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Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." |
What measures of a person does our society value?
Status, wealth, capability, contentment, security. The famous self-made multi-millionaire, blissfully married to the supermodel, protected by personal bodyguards. This is our picture of the successful man. Perhaps the film star.
On a more day-to-day basis, the man who is capable of spotting the gap in the market or who is a skilled investor we call ‘wise’, ‘clever’ and ‘shrewd’. We are told the successful person buys the right unit trust, the right insurance and endowment policies, the right property. He invests in Lloyds, racehorses, cases of claret, works of art. It’s an ideal life, or is it? Let’s find out.
Only Luke recounts this story. It serves as an introduction to the 'ravens/lilies' speech of Matthew's Sermon on Mount.
In verse 13 the questioner is identified only as someone in the crowd. The lack of details suggests that this lesson applies universally. The issue for the person might just greed or there could be a moral dimension to it as well. The man may be asking for what is his legal due, or he may be asking for more. We do at least know that by calling his adversary 'brother' there is a close relationship that is at stake where love should dictate the course of action for both.
Equality is a great battle cry for revolutionaries and dispossessed the world over. They rail against the rich man, believing the latter should share his money freely, but perhaps it’s just money for nothing that they want, their true motivation being greed. ‘Tax the Rich!’ was a leading slogan in 1992 for Bill Clinton’s race for the White House. Most democratic governments have historically taken from the rich through progressive taxation and it's certain that they would like to feel themselves biblically justified in doing so.
In Luke12:51 Jesus says, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” Elsewhere he describes his task of dividing goats and sheep. And yet in verse 14, his response to the man in the crowd is, 'who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' There seems to be a contradiction here at first sight. Either Jesus is judge and arbiter (divider) or he isn't.
We can reconcile the problem with the following scenario. The questioner correctly recognizes Jesus as a judge and divider, but gets the sphere of Jesus' work wrong. Jesus is judge for the kingdom of heaven, not in earthly matters. Christ's focus is always on the eternal. To see his teachings as great moralistic lessons for earthly life, as many people do, is to miss the point. It is eternal life and entry to it which is his agenda. We should not look to Jesus to answer our queries about mundane everyday problems.
Jesus is not to be deflected and he goes to the root of the questioner’s problem. The inheritance issue was for the courts. The man’s life was for Jesus. And Jesus continues by redirecting the questioner’s thoughts from his temporal problem to a far more fundamental and important one.
What he has to say next is for everyone to hear. Jesus turns to address the whole crowd and warns them about greed. We might also translate greed as avarice, covetousness, fraud, and envy. ‘Greed is good!’ declares Norman Gecko in the 1987 film ‘Wall Street’ that portrays the deceits of 80's-style monetarism, a philosophy that still permeates nearly all the world’s political and economic systems to some extent, even today. Greed is the oldest sin in the book. Adam and Eve fell foul of this sin, coveting God’s status in that they were beguiled by the serpent's temptation to know good and evil just like their creator.
We humans are rarely content with our lot in life. In Heb 13:5 we read, 'Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."' Indeed, we should always aim to emulate Paul who says in Phil 9:11 ‘I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.’ And commandment no.10 says, "You shall not covet...”
Jesus warns the crowd against greed because he wants to give us the right perspective on our existence so we might have the right priorities, and not trust in material wealth, but in something else.
Parable
Verses16- 17 form a character study of the man in the parable. He is a good farmer and he is not said to be dishonest or lazy, but notice who produces the good crop. The ground, says Jesus! Or rather God does through his created order. The farmer is someone whom God has blessed with success, maybe because he is diligent and decent. “You will eat the fruit of your labour; blessings and prosperity will be yours” (Psalm 128:2). And yet he does not seem to appreciate the source of his bounty as he thinks for himself and becomes rather selfish.
The farmer's question, 'What shall I do?' is a good one, but the sense is which he asks it would appear to have more to do with logistics rather than ethics. By verse 19 he does consider the consequences of his economic situation, and his thoughts naturally focus on how he can use it to best serve himself. If one of us were to win the lottery then it is likely that our first thoughts would be as to what we would do for ourselves, and we would like as not look to our own counsel, as does this man.
There are two points which we should be mindful at this juncture.
Firstly, wealth that is honestly produced is not in itself a bad thing - not inherently sinful. God wants the best for us as any father does for his children and he allows some Christians to be wealthy. It’s how we view our wealth and what we do with it that matters. In all situations we should praise God, and that includes our financial position. As with our marriage vows, we are committed to Christ for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
Secondly, we should beware the deceits of wealth. Having money makes us feel confident in ourselves and less reliant on God. It panders to our self-centred nature. Yet, if we are Christ's man or woman then our trust should be entirely in the Lord.
Let’s open this up and focus in on three facets of the farmer's character:
1 - SELF-CENTRED
What could, or should he have done with his bounty? And what about us in a similar situation?
In the first place the right response is one of thankfulness to God. As Paul describes the on-going Christian walk in Colossians 2:6 he tells us to be 'overflowing with thankfulness'. In other words, an attitude of gratitude should flow over and through everything in our new life. We should always recognise God grace first. From that starting point we can then consider the needs of others and then lastly ourselves. It has been said that the Christian life of joy is just that, J.O.Y. or Jesus, Others, Yourself in that order.
The parable's farmer gets this the wrong way round. All the wealth goes to look after his own physical comfort. Notice in verses 17-19 the number of times he says ‘I, me, myself’. The middle letter of SIN is ‘I’ - we go our own way, not God’s and Jesus exhorts us to think of other people, to be ‘other-centred’.
2 - SECURITY-CENTRED
Like many people, the farmer is worried about his own safety and security. People like to be in control. The car manufacturer Volvo exploited this in their TV advertisements with the slogan ‘I’m a control freak!’. British Gas too used the catch phrase ‘Don’t you love being in control?’ As a society we British have a welfare state, a national health service, a defense force, a government who are entrusted to look after our interests. Is all this wrong? Is that what Jesus is saying? Perhaps this parable means that we mustn’t have savings accounts, or mustn’t buy insurance policies, or have these social organisations to protect our future worldly security.
These are valid questions, and surely the point is that it is not the things themselves that Jesus is criticising, but whether people become self-obsessed with them, and exclude God from their plans. Indeed it is prudent to organise our lives like this - look at the story of Joseph in Egypt and the seven fat and the seven lean years - but Joseph put God first, both in bad times and good times.
3 - SATISFACTION-CENTRED
In v19 the farmer addresses himself; literally his soul. He bases his life to come on what he has here and now, his wealth that will permit him to be merry, and that seems to be the sum total of his ambition or thought process. I suspect that he thinks the good life will also bring him contentment and fulfillment. Yet, how easy it is for people for confuse physical well-being with spiritual contentment.
We are well advised to be prudent in making provision for ourselves and our family, but it will not cure the long term spiritual hunger that we have nor provide us with any security at the final hurdle of judgement. Where does your heart lay? Are you living for yourself or for God?
God’s Verdict
The last two verses (v20-21) tell us there are two ways to live our lives, with the wrong perspective and priorities, or the way Jesus describes that is best expressed by his phrase 'rich towards God'. At the heart of the matter is the challenge to shape our lives around Jesus rather than allowing them to be taken up with the immediate things of this world. These verses draw the contrast of these 2 different lifestyles. The underlying issue is folly as against wisdom.
In verse 20 God’s Response to the farmer is to call him a fool. Strong language indeed. The man who lays up things for himself on earth is 'poor toward God'.
Paul says in 1Timothy 6:10 , ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’ And in Matthew 19: 24 we read, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Our farmer had taken out every type of insurance policy he could, and was very successful - able to retire early. But he had left out the most critical policy of all. The ‘I am right with God’ policy. Just when he thinks he’s got it made, everything is taken from his grasp. Like all unbelievers he is unprepared for death and consequent judgement, and it takes him by surprise. In fact, this is the only insurance policy that really matters. God requires his soul (NIV life) which interestingly is the same Gk word the farmer uses in in v19 when he addresses himself (lit. his soul). Bigger and better things - a better paid job, a bigger car, a more exotic holiday. These things can be blessings, or they can be snares leading to discontentment and disaster. That is the end of greed and we might do well to figure out where we are. The Lord's warning here is an act of grace.
Jesus’ application in verse 21 is to be 'rich towards God'. To do this we should look to God first and make our walk with Jesus top priority. Ten we can be rich in grace, in faith and good works.
“But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (Luke 12:31) and, “a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke12:33-34)
The riches of eternity with God are available not just to the clever investor, but to everyone. In one sense we make our own judgement when we put our faith in Christ. Faith may bring scorn and ridicule and persecution in this world, but the Lord says in Revelation 2:9 (Smyrna) “I know your afflictions and your poverty--yet you are rich!”
It is only the born again Christian who is truly wealthy and wise. Stick with it!