REPRESENTING OR MISREPRESENTING?

I don't watch a lot of religious television. One of the reasons I don't is I get bothered when I hear people saying things about Jesus that just aren't so. Of course some times I "hear" these things from other sources. Sometimes the falsehoods are quite serious (like saying Jesus wasn't virgin born, that He didn't know He was God, He didn't die, He wasn't resurrected).
Sometimes they are also preposterous (Jesus was married and had kids, Judas was doing Jesus a favor, Jesus was homosexual, He was a vegetarian, He was for abortion and against capital punishment, He made mistakes- one of which was dying on the cross).
Then sometimes these falsehoods are just plain strange (Jesus was a hippie, He was a revolutionary, He was a communist, He was a Zen philosopher). I read another strange one recently. Jesus and the disciples were rich (financially wealthy)! We are talking money rich here. We are talking big houses and fancy clothes. Is that true? What saith the scripture?

Let me say first of all that it is not a sin to be rich through legitimate means. The Bible tells us of the wealth of Abraham, Job, Solomon, Lydia and others. In some cases it caused them problems while others were able to handle it properly. So the point is not "It's wrong to have wealth." Most of us would be condsidered wealthy by people in other parts of the world anyway. The question is, was Jesus financially well off while down here on earth?

I. THE QUOTES THAT MISS

Jesus and the disciples were rich, only rich people could take off for 3.5 years. [So all unemployed people are rich?]

"The Bible says that He had a treasurer-a treasury (they called it "the bag"); that they had one man who was the treasurer, named Judas Iscariot; and the rascal was stealing out of the bag for three-and-a-half years and nobody knew that he was stealing. You know why? Because there was so much in it, He couldn't tell. Nobody could tell that anything was missing..., if Jesus didn't have anything, what do you need a treasury for? A treasury is for surplus. It's not for that which you're spending. It's only for surplus-to hold it until you need to spend it. Therefore, He must have had a whole lot that needed to be held in advance that He wasn't spending. So He must have had more than He was living on." F.P. [When I was kid we used to have clubs. We elected a President, a secretary and a treasurer. We usually had bottle caps in the treasury. To say it's always surplus is without warrant. Unless you have an agenda you are trying to further.]
"I don't know where these goofy traditions creep in at, but one of the goofiest ones is that Jesus and His disciples were poor. Now there's no Bible to substantiate that." [We'll see how wrong that is.]
"Jesus had a nice house, a big house big enough to have company stay the night with Him at the house. Let me show YOU His house. G0 over to John the first chapter and I’ll show you His house. Now, child of God, that’s a house big enough to have company stay the night in. There's His house." [1:35-43 gives no indication it was a house]
"It's historically inaccurate to say that Jesus was poor," [Again, we'll see how wrong that is.]

"How many carpenters do you know who haven't built themselves a house?" [More than he thinks.]
J.A.

"He [also] wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to wear the best clothing, He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything." K.H. [Really/ Did Paul stay in the best jails?]

"Did Jesus have money? Well, the Bible was clear. Kings brought him gold. Did Jesus have money? It's clear. He had a treasurer to keep up with it. He had to be rich to support the disciples for 3 years" C.D. [Mt. 2:11-23, 13:55ff We are not told how much gold was given but the family probably had to live off it for several years while in Egypt and moving back and getting settled.]

R. H. believes Jesus was rich because some biblical translations suggest Jesus — as a baby — was visited by a caravan of about 200 kings bearing gold, not three wise men. Jesus also needed wealth to pay travel expenses for his 12 disciples as they took the Gospel from city to city.

("The words of a poor man are soon forgotten"), also says Jesus could not have attracted a devoted following if he was poor.

"Nobody is going to follow a broke man," He says. [Spoken like an ignorant American]

II. THE QUOTES THAT MATTER

1. They were poor at Jesus' birth [Lk. 2:22-24, Lev. 12:6-8]

2. Jesus said he personally had no home [Mt. 8:19-20]

3. The treasury was not always full [Mk. 6:37, Phil. 4:10-12, a years wages for one man wouldn't last long among 13 men and others with frequent giving to the poor]

4. Jesus sent Peter to fish just to pay the Temple tax [Mt. 17:24-27]

5. He had to be buried in a borrowed tomb to fulfill the prophecy of being with the rich in His death [Is. 53:9, Mt. 27:57-60]

III. THE CAUSE THAT MATTERS

1. Riches can keep give a false sense of security [Mk. 4:19, 10:24-25]

2. Riches do not guarantee salvation [Lk. 16:19-23]

3. Righteousness through Christ guarantees salvation and security [II Cor. 5:21, 8:9]