Robin Hood vs. The Rich: Whose Side Is God On?

Society loves the idea of Robin Hood -- stealing from the rich, giving to the poor. The poor need it more, right? The rich deserve to be less rich, right? God certainly approve of that scenario, right? Right?

Maybe not.

It could be because we all "know" that God's in favor of giving to the poor, but we seem to be glossing over the "stealing from the rich" part as a means to an end. Since when was God in favor of stealing, just because someone was in need? It's not really giving if the person to whom it belonged to didn't actually offer it up. And the heart of the giver is just as important to God as the "giving" itself. That's why God asks for things to be given, instead of demanding or taking away with no choice.

So yes, God may ask the rich to give up their riches for the sake of the poor. But if you look in the Bible, Jesus was asking the rich to the give up the wealth that they were clinging to. In the same way, those who cling to their status, whether it's status as rich person or a "virtuous" poor person, are going to be asked by God to give up the status that they are clinging to. The point is not to force someone to show (or accept) "charity", but to give even that which we think we're "right" about over to God and let it be "right" how He sees fit.

Yes, God will call those who seem to have a lot to act out in faith (the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-22 comes to mind), but He will also call those who seem to have nothing at all to act out in faith as well. Look at the man that Jesus met at the pool at Bethesda (John 5:1-8). He'd been laying around for years waiting for someone to move on his behalf, and Jesus simply ordered him to move himself! But by giving up his status as one who'd been "waiting on God" for a long long time, he was able to actually use his faith to get what he'd been waiting on.

Playing second fiddle, or "the pious broken person" because it seems more spiritual is in fact just the opposite -- prideful and selfish. And it hinders us from being able to help others to stop clinging to the things that God is asking them to give up. It's like allowing a drowning person to pull you under the surface in your attempt to rescue them; at that point you're both clinging to the wrong thing.

If we as the Church would give like we really believe God wants the Church to give to those without homes or families (Psalm 146:9; Jeremiah 22:3) -- that includes physically or spiritually -- then there would not be the need that the world sees and determines to eliminate by unjustly forcing those who have earned more out of the goods they have earned. If we truly believed that we are blessed to bless others (by giving our blessings to them) and that is how we continue to be blessed ourselves, then we would have no problem giving to the needs we see -- we know that is our blessing, not a curse forced upon us.

Now none of this is to say that you can't have things that others don't have. The point is not to hold to them over the voice of God, no matter virtuous those things might seem, and also not to hold what others have over their heads if they don't let go of it like you do. We've talked before about holding the people around us to our expectations. Our expectations are not God's expectations, for ourselves or for other people. As long as we're listening and doing what God says He wants us to do, we can rest assured that God will them what He wants them to do. And then it's up to them to do it, not up to us to make them do what we think God wants them to do. We're not called to be Robin Hood for society.

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What are you clinging to?

How do we change our "Robin Hood" mindset?