Jesus the Socialist

The political Left is fond of quoting Jesus when He can be made to serve The Agenda. The rest of the time, not so much. They don't actually believe in Him, but when His teachings are carefully isolated and contextualized, well, they are certainly useful to beat down conservatives and Christians and further The Agenda.

One Leftist talking point is that Jesus was a socialist. Aside from the patently offensive idea that Jesus' ministry was political, it is very nearly laughable that anyone could consider Jesus to be in favor of a centralized government redistributing wealth. 

Socialists don't do a lot of Bible quoting. They tend to appeal to half-remembered Bible stories and riff on them. But when they do quote Scripture, one passage they use is: 

Matthew 25:41b-45 - 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

The primary mistake Socialists make is assuming that caring for the poor is a Socialist characteristic, but capitalism doesn't care for the poor. From that mistake a further mistake is that the parable applies to a government obligation when Jesus was referring to individual compassion. 

It seems almost obvious to us that Jesus was not explaining government structures, he was teaching righteousness. 

Another passage is:

Matt. 20:1-15 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 

3 About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the market-place doing nothing. 4 He told them, `You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 

6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, `Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 `Because no-one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, `You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 

8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, `Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.

10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 `These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, `and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 But he answered one of them, `Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Socialists use this parable to say that Jesus wants everyone to to be paid equally, and observe that even the ones who did the least amount of work received a day's wage.

Capitalists will respond that this is a private land owner making his own decisions. On this basis they argue that this has nothing to do with Socialism.

But both miss the point. This is a parable Jesus used to explain how the Kingdom works: 

Matt. 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like...   

We need to keep in mind that Jesus' audience were Jews and His stories were structured for the Jewish ear. The Jews are God's chosen people. And they are the subject of this parable. 

We see this in the parable's conclusion: 

Matt. 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

This is the parable's illustration of the Kingdom, the first will be last. Jesus made this point repeatedly (Matt. 19:30, Mark 10:31, Luke 13:30). 

Key to our understanding is Jesus' reason for coming to earth. Yes, it was to save us, but first it was to offer the Jews the Gospel (Matt. 15:24). But as we know they rejected Him (Luke 17:25, Luke 20:17). He condemned them, saying:

Mt. 21:43 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

They were the "first." They were the ones first hired, and they were the ones who grumbled at the later workers getting the same pay as them. The pay is the Kingdom.

We gentiles are the "last." We gain "equal pay" by the Jews' lack of faith. So the landowner's generosity is God giving the Kingdom to the latecomers on equal footing with the ones who were first offered the Kingdom.

Even in view of that, we can't help but notice the economic principles embraced by Jesus. 

• A wealthy man making his own decisions about his land and his worker's pay

• the workers expecting more pay because they worked more

• the wealthy man noting the perfectly reasonable precept that since it's his money he gets to decide where and when he is generous.

Let's quickly consider some other Scriptures:

Prov. 11:1 The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.

The exchange of value (i.e., capitalism) ought to be honestly expressed.

Prov. 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. 24 The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.

Hard work is profitable. Wise people who have obtained wealth are noble.

Matt. 25:27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

Investment with a return is desirable.

Mark 12:1-2 He then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard."

A landowner has a right to the proceeds of his land.

Matt. 24:43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

A property owner is justified in preventing theft of what he owns.

There cannot be found any Socialistic idea in Jesus' teaching. He always preached personal righteousness. Socialists are wrong.