But back up just one verse and you read that Jesus went to the temple and sat down where he could watch the money. Jesus watched what people did (and didn’t do) with their money—that’s how Jesus knew what the widow was doing and what the rich were doing. Latin American liberation theologians taught me this. Jesus watched the money.

Gustavo Gutierrez, widely regarded as the “father of liberation theology” (A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation, 1971), worked for many years among the poor in Lima in his native Peru. Along with other liberation theologians he has been a prime target of persecution by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI).

Gutierrez was the first person to point out to me that the story of the widow’s mite isn’t a touching little vignette about sweet and generous widows, but about the way Jesus watched what people did with their money. I swear after he said it I looked at that text in Mark like I had never seen it before. Why didn’t I register, in all the times I had read that text, that Jesus had gone to the treasury to watch what people were doing with their money?

Gustavo Gutierrez was a close friend of my professor of theology at Duke University, Dr. Fred Herzog. Herzog was the first person to translate Gutierrez’ work into English and he taught it to us at Duke. I have worked in the area of liberation theology and taught it all my life. I co-authored the textbook most widely used for teaching global liberation theology today, Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside (1990).

Years ago, I was at a reception for Gustavo Gutierrez in Boston. Gutierrez had come as a visiting professor to one of the area schools and a big reception was held for him. I was standing, talking to Gustavo, who was sitting in a chair. Suddenly a tall theologian from another school in Boston, holding a heavily laden plate from the lavish buffet in one hand and a drink in the other, came up and leaned over to talk to Gutierrez. “So, Professor Gutierrez,” he boomed, “what is this Liberation Theology all about?”

Gustavo looked up. “It is all a matter of the stomach,” he said quietly. “The stomach?” asked the looming professor. “Yes,” said Gustavo looking pointedly at the food piled high on the professor’s plate. “You do theology differently when your stomach is full than when it is empty.”

Right at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus picks up a text from the prophet Isaiah and reads it in public, proclaiming that he stands in that tradition and intends to “bring good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18b) He feeds people, heals the sick and takes every opportunity that presents itself to criticize the rich and the powerful for their hypocrisy and their neglect of those who need help. But the rich and powerful feel threatened; they don’t want to hear it.

From that day to this, the rich and the powerful who have full stomachs do theology differently from those who have empty stomachs. No wonder the Catholic Church (and many Protestants too!) feel threatened by Gutierrez and all the Latin American liberation theologians who follow the teaching of Jesus and his simple commitment to the poor. Powerful and rich people just hate that and will do their best to get you crucified or suppressed or even labeled a “communist.”

But despite Cardinal Ratzinger’s efforts at suppressing the works of liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, their influence is global and it is powerful. It helped bring down apartheid, it influenced South Koreans in their pro-democracy struggles, it is read on Native American reservations in the U.S. and by African American women who call themselves Womanists and by many others who are oppressed and by those who seek to live in solidarity with them.

Try it. Just watch what people do with their money and then go to the Bible and underline all the texts about wealth and poverty. The message of the Gospel will open before you like a flower in a warm spring rain. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:20)