2 Corinthians 8:9
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
No one is like the Lord Jesus Christ, absolutely no one! Everything was made by Him, for Him by the Father and yet He made Himself a nobody on earth. He did not mind it when no one recognised Him. He walked the dusty streets, made Himself a no one where he even had no place to rest His head. All these He did just to resist sinful living even to the point of shedding His blood for our sins. O what Matchless One! O what Righteous One! O what Holy One! No one is like Him. Following the perfect example of the Lord Jesus Christ as The Apostle of God's flock, apostle Paul echoed this with his own life to the believers in Corinth as in the passage below.
1 Corinthians 4:8-13
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
You may ask yourself, why the Lord Jesus Christ had to become poor in order to make you rich? This is one thing that ordinary people do not do. People who are rich do not commonly do this today. In fact, many would not be brave enough to do this. Even among Christians, many who are poor dream to be rich but who wants to be poor when he or she is already rich? Why was the Lord ready to become poor to make us rich when He himself was rich from the beginning? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ need to be poor in the first place? Why did He reject the offer of the Devil for Him to be rich in this world in the eyes of everyone when He was directly tempted of the Devil? A lot of answers needed here, right? No!
Philippians 2:5-8
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Based on the verses above in Philippians, If the Lord Jesus Christ was rich and if He had enough money, it would have been easy for Him to buy over the the rulers,governors,the Sanhedrin, high priests, Roman soldiers and so on. After all these people in power were the ones who bought over Judas Iscariot with the offer of a bribe. If they give bribes don't you think they take bribes too? In order for the authorities to kill Him on the cross, He had to appear poor, unable to defend Himself in their eyes. Or else, why would they have jeered at Him saying, "King of the Jews, try saving yourself from us". They considered themselves more powerful than the Lord Jesus Christ because He appeared poor, rejected, despised and forsaken before their very clouded eyes. He needed to appear that way.
Doesn't this draw similarities to the story of Matthew 25: 31-46. How the wicked did not recognise who was asking for their consideration, sympathy ,care, concern, justice, mercy and compassion? If they did it to the Master, won't they do it again to His servants too? In that story, didn't the wicked deserve the merciless punishment meted out? I think they did!
