As Jesus walked through the marketplace during the holiday season, he observed the customs of the people.
And then spake he thus to the masses and to his followers, saying, "The merchants and advertisers control the world. You can learn from them, but beware of their false values. They love to flaunt their wealth. Be not like unto them.
"Woe to you merchants and advertisers! For ye devour widows' houses and for a pretence play Christmas carols. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
"Woe unto you merchants and advertisers! For ye compass the airwaves to win customers, and by so doing, ye make the next generation twofold more materialistic than yourselves.
"Woe unto you, ye deceivers! For ye say that they need not pay anything until next year, then double your price in time payments.
"Woe unto you merchants and advertisers! For ye create sentimental Christmas displays to hide your willingness to sell your own mother to the highest bidder. Outwardly ye appear beautiful, but inwardly you are low-life scum."
Then came his disciples and said unto him, "Knowest thou not that the media and the churches will be offended if they hear this saying? For they too have profited greatly from the Christmas hype."
But he answered and said, "So what! They are blind leaders of the blind. They will go to hell together!"
Then he looked up and saw the shoppers spending billions on Christmas merchandise. He saw a certain single mother spending her rent money on a big Christmas dinner for her children, and he said, "Of a truth I say unto you, this poor mother hath spent more than they all. For all these have, out of their abundance, done their shopping; but she, of her penury, hath spent all that she had." (Mark 12:38-42)
Notice that Jesus damned the rip-off merchants at the same time that he immortalised one of their victims. The innocence of those who waste money on materialistic expressions of love is commended... not because it is wise or right, but because it is sincere.
The real causes of sexual immorality, drug abuse, violence, and marital infidelity can be traced back to the love of money. It is the greedy merchants and advertisers who have exploited legitimate drives and appetites to create a godless and ideal-less world. We who fall for the lies of materialism must answer for our gullibility, but there can be no doubt that Jesus felt the system leaders would receive "the greater damnation".
(See also Rip-Off Merchants.)
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