Prosperity Gospel and the Gospel of the Kingdom

One cannot live in South Africa without encountering in some form or another the so-called "prosperity gospel". Critics of the movement, Christian and secularist alike, are quick to point out the hypocrisy of prosperity's preachers: private jets and luxurious mansions purchased on the offerings of an impoverished faithful. While such criticism is undoubtedly well-founded, it may, in the words of David Maxwell, "fail to grasp the context of poverty and hopelessness that drives African Christians to embrace it" (Maxwell 2006:11).* In other words, a fixation on the abuses of prosperity's leaders can divert our attention from the very people who actually possess the power to effect the movement's further flowering or failure. This is not to say that denunciations of leaders' wrongdoing are not part of "the good news of Jesus Christ"; it is simply to remember primarily to whom Jesus addressed his message and that message itself.

Jesus himself most directly identified his audience at the outset of his public ministry as told in Luke's gospel. "The Spirit of the Lord . . . has anointed me to bring good news to the poor . . . to let the oppressed go free" (Lk. 4:18). Matthew's gospel identifies the same audience in slightly different words.

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.. . . and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains . . .. And great crowds followed him from Galilee . . . (Mt. 4:23-25).

Matthew's account is particularly instructive, for it is these same crowds which began to follow Jesus as a result of his healing ministry which he begins to teach. That is, these three short verses at the close of chapter 4 directly introduce the lengthy "sermon on the mount" contained in the whole of chapters 5-7. Though initially Matthew states that it was "his disciples" whom Jesus "taught" on the mountain, it was "the crowds" who "were astounded at his teaching" after "Jesus had finished saying these things" (Mt. 5:1-2, 7:28). In short, Jesus concerned himself with the crowds--the poor, the oppressed, the afflicted. These were the recipients of good news.

If Jesus' audience, therefore, consisted of crowds of poor and afflicted people, we might now ask about the specific content of the good news he preached to them. What is "good news to the poor"?

Following Matthew's story, we find in the content of Jesus' teaching of the crowds much concerning human health and wealth--prosperity. We learn, for example, that "the heavenly Father" indeed cares about what people "eat", "drink", "wear". God cares about the human life with its body. God knows that people "need all these things." More than knowing, God provides. Just as God lavishes good and beauty on things far poorer than the poor--"the birds of the air" and "the lilies of the field"--so God will "give daily bread" (6:11) to the people who call on him. Contrary to the most mechanistic versions of the modern prosperity gospel ("we give in order to get"), "the good news of the kingdom" is the kingdom itself: "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Mt. 6:25-33).

"All these things" are not "added" as a result of our setting out, our "seeking" or "striving", to acquire them. That some people do acquire wealth by striving for it is not a nullification of Jesus' message but evidence that the power of evil is still active in our world. But for those who have dared to take Jesus at his word, to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness", the glory of "added things" has begun to fade. They do not compare with "the kingdom of God" which is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). They do not compare with "the peace of God which surpasses all understanding" (Phil. 4:7). It is only in giving up the lure of "added things", when we have finally embraced life without them, that we find them added to us. It is only when we have experienced "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" that we find what we need (2 Cor. 4:6).

The crowds who followed Jesus saw that glory. They recognized it as power, as the utterly compelling "authority" of one who "taught them not as their scribes" (Mt. 7:29). Yet Jesus was one man, and the scribes were numerous. The teachers of prosperity are numerous today. Yet where their gospel of acquisition holds sway, the gospel of God's love has not yet gone. We who would be involved with those with whom Jesus was involved would do well to re/discover the simple joy of Jesus' words which break our bondage to "added things" and lead us deeper into the mysteries of God's kingdom.

*Maxwell, David. African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism & the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement. Oxford: James Currey, 2006.