Money.  What would Jesus do?  Biblical accounts provde many insights as to how Jesus viewed money positively.

One indication of Jesus’ positive view of money is that he allowed himself to be supported by a group of fairly wealthy women from their own resources who supplied his needs and the needs of the male disciples from their own resources (Luke 8:2-3). Jesus himself was not poor but middle class, though having come from heaven and the riches of the Father’s presence, as Philippians 2 says, he became poor for us that we might become rich in God. Jesus said we should lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven not on earth (Matt 6:19-23). Jesus said we cannot serve God and Mammon. We cannot have two gods (Matt 6:24). Jesus calls money "wicked Mammon" or "Mammon of iniquity" (Luke 16:9 is translated "worldly wealth" --mamona tes adikias). Jesus commanded someone who had made an idol of his money—The Rich Young Ruler—to sell all, give to the poor and follow him (Luke 18:18-30). This specific commandment and case does have universal application: some form of voluntary impoverishment is necessary to follow Jesus. It is easier, Jesus continued, “for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The disciples’ response to this was “Who then can be saved?” to which Jesus responded: “What is impossible with human beings is possible with God” (v 27). But Jesus used money in an interesting way.

Jesus paid the temple tax himself, even though it was a corrupt religious system, (Matt 17:24-27) and he affirmed the widow who gave everything she had to the same system (Mark 12:41-44). In a shocking parable Jesus proposed that we can use money to “make friends for ourselves,” friends that will receive us and welcome us in their eternal homes when we arrive there – indicating that money can be used to make forever-friends in Jesus (Luke 16:1-15). Paul quotes Jesus as saying “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). So money is not simply as curse. Indeed there is indication that Jesus used money positively.

Jesus affirmed the positive use of money in that he ate and drank royally and was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton in comparison with the ascetic John the Baptist. Jesus affirmed Mary when she broke the expensive alabaster jar and anointed his head and feet with perfume worth a year’s salary (Mark 14:1-11). The disciples thought it was wasteful. Jesus thought it was beautiful. Jesus prophesied that on the judgment day the righteous would learn that they ministered to him with their means when they served the poor, the lonely, the outcast and the hungry.