. A Marxist, revolutionary Jesus is the inevitable production of such a truncated conception. The Scriptures undoubtedly set forth Christ as one who preeminently exhibited deep and pervasive care for the poor and needy. Jesus attested to His own Messianic ministry by pointing to His compassionate miracles of healing for the needy (e.g. Isaiah 35:5 in Matt. 11:5). Additionally, Jesus teaches us that, if we are to be His disciples, we are to “invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” when we throw a feast, lest we fall into the snare of showing partiality and unjust preference to the rich who can repay us. But the Jesus of Scripture never showed partiality to the poor as over agains the rich. The Jesus of Scripture came into the world to redeem rich and poor. A brief survey of the Gospel record teaches us this important lesson–a lesson that we so desperately need to learn if we are to be faithful witnesses to the saving grace of God in Christ to all in in a day in which the rich are vilified by the poor.
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