Let’s Talk Money

Making Christ our king rather than cash

03/31/2021

Matthew 26:14-25 One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘“ When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”

Kevin O’Leary says frequently on Shark Tank, “Let’s talk money.” Let me begin with a question: is money the "root" of all evil, or rather does money "rescue" you from all evil? Well, if you ask Pink Floyd, they will say that money rescues you from all evil. In their wildly popular 1981 hit song, they sang: “Money, get away / You get a good job with more pay and you’re okay / Money, it’s a gas / Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash / New car, caviar, four-star daydream / Think I’ll buy me a football team.” So, we might say that one attitude toward making money is to say “Cash is king.”

On the other hand, St. Paul teaches Timothy, his young apprentice and future bishop, that money is the root of all evil. St. Paul wrote in 1 Tm 6:10, these familiar lines: “The love of money is the root of all evil, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.” St. Paul warned Timothy (and us) that money does not “rescue” us from evil; loving it too much is the “root” of all evil. In other words, for St. Paul, “cash was not king” but rather “Christ is king.”

I am convinced this is the problem for Judas in the gospel of Matthew today. Judas Iscariot is the one who betrays Jesus and hands him over to the Jewish authorities to be killed. But before he did that, Judas said, “Let’s talk money.” We read in Mt. 26:14, “One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Isacariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you going to give me if I hand him over to you?’” Using terminology we might hear on Shark Tank, Judas was asking, “What is your valuation of Jesus? How much is he worth?” They paid him “30 pieces of silver,” which Leviticus tells us was the price of a slave. Clearly, for Judas, “cash is king.”

By contrast, we read about how Mary (not Jesus’ mother but Martha’s sister) deals with money and valuable things when Jesus visited her, Martha and Lazarus a few days earlier. In Jn 12, we read: “Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil…and anointed the feet of Jesus…the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” And do you recall who objected to that supposed “waste” of costly perfume? You guessed it: Judas, who said it should have been spent on the poor. But John explains: “Judas said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal from the contributions.” So, on the other hand, we see Mary for whom “Christ is king” and therefore “cash cannot be king.” In other words, you must sacrifice either one or the other: either Christ or cash. You cannot serve two kings.

My friends, if there is one thing Catholic schools have taught me, it is how to make “Christ the king” rather than believe that “cash is king.” Let me give you three examples. First, my parents taught me that Christ is king because they came to America from India and saved their money only to spend it by sending their three children to Catholic schools. Catholic schools are not inexpensive and you must sacrifice cash in order to serve Christ when you send your children there.

Second, I tried to follow my parents’ example by running marathons and writing three books to raise money for students who could not afford to go to a Catholic school. I did not offer Jesus a jar of perfumed oil, but I did pour out my sweat and tears out of love for him. It takes money to write books. You sacrifice cash in order to serve Christ. Third, I pray our students who graduate from Trinity will be successful in life and even make lots of money. But then, I sincerely hope they will turn around and use that money to help the poor, and maybe even help poorer students to go to Catholic schools. You have to sacrifice cash in order to serve Christ.

The felicitous phrase, “Let’s talk money” can be used in both Shark Tank and in Catholic schools. In Shark Tank that talk about money tends to mean that “cash is king.” In Catholic schools we too talk about money, but only so we can see that Christ is king.

Praised be Jesus Christ!