I’ve heard a number of pastors claim that Jesus talked about money more than any other topic, including heaven and hell. This always sounded fishy to me. I knew this claim had to be false, even prior to looking into the matter. It just didn’t pass the bologna test. Now that I have looked into the matter a bit more, my initial reservations have been vindicated.

If you do a quick search on the internet, you’ll read statistics like “11 of Jesus’ 39 parables are about money,” or “1 out of 7 verses containing Jesus’ words are about money,” or “more than 2300 verses in the Bible talk about money.” I can’t confirm the accuracy of all these claims, but let’s assume that they are roughly correct. It still doesn’t follow that Jesus talked about money more than any other topic.

Here’s the problem: There is a big difference between mentioning money and teaching about money. For example, while Jesus mentioned money in ~1/4 of His parables, the parables were not about money.[1] Money was used as an illustration to teach about something other than money – usually something related to the kingdom of God. For example, Jesus mentions money in the parable of the unforgiving debtor as an illustration of the forgiveness of sins (Mt 18:23–35). Jesus wasn’t teaching about money, but about forgiveness. Jesus mentioned people in almost all of His parables, but that does not make Jesus’ parables about sociology.

The number of mentions does not necessarily indicate the importance of something either. Jeff Curtis Poor observed that Jesus mentioned food in 18 of His parables.[2] Would anyone say Jesus thought food was more important than heaven and hell? Jesus’ primary message was about God, the kingdom of God, and the need for repentance – not food, and not money.

Jesus mentioned money so often for the same reason Jesus mentioned food, people, animals, and agriculture so often: These things are common to human experience. The success of a parable depends on the hearers being able to relate to the analogy. People can easily relate to money because it is so common to human experience.

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[1]The parables in which Jesus mentions money or monetary-related concepts are:

  1. The Hidden Treasure (Mt 13:44)
  2. The Pearl of Great Price (Mt 13:45-46)
  3. The Unforgiving Debtor (Mt 18:23–35)
  4. Workers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16)
  5. Talents or Gold Coins (Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:12-27)
  6. The Rich Fool (Lk 12:13-21)
  7. The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8–9)
  8. The Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19–31)
  9. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Lk 18:10–14)
  10. The Two Debtors (Lk 7:41–43)
  11. Counting the Cost (Lk 14:28-33)
  12. The Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32)
  13. The Unjust Steward (Lk 16:1-13)

[2] Jeff Curtis Poor, “What Jesus Taught About Most (hint, it’s not money)”; available from https://www.rethinknow.org/what-jesus-taught-about-most-hint-its-not-money/; Internet; accessed 13 August 2023.