This Sunday night, our youth group explored the classic game of Monopoly. We discussed the rules, goals, and structure of the classic version of the Milton-Bradley board game. The youth put forth Monopoly's goals as a simple game of "taking everyone's money."
After this brief discussion, I asked the students to consider what Monopoly would look like if Jesus were playing it. In other words, what would Monopoly look like if played faithfully according to the example of Christ found in the New Testament? The discussion went the expected routes, with students saying they would give money away to the poorest person, and would reduce rent costs for visiting players, etc. Then we "picked up the sticks," as my roommate would say, and played the game according to Jesus' rules.
In my group, students were consciously attempting to be faithful to Jesus' example, in their own understanding of it. Some were tithing from the money they raked in, and Free Parking certainly benefited from the offerings. When one player dropped significantly lower in cash funds than all the others, generosity poured out and equalized the cash distribution. Rents were reduced and properties bought as gifts for other players. It was fun!
After about an hour of playing, I called a stop to the game and asked everyone to tally up their cash and property values to see who had won. As the students were totaling their estates, Jesus' example still shined in some, but others quickly reverted back to more worldly goals. Those with the most money began boasting that they were the best at Xopoly, while those with less money tried to remind the boastful that "he who will be first must become last."
This experiment serves to show how incompatible Christ's example and the worldly expectations are. Then, to get on with the point of the evening, I asked the students a question. "How many of you have, before tonight, spent this much time actively trying to imitate Christ?" No one claimed to have followed Christ's example this fully. We then discussed the challenges we faced in Xopoly and applied them to our individual lives.
Instead of making Jesus the center of our lives, we put Jesus in a corner when the world tells us to live by a different standard. Monopoly is a great example of this. Modern business is a scary reminder that Monopoly is not too far removed from reality. If we as Christians cannot live as Christ would have lived even for one hour, how then is the world to be changed? Where will hope come from when humanity loses hope in the world?
