Not possible, you say. How can we live today without money? How would we eat, have shelter, pay bills,
raise a family? But there are several
people known who choose to do so; one of them is Daniel Suelo, born in 1961,
who left his last $30 in a phone booth and went to live moneyless in the
desert.
He had a degree, and held jobs just as
other people did. Though he’s not crazy
by DSM standards, many consider him crazy because he chooses to live
differently. He eats wild vegetation,
scavenges road kill, pulls food from dumpsters, and is sometimes fed by friends
and strangers. Currently, he lives in Moab,
Utah and uses caves for homes at
times.
His philosophy is to use only what is
freely given or discarded and what is already present and already running. His goal is to take as little and give as
much as possible. Using the public
library is the only government organization he uses. His possessions would fit into a small closet. Most of us wouldn’t even conceive of giving
up everything to go ‘live off the land’ and though many hold Daniel in high
esteem, his choice to give up money is insignificant compared to what Christ
gave up for us.
Jesus is God (Tt. 2:13) and lives in complete unity with the Father and
Spirit. Jesus was there in the beginning
(Jh. 1:1,2; Cl. 1:17) and is eternal (1Jh. 5:20), therefore He has all the
attributes of God- all knowing, all powerful, all present, etc. Imagine being King of the world (1Tm. 6:15) with
everything at your fingertips, all of creation at your command (Hb. 1:3; Cl.
1:16), and owning it entirely (Ps. 50:10-12), but then ‘walking away’ from it
all to become the lowest status person, a servant who doesn’t even have any features
to make him look special (Is. 53:2).
(Christ Jesus)
who, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Php. 2:6-8
For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, for your sakes He
became poor, in order that you might be made rich through His poverty. 2Cr. 8:9
So God took the form of man (Mt. 1:23; 1Tm 3:16),
a babe born in a stable, a little known carpenter, ‘an average Joe’. He showed us the way of salvation (Jh. 14:6),
and then, as an innocent-sinless- man (Hb. 4:15;
7:26; 1Pt. 2:22; 1Jh. 3:5) humbled Himself to die the shameful death
of a reprobate, a criminal for OUR sins (1Cr. 15:3; Is. 53:1-7), in order to
reconcile us to God. In other words, Jesus
was born to die for our sins so that WE
would not have to.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and
through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by
the blood of his cross.
Cl.
1:19,20 ESV