Jesus was well-off. He had a lot of money. He didn’t live as if he had a lot of money, but he did have a lot of money. Judas Iscariot knew that only too well, because, as the gospel points out, Judas was in charge of the money (he “kept the bag”), kind of like a combined accountant/lawyer/administrator. He skimmed from it, too, because that was the kind of person he was. Of course, Jesus knew about the skimming but he let it happen anyway. Money didn’t mean much to Jesus; he had lots of it, but it was just a means to an end. (more…)