What Jesus Really Said about Social Justice and Economics | Book Review

Jerry Bowyer’s new book, “The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice & Economics,” is an eye-opening economic commentary on Jesus’ teaching based on where He was geographically. He successfully rebuts liberation theologians who peddle Marxism by hijacking Jesus’ teaching and caricaturing him as a poor peasant.

We do not often hear about how Jesus’ teaching was influenced by where and who he was addressing, especially from an economic perspective.

Throughout Jesus’ teaching, we often see Him address specific groups of people: the Pharisees, Sadducees, or even His disciples. Jesus speaks to each of these groups in a different way as a matter of context. In Bowyer’s book, he shares how Jesus’ teaching related to economics differed based on whether He was in Galilee or Judea.

The socio-economic realities between Galilee and Judea were starkly different. Bowyer presents compelling evidence, based on the latest research and archeology, how Galilee was more enterprising and entrepreneurial while Judea, where Jerusalem was located, was more aristocratic. Jerusalem was ruled by the political elite and well-connected. Eventually, Jesus’ teaching became a threat to that centralized, political system where oppression was taking place, which is responsible in part for He was crucified.

Let us consider Jesus’ interaction (in Judea) with the rich, young ruler in Luke 18 as an example. This young man had inherited a seat on the Sanhedrin, the ruling political authority, and inherited his father’s land-based income stream. He had continued the practice of defrauding the poor and powerless through extraction.

Bowyer says, “That’s why Jesus commands him to give his wealth to the poor: it was taken from the poor.”

Jesus was telling this man to give back what he had taken and follow Him.

Interestingly, the story of Zaccheaus in the next chapter (Luke 19) seems to highlight the reverse of the rich young ruler's story and validate Jesus’ statement, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” After encountering Jesus, Zaccheaus, another wealthy, well-connected tax collector, promises to give half of his possessions to the poor and repay four times the amount he cheated from others.

There is so much more to consider in the story of the rich, young ruler than just the fact that he was rich. What is often taught is that Jesus knew this man’s heart - that he worshipped his wealth rather than God, and that we should all beware of making an idol of wealth. Bowyer asserts that this misses the main point. The way in which this man’s wealth was taken from the vulnerable is the key to the story. Unfortunately, this meaning is lost without understanding the socioeconomic context. It is critical to emphasize the error of ill-gotten gain in addition to the mistake of idolizing wealth if we are going to understand this passage properly.

Bowyer argues that the difference between Jesus’ approach to Galilee was due to its industrious and entrepreneurial economy. Jesus himself was a product of the socioeconomics of Galilee as he most likely worked with his father, Joseph, during a building boom in Sepphoris. Because he was well-acquainted with the differences between Galilee and Judea, “Jesus never has a single confrontation about wealth while in Galilee,” as Bowyer puts it.

This is not to say that Galilee did not have its own issues. It was in Nazareth, after all, where Jesus was almost thrown over a cliff by the people in the synagogue. The goal of Bowyer’s writing is more to bring attention to the virtually ignored economic biblical commentary, and I think he does a fantastic job of this. I highly recommend this book to anyone who desires greater clarity around the socioeconomic context of Jesus’ teaching.