Be Rich
I’ve been walking through the Gospel of Luke lately in my personal study time with the Lord. I do this often – after studying scripture elsewhere for a season, I always hop back to a Gospel in my studies to get a fresh gaze at Jesus. There is something about looking at Him that is transformative for me – remembering his kindness, his meekness, his gentleness, his strength. I feel strongly that all of us should gaze strongly and often at our Savior Jesus as we seek to follow Him, for how can we follow what we do not know?
This morning, I was astounded by his words in Luke 12:13-21, what we often refer to as The Parable of the Rich Fool. Take a look with me…
“Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to Him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
This is astounding, for three enormous reasons…
1. This rich man is behaving totally “normal.”
As we first read this parable, it is all too easy to quickly join God in his accurate judgement on the rich man as a “fool” for his actions. We may think to ourselves, “How selfish of him! I cannot believe he would do such a thing – devoting his wealth to himself to accumulate more wealth.” God’s judgement against him is so quick and so clear in the story, as we read it we are all tempted to join God at the side of his judgement seat, looking down on this man.
And yet, what I cannot move past is how utterly normal this type of behavior is in most of our lives. This is precisely the type of behavior that every financial advisor would point us toward, that every retirement strategy aims to execute. 401(K)s, IRAs, Mutual Funds – all of them aim to invest capital, accumulate returns back into the corpus, all allowing for more returns next year. This is how growth accumulates! This is the time value of money taught in every finance class! This is the key undergirding foundation behind the concept of saving!
It is normal, it is rational, and it is not only accepted but praised in our culture today. Take your wealth and put it to work, that it might generate more wealth. Until at last you can say to yourself, “Soul, you have ample goods. Relax. Eat. Drink. Be Merry.” Is this not the precise messaging of every retirement consultant?! I feel like I heard these precise words on a commercial for Charles Schwab just yesterday!
I join Jesus in warning you here, friends – “Take care and be on your guard.” This is not a parable meant to teach us a lesson about the faulty thinking and behavior of them. This is meant to expose the normal and natural tendencies of all our hearts to build our lives purely around us. The rich man is not over there, he is right here. We are the rich man.
Everything in our culture beckons us into this type of self-focused, relaxation-pursuing, merry-seeking life. “Bigger-barns” are built around us each and every day even within the church and we never bat an eye at it, because it is totally normal. Jesus is waking us up to see something we do not naturally see here, family. Tune in. Don’t miss it. Normal isn’t right.
2. Being “normal” is totally foolish.
God’s indictment against this rich man’s behavior in verse 20 is utterly devastating. We must not move too quickly past the words of Jesus here – he is teaching us something we must grasp as his followers as we live in this age of materialism with a culture discipling us in the fine arts of wealth building. As a witness and judge to all this self-focused living in this rich man, God utters a single word that sums up all his views on the matter – “Fool!”
I never want to hear this word uttered against me. God sees it all, he knows it all, and when he holds the weight of my life in his judgement, I long to hear nothing but the “Well done my good and faithful servant” of Matthew 25, not the “Fool!” here in Luke 12.
In the eyes of God, taking the wealth that he entrusts to you and using it to build greater wealth for yourself, laying up greater treasure in a well establish kingdom bearing your own name for a life of relaxation, merriment, and no more sweat is utterly foolish. This life is not meant to end with big barns bearing our names that allow for all the rounds of golf and trips to Venice that we desire. That kind of life is foolish to God, despite what the world might say.
Instead, we are to be “rich toward God” we are told. Good returns on our work are not a bad thing at all, but when they are pointed at nothing but our relaxation, therein lies the foolishness. Our returns are to be pointed toward God. Our sweat should not be poured out just to enable future merriment for ourselves, but to see the Kingdom of God advance in the world around us.
Jesus is perfectly clear to us here – self-focused richness is tomfoolery for the people of God. All those returns and increases have a great purpose, but if the great purpose of your life is yourself, you are utterly missing the point.
3. Life is not about us.
Which brings us back to the situation and the words that evoked this parable from Jesus’s lips. This man in verse 13 who is frustrated with his brother over money – wanting him to share an inheritance that was in all likelihood rightfully his. When he speaks up and asks Jesus to step in here, I suspect he is asking for justice in the midst of an unjust situation – he is asking Jesus to correct his brother’s greedy heart!
Thus, it is very interesting that Jesus does not take the opportunity to do so. Why not confront this brother’s greed? Why not step in and offer words as a “teacher” to fix this brother’s selfish heart?
I think the answer is because Jesus is not just a “teacher,” He is God himself and can see right into all the hearts involved. He knows that greed isn’t limited to just the brother over there; and if the money flows, it will just spur on more greed in the brother right here. The issue isn’t injustice at a moment – the issue is greediness rooted in everyone involved.
So he says these words – “Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Wow. Memorize that, family. Simmer there. Slap that on a mug and reflect back on that thought every morning as you drink your coffee and plan your day. We are not people of flesh alone, and this world is not all there is. Our life is far more than what we see here and what we can accumulate in these 80 years. If all you live for is the bigger barns, endless relaxation, and abounding merriment, you have missed your life. And we will all be tempted to do just that, which is why we must “take care” and “be on our guard.”
Materialism will grab you by the heart and lead you to nothing but foolishness. Be rich, my friend, but not for yourself. Be rich toward God! Live for rest in the age to come, but keep sweating and pouring those returns into the Kingdom that is coming. Provide yourself with moneybags that do not grow old and with a treasure that does not fail. Seek first His Kingdom, and enjoy your life as everything else is added to you by His good and gracious hand.
Resist the foolishness of this age, friends! Don’t be “normal” – your life does not consist of that!