I love reading the Gospels. In the Gospels I get to see Jesus in action. Jesus always says the right thing in the right way and at the right time. In our text we see Jesus confronting the crowd. He presents them with a choice, an either/or. You must either choose A or B. One or the other.This is something that He does elsewhere. So, for example, you must enter by the narrow gate or by the wide gate. If you choose the narrow gate, it will be hard but in the end you will enter into life. If you choose the wide gate, it will be much easier but in the end you will die. Either/or. A or B. Then there’s this other example. You must choose to build you life on the rock or to build it on the sand. Building on the rock results in stability, but to do that you must obey Jesus. Building on the sand will require no submission to Jesus, but your life will end in ruins. Either/or. A or B. This is a helpful way of teaching because it simplifies things. The choice is clear and obvious. It may not be easy, but the confusion is removed. You choose A or you choose B.
Our text has another of these either/or situations. Jesus confronts His audience with a choice. This pops up in the context of a comment from a man in the crowd. This man wants Jesus to arbitrate a dispute about some inheritance. From what I’ve read, it wasn’t so unusual to appeal to a rabbi in such cases. But Jesus refuses to do so. Instead, He takes advantage of the situation to warn the people. What does He say? ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all coveting…’ That’s a rather strong statement. And to drive it home Jesus adds this proverb. ‘… for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ Jesus warns the people about a danger, a serious danger that they need to be on their guard against, a danger that that man may have already fallen into. He then follows up on this with this parable. It’s about a man who becomes quite successful. His land had produced a bumper crop. It was so great that it wouldn’t fit in his barns. What to do? And this rich man answers that in two parts. First, he’ll build bigger and better barns for his stuff. But then there is the second part of his answer, where he tells himself, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' Sounds like a plan! Until God speaks up. How would you like God to address you as, ‘Fool!’ Why does God shout this at the rich man? ‘This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ The man is going to die. There are two problems that arise because of that. First, his soul will be ‘required’ of him. What does that mean? The point Jesus makes here is that this man’s soul was, in effect, on loan from God and God is now calling in the loan, with the expected interest. Jesus is saying that the man’s life will be evaluated and that he isn’t ready for that. The second problem builds on this first one. Throughout the parable the man’s focus is on himself. His thoughts are all about him and how he can best enjoy his life. And, oh my, he has so much to enjoy for many, many years – or so he tells himself. The man’s life is about himself and his stuff. But what good is all the stuff he’s acquired for himself once it’s time to die and stand before God? ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all coveting for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ It is here that we finally get to the either/or. ‘So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.’ Jesus confronts the crowd with a choice. A person is either busy laying up treasure for himself or he is busy becoming rich toward God. Narrow gate/wide gate. Build on the rock/build on the sand. Rich toward God/laying up treasure for yourself. Choose A or B. It’s an either/or, but never both.
Let me anticipate a possible misunderstanding. I’ve told you before that it is no sin having lots of money and what that money can buy. Abraham was filthy rich; Job, likewise. And both were pious men commended by God. What Jesus is dealing with in the parable of the rich fool is more profound than the numbers on a person’s bank statement. He’s talking about the attitude of the heart. A person could have lots of money and yet not be laying up treasure for himself but rather working very diligently to be rich toward God. And likewise, a person could have just about nothing and be trying to lay up treasure for himself. It’s not about money itself. It’s about one’s heart. Jesus rebukes the man who wants some of the inheritance that his brother is enjoying. He calls him and the crowd to be rich toward God instead. Either/or.
The next question is obvious. This being rich toward God, what does that mean? What does it look like? The parable ends at verse 21. In my Bible there is a break there and a new section begins with its own heading. All of this formatting suggests a new topic. But what is the first word from Jesus in the ‘new’ section? ‘Therefore…’ Jesus isn’t done with the last topic. And Luke faithfully records that. I don’t think Jesus is done with this topic until you get to what we call verse 59. I was tempted to read the whole chapter as the sermon text, since it’s all related, but I thought that that might be a bit much to handle. The answer to our question, what does it mean to be rich toward God, is in what Jesus says next. The heart of it is this: ‘And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.’ Again, Jesus presents His audience with an either/or. He talks about two kinds of seeking. A person will seek what he will eat and drink – and become stressed about it, or he will seek God’s kingdom. Jesus is saying that being rich toward God is all tied up in making God’s kingdom one’s first priority.
When it comes to describing seeking the
It’s in that context that Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about the necessities of life. In fact, in this same context He goes further. ‘Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.’ By this He isn’t saying, ‘Sell everything you own.’ Jesus isn’t a socialist. He’s saying the same sort of thing that John the Baptist said earlier in Luke’s Gospel. ‘And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise."’ In this way, according to Jesus, a person will have true treasure that he doesn’t leave here for someone else to enjoy. His will be a lasting treasure in heaven forever.
It’s here that the questions begin. And Jesus anticipates these questions. ‘But we’ve got to eat and make sure that there’s enough.’ So, Jesus says, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.’ Actually, this boils down to another either/or. When faced with the question of having enough food and clothing, either a person trusts his heavenly Father to add ‘these things’ to him as he seeks the kingdom, or he doesn’t. Again, a simple choice. Choose A or choose B. The Gospel isn’t complicated. It’s actually quite simple. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. So many issues of following Jesus boil down to a simple either/or. A person trusts the Father to provide or he doesn’t. If a person does, then it shows as he seeks the kingdom, as he becomes rich toward God.
There is another question that pops up here. It goes something like this. ‘I’m not interested in being rich and comfortable like that fool. I just want enough to avoid the hard times. All I want to do is keep life on an even keel.’ I can easily understand where this is coming from. Who wants to suffer through hard times? You’d have to be a masochist to want that. And yet, is it possible to follow Jesus faithfully and not suffer hard times? Jesus said, ‘If anyone would come after Me … let him pick up his cross…’ Jesus is being clear and up front. ‘Following Me is going to hurt. Count the cost before you sign up.’ So, once again, we have an either/or. A person can pursue the kind of life where the hard times are kept to a minimum or he can follow Jesus faithfully. The Gospel is not complicated.
But, strange as it might sound, suffering as a faithful disciple of Jesus is actually a plus. Listen to this from James. ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces patient endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.’ Rejoicing when life gets hard seems counterintuitive. But understand what’s going on here. By these difficulties, these trials, by ‘the testing of your faith’, Jesus is slowly, step by step, teaching a disciple how to trust him. At the root of every difficult situation facing a faithful disciple is this question from Jesus. ‘Do you trust Me now?’ Each hard time is an opportunity to take another step forward to the goal of complete trust in Jesus. Doing this all in one shot would be completely overwhelming. So, it’s step by step, through each trial. Do you see, then, that the person who wants to protect himself from these hard times is also ‘protecting’ himself from a growing trust in Jesus? And that’s why the kingdom takes great strides forward through some people but not others. People in the first group find themselves saying time and again, ‘Yes, Lord, I trust You, even now. So, though it hurts, I will continue to seek the kingdom and rely on You to take care of the rest.’ People in the second group, however, are trying to avoid the hard times, trying to avoid needing to answer that question. It’s still either/or. Everyone is either working hard at being rich toward God or laying up treasure for himself.
Thoughtful worship at this point would lead to lots more questions, questions that I can’t answer. There are reasons for that. One is that there simply is no one-size-fits-all to this. So, when one person asks, ‘What will it look like for me to seek first the kingdom, for me to become rich toward God?’, the answer for him will be very different from the answer for the person sitting next to him. But there are some principles that will help. First, you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. In fact, you can’t. This is something that the Spirit needs to guide you into. But remember the promise of last week’s sermon. ‘Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel…’ So, first and foremost: pray. Ask the Spirit to show you the next step – not the whole picture, just the next step. And then, when He does, pray for the trust you’ll need to take that next step. Then there’s this. It’s not about me. It’s not about my comfort. It’s not about my enjoying myself here. It’s all about Jesus and His lordship over me and all people and institutions. The person who is rich toward God understands that his reason for being alive is to make Jesus look good. Then one last thought. It’s going to hurt. There is no way to avoid that and be a faithful disciple. But remember that even the hurting produces good things.
Let me encourage you all to ponder these things. I would especially say this to those of you in the midst of sorting out things about your future. I’m thinking here about you students. You will not hear the things I’ve told you this morning from your peers out there in the world. They are following the model of the rich fool. To repeat what Jesus said, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ Remember, it’s either/or.
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