Everything Jesus does is on purpose. Keep a close eye on his actions, from the biggest to the smallest gesture. He is always trying to teach us something very important about ourselves and more alluringly, about the nature of God himself. This Sunday’s Gospel passage is no different. It begins by Jesus summoning “the Twelve (disciples) and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” Why does he command them to not take any money with them? After all, don’t they need money to buy food or water on their journey? Don’’t they need money to pay for a room to sleep in? An emergency might happen. Why does our Lord insist on taking no money with them? Let’s take a few steps back a moment and look at the human heart. If we are honest with ourselves, we can love money and material possessions too much and the power that it makes me feel. We can even love it so much that we sacrifice our own family relationships upon the altar of greed in the relentless pursuit of more more more.  The famous early 20th century American oil businessman John D. Rockefeller, who was one of the most influential and wealthiest men in the world, amassing over 1.3 billion dollars by the time he died in 1937. That’s equivalent to 24 billion dollars today. When asked how much money is enough, Rockefeller simply said, “one more dollar.” The lust of money is never satisfied. 

In my own ministry as a priest, I’ve seen money destroy families. Brother against brother. Sister against sister. Many years ago, I was asked to do a burial service for a prominent political family from San Francisco. When I arrived at the cemetery parking lot, it was filled with the nicest, most expensive cars you could imagine. Everyone was dressed with the nicest dresses and designer suits. But immediately I could sense a heavy coldness in the air, despite the warm summer sun. I turned to the woman next to me and asked what was wrong. She simply said, “There is tension in the family over the inheritance.” I simply nodded my head in exasperation. I’ve seen this over and over again. Someone dies and suddenly, you can have some members of the family immediately start jockeying for the best position for “one more dollar.” 

1 Timothy 6:10 puts it more bluntly, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” How terribly true this is about our broken human nature. Jesus knows this about us. Nothing is new under the sun. He wants to heal this disease for ever “more” by getting to the root of this sickness. The lust of money is ultimately rooted in our lack of trust in God. We do not truly believe that our Heavenly Father will provide for our needs; ergo we must do it ourselves. This seed of doubt is an echo of the Serpent’s slithery lie from the Book of Genesis “Did God actually say, you shall not eat of the trees in the Garden?” (Genesis 3:1). We now hear that as, “Will God actually provide for me?” Jesus wants his followers to rely on God’s providence as he sends them out into the world. Trust in him first and foremost. Is God a good father or not? That is the question before each of us today.