However, I believe that what Chris Seay means, when he asks “So what do you do with that?” is not “how do we get the help to those who need it,” but “how can we sleep at night knowing that the $17 we spent on a hotdog and drink could have saved lives if we’d given it away instead.”

The Gospels are indeed a set of revolutionary documents, but it’s easy to miss that, especially considering the way we were TAUGHT to read them. Read them again– and if you still don’t see it, read John Howard Yoder’s “Politics of Jesus.”

Let’s be clear: there are untenable economic ramifications here. Jesus did not offer an economic system, he called on us to continually examine our behavior in light of a moral code. The Kingdom he speaks of is NOT a government, but a group of like-minded people who are willing to sacrifice (as Jesus did) for others. At best, Jesus’s teachings apply to an intentional community– never to a State.

Jesus was not a Marxist; he never taught economic equality, nor did he teach compulsion. Rather, he taught that money will not make you happy– that giving to the poor is not a governmental act but a personal sacrifice. Some (including myself) believe he promoted voluntary poverty.

The early community was not Marxist either: Acts says, “Those who had little did not have too little, and those who had much did not have too much.” But above all, helping others was (and remains) a choice– one we face on a daily basis.