I recently heard about a sermon with this deliberately provocative title, which may have been inspired by a country song with the same name.
Curious about other people's take on this question, I did a search and came across a Yahoo discussion of whether Jesus would wear such an expensive watch.
Here is a sampling of the responses:
"Not when a Timex keeps time as well and is so much cheaper."
"No I don't think so. He would wear a watch just to tell the time and not for adornment."
"He wouldn't drive a Volvo either!"
"He would wear what any other homeless man would wear."
Most answers were along the same lines, except for the following response, which I thought was the most biblical and carefully thought out:
"Jesus might wear a Rolex if someone gave it to him as a gift. He accepted the gift Mary of Bethany gave him when she poured expensive perfume on his head six days before his crucifixion. When the others criticized her for being so wasteful--the perfume was worth a year's wages--Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing to me.' I don't think Jesus would seek to buy a Rolex for himself as a status symbol to show off his worth."
Another thoughtful response was this one: "What if the person that gave him the watch was someone that was proud of giving it to him? Then he would wear it so as not to hurt their feelings."
One could also add that when the wise men presented gifts of gold, Frankincense, and myrrh to the child Jesus, His earthly parents did not refuse these gifts, which were clearly very expensive (Frankincense today is still very pricy!).
None of this diminishes the fact that Jesus chose to become poor for our sakes, leaving the glorious riches of heaven to secure our salvation through the most horrific of all deaths, after being stripped of all that He owned—even His clothing. But Jesus clearly was not averse to receiving generous gifts from those who loved Him.
Perhaps we can conclude that His followers need not be averse to receiving good gifts from Him.
For those interested in listening to the sermon, here is the link (I haven't listened to it but heard about it from a friend):
http://flcbranson.or...sWearARolex.xml