Jesus and Debt

Whether they are Christian or not, most people agree that a man named Jesus was born roughly 2025 years ago. (See biblical Christmas Story found in, e.g., Luke 2.) For the sake of illustrating a different point, let’s just assume that the Christ Child’s contemporaries instantly realized his eventual kingship and decided Jesus should receive a stipend of one million denarii (the local Roman currency) per day for his entire life. A million every 24 hours. That was a lot, as the common worker was paid one denarius per day.

Now, to further illustrate, let us also say — as I do — that Jesus, though crucified to death at age 30ish, rose again (see Easter Story in, e.g., Matthew 28) and has eternal life — as do his believers. Of equal importance, Jesus continues to live, sits at the right hand of God in heaven, forgives sins, and rules the world to this very moment. For purposes of my illustration, the living God also still would be getting his daily one million denarii.

How much money would Jesus have received by now, if you do the math? My calculator says 365 days per year times 2025 years times 1,000,000 denarius per day equals almost 740 billion denarii in lifetime pay through the present. That is less than one trillion. It is less than three-quarters of a trillion, in fact. 

The national debt of the United States currently stands at almost $37 trillion. That is more than a lot. Assuming a dollar equals a denarius, our national debt is 50 times as much as Jesus has received in my admittedly quirky illustration. His entire lifetime pay so far would be only 2% of our national debt.

Folks, we have to do something about this. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12) is not going to work for the United States in this context. Instead, our federal leaders should seek to live out Romans 13:8: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”