Last Sunday morning we were reminded that in the desert when he was tempted, Jesus faced a choice about power. The choice he made was to exercise power with and alongside people and not over people. He chose sacrifice and to be alongside instead of self-serving celebrity. This was a watershed moment.
This choice is both a watershed moment for the hope of all who benefited from Jesus ministry, especially on the cross, but also a model of the choice that we all can make in our own lives.
We do not avoid power in our lives but we can choose how to exercise it. This is more than a personal decision it is also a challenge to any institution that exercises power and is tempted to do so for its own ends or remotely.
Separately, I had another insight on how we exercise power and aid from an incident in the Bible. At the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus encouraged everyone to sit down at a late hour with a lack of supplies. There was an option: to go and buy food. Considering this possibility Jesus’ friends said “That would take eight month’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread to give them something to eat?” This implies that they had that much money, to make it an option. In choosing a much more risky and miraculous strategy – based on how much have we got, thanksgiving and prayer – Jesus showed an amazing exercise of power.
Could this example be saying to us – don’t avoid throwing money at problems, indeed this is merited – but remember that radical and risky sharing to change circumstances is much more radical, and inclusive and a greater blessing.
So maybe we are called to give financial aid, but to consider this as a temporary stop on the way to something much better and more Christ like.
As middle class Christians let us give to emergency appeals but let us also allow risky and inclusive sharing, rather than aid, to grow on our doorsteps.