• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • Home
  • About
    • About us
    • Why SeedTime?
    • Our Beliefs
    • The Story of SeedTime
  • Podcast
  • The Book
  • Courses
    • True Financial Freedom
    • The Real Money Method (unbudgeting) course
    • The 10x Investing course
  • For Churches
  • Blog
    • The Financial Tools We Actually Use
    • My strategy for giving away millions
    • 5 Bible Verses You Should Know (Free PDF)
    • My Checklist To Financial Freedom (Free PDF)
    • 25 Ways to Save Money
    • Why we began giving our age as a percentage
    • Tithing: an honest look and what we do
    • Why I took a Sabbatical YEAR (and how I did it)
    • How We Travel For Free
    • 4 Financial Lessons from Solomon (The Richest Man Ever)
    • How to become a millionaire by investing [& turn $2k into $1 mil]
    • My Morning Checklist (Free PDF)
    • How to get out of credit card debt (Free PDF)
    • How I made $2,145 Last Month by decluttering
    • How I Broke Free From the Rat Race (in less than 2 years)
    • We just checked off the biggest goal in our life…
    • Our Honest Medi-Share Review after 14 years
    • 4 Money Habits To Start in Your 20s (that basically guarantee financial success)
  • Newsletter

Was Jesus a tightwad?

written by Bob Lotich, CEPF® | Biblical Personal Finance, Budgeting

Was Jesus a tightwad?

It seems that many Americans think the defining indicator of financial security is your lack of concern for waste.

You can see it all over our culture with movie stars spending $30,000 on a designer handbag to carry their dogs in, or in the rock-n-roll lifestyle where music videos clearly portray the idea that ”money is no object,” often times in a competition of who can have the most gold chains or throw the most cash in the air.

Luke 12:48 explains that “to whom much has been given, much is required.”

For me, this translates into working to minimize waste in my life. I know everyone’s definition of waste is different, but most can agree that we know waste when we see it in our own lives.

In John 6:12 (AMP), after Jesus just miraculously turned a few loaves of bread and fish into enough food for 5,000+ people, he said to the disciples ”Gather up now the fragments (the broken pieces that are left over), so that nothing may be lost and wasted.”

So was Jesus a tightwad?

No, Jesus wasn’t a tightwad. I think he was teaching the disciples a lesson here.

They may have been thinking, “oh, we don’t need to pick this up because Jesus can just make us as much food as we need, whenever we need it.”

Well, yes Jesus could.

But clearly He was trying to show us the value of not wasting, even when it comes VERY EASY, and when there is a whole lot of EXCESS.

What about Judas?

On the other hand you have Judas criticizing Mary with the Alabaster jar for her extravagant (and “wasteful”) act of pouring all the oil on Jesus’ feet.

“Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

-John 12:3-5 ESV

Jesus could have easily agreed with Judas, but instead Jesus defended Mary’s actions as being appropriate.

At first glance, this seems like a pretty stark contradiction.

The way I personally have reconciled these two passages is that I have chosen to be as extravagant as possible when giving to others all the while reducing wastefulness when it is for myself.

What do you think? Join the conversation in the comments below.

Related Posts

  • 5 lessons from the garden about fruit bearing
  • 15 Bible Verses to start Your day off right!
  • 7 Ways God Is Working In Your Finances
  • Why God's way takes longer

About Bob Lotich, CEPF®

Bob Lotich, CEPF® is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance and has over 15+ years experience writing about Biblical personal finance. He is the award-winning author of Simple Money, Rich Life and has been named a top 20 social influencer in personal finance. Check out his on-demand Christian financial class for couples, small groups and churches called True Financial Freedom.

Primary Sidebar

Bob Lotich

Hi there! We are Bob & Linda Lotich. Jesus followers, authors, podcasters, and undying fans of Michael Scott.

This site contains the lessons we learned on our journey from being stingy, debt-ridden fools, to being able to reach our biggest financial goal of giving $1 million by age 40, having zero debt & a paid off house by age 31, and peace with money in the process.

Now we share our best lessons with people like you, groups, and churches with our Award-winning book Simple Money, Rich Life and our 6-week video course True Financial Freedom.

Grab our book!

Simple Money Rich Life

Legal Disclaimer

The articles on this site should not be taken as financial advice. Please contact a financial advisor (or coach) for specific advice regarding your situation. Any references to interest rates, giveaways, deals, products, and websites are subject to change without notice. We try our best to keep the information current, but things are always changing so it may be different now than when it was first published. Also, all the pages on SeedTime help us pay the bills by using affiliate relationships with Amazon, Google, eBay and others but our opinions are NEVER for sale. Find out more here.

Related Posts

  • 5 lessons from the garden about fruit bearing
  • 15 Bible Verses to start Your day off right!
  • 7 Ways God Is Working In Your Finances
  • Why God’s way takes longer

Footer



SeedTime is a 2x Plutus award winning website.
seedtime money logo



SeedTime BBB Business Review
seedtime instagram seedtime money youtube channel seedtime money twitter with Bob Lotich


Our book Simple Money, Rich Life was named 2022 book of the year!
  • Home
  • About
  • Beliefs
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • The Book
  • Courses
  • For Churches
  • Press

Privacy Policy | Terms | Reviews | Earnings Disclaimer | Contact | 636-344-0438
625 Bakers Bridge Ave Suite 105-134 Franklin, TN 37067
©2007-2023 · SeedTime (Formerly ChristianPF)