Was Jesus rich or wealthy?
Whether Jesus was wealthy depends entirely on where you look at Him — and 2 Corinthians 8:9 puts both answers in one sentence. He was rich, and then He was poor, and the whole point of the verse lies in the direction of that movement.
Where the Riches Belong
The verse never locates His riches in His earthly life. One writer presses the question until only one answer is left:
F. B. Hole"Though He was rich." When was He rich? Not when He ministered among men. Not when He was brought up in the quiet home at Nazareth. Not when He was born at Bethlehem and cradled in a manger. When was He rich? For an answer we must travel back into the depths of the Godhead.
That backward journey carries weight far beyond the subject of money. If He was rich before He was here, He existed before He was here — and the kind of wealth described is not the kind a creature can hold:
J Wilson SmithIf, then, He was poor during the whole time of His gracious stay below, the question arises: when was He rich? Clearly before He came here. Then He must have existed before His incarnation? Certainly. But existing beforehand in wealth and glory, in Sonship and creative power, requires Deity.
Poor From Cradle to Grave
His earthly circumstances were not modest but genuinely poor, and they stayed that way from beginning to end:
Hamilton SmithChrist, who had all riches, refused earthly riches. He was born poor — the manger was His cradle, the cobwebs His curtains. He lived poor: He had nowhere to lay His head. He died poor: He had no lands, only His coat was left, and the soldiers divided that among them. And His funeral matched, for as He was born in another man's house, so He was buried in another man's tomb.
The detail runs even finer than that. When the temple tax was demanded, He sent Peter to find the coin in a fish's mouth — He did not have it. When He needed a donkey for the ride into Jerusalem, no price was paid; the owner simply gave way to the claim of the One who made him.
J Wilson SmithEach of these incidents shows the constant poverty of Jesus, and not one instance can be found of His having handled money that belonged, so to speak, to Himself. Judas carried the bag.
The Lowest Point Was Not Financial
Homelessness was real, yet commentators do not treat it as the bottom of His poverty. Something far deeper waited at the cross:
A J PollockWhen He said that foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head, it was true that there was no earthly spot for Him — but He had the joy of resting His head on His Father's breast. Here, though, is total abandonment to the whole weight of God's wrath against sin. "Why have You forsaken Me?"
The Purpose Written Into the Verse
Both the riches and the poverty exist for someone else's sake. One writer sees the shape of the whole New Testament in the three clauses:
F. B. Hole"Though He was rich" carries us back into the depths of His Godhead glory before His incarnation, the glory unfolded in the opening verses of John's Gospel and elsewhere. "Yet for your sakes He became poor" opens out into the wonderful story of His life, sufferings and death, as recorded in all four Gospels. "That you through His poverty might be rich" points to the wealth of blessing and glory into which we are brought by Him and in Him, as unfolded in the Epistles and Revelation.
The riches handed over are named, and none of them are financial:
James BoydAnd oh, what infinite wealth has come to us through His great poverty! We have been enriched in righteousness, in eternal life, in holiness, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, in sonship, in the possession of all things, in union with Christ, in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Poor No Longer
His poverty was a stage, not a permanent state:
An Outline of Sound WordsThe days of His poverty are over, and now as Man He has "unsearchable riches" (Ephesians 3:8); and we are rich in Him, and soon to be rich with Him, owing everything to Him for His work on the cross, and everything to the Father who freely gave Him to die.
Summary
- Rich — His wealth belongs to the time before Bethlehem; the search for when He was rich leads back into the Godhead, which is why this verse quietly proves His deity.
- Poor — Born in a manger, homeless in ministry, without a coin of His own, buried in another man's tomb: His earthly poverty was real and unbroken.
- Poorest — The depth of it was not the empty purse but the cross, where He was abandoned under God's judgment against sin.
- Riches given — What He handed across was righteousness, eternal life, sonship, the Spirit, union with Christ — never money.
- Rich again — He is poor no longer, and believers are rich in Him now and will be rich with Him soon.