You can't have the whole world wandering around like John the Baptist. According to Luke 8, Jesus was supported by, among other people, the wife of a high administrator. It's a safe bet he hadn't become a hippy, but he was able and willing to give significant support to Jesus. When talking about JBapt, note Luke 3, in which he doesn't tell even tax collectors to abandon their job. They're just not supposed to cheat people.
As far as I can tell, sell everything and go around the countryside is for people working as part of Jesus' team, and those people are supported by others. Without more conventional people supporting him I think Jesus' ministry would have had trouble.
The world would not be a better place if I tried to do that kind of job.
I would actually be amenable to being part of a group that lived in common, like Acts 2:44. I just don't know any around this area.
Matthew 6:25-34
New International Version (NIV)
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Why would you worry about what you're going to wear or where your next meal is coming from if you're wealthy?
I didn't know that Jesus was supported in the way you reference, but I'd reckon that the wife was just the means through which God supported Jesus. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and the ram? Remember the donkey that was fetched for Jesus? The Lord will provide... if you let him.
At least, that's my take. You point out that it's not sustainable for everyone to do this, and I agree. But recall that "wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."
And let's not forget Matthew 18 where Jesus says,
7What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting. 8So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
So I think, for instance, your TV would qualify as your "eye" here. I'm inclined to think that your TV will cause you to sin far more than it will glorify God, so why not sell it to feed the poor? At the same time you're plucking out your eye which has caused you to sin.
We're a long ways off from discussion on the Flood, but I think in some sense we never left the core idea of the thread: exegesis, interpretation, and etc.
