True riches

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" (Luke 12:13-21)

In this lesson, Jesus denounces the sin of greed. Since the pursuit of material things is criticized by our Lord, we have to ask the question: are material things evil? Are poor people better off spiritually, because they don’t have much in the way of property? For the answer, we have to look to Scripture. In Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites: When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). Again in Job, we read: They said to God, `Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?' Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked (Job 22:17-18). It is clear from the Bible that God is the giver of all good things, and this includes food, drink and shelter. Since God gives us these things out of love, we cannot regard them as evil—everything that God gives us is intended for our use in His service.

But any good gift of God can be perverted by our sinful nature. You’ve probably heard the argument “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” There is some truth to that statement. God created a perfect world, but we have corrupted it. God provides food to eat, but our sinful nature tempts many of us to eat too much of some things and not enough of others, leading to health problems. God provides clothes to wear, but many of us are tempted to spend foolishly on designer labels, so that we can strut like vain peacocks in front of others. Material things are not evil in themselves; man makes them evil by how he uses them.

Our world doesn’t really understand possessions for what they are. Our world agrees with the bumper sticker that says “The one who dies with the most toys, wins.” Most people see possessions as a way to measure success in life. Religious people—including many Christians—often believe that the happier God is with you, the more stuff He’ll give you. If you are well off, God is pleased with you; if you fall on hard times, it’s a sign that you must have angered Him somehow. Such people have forgotten that Jesus said of His Father: He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Atheists believe that a person with a lot of money must be smart, shrewd, ruthless or a very hard worker; for the unbeliever, money measures the worth of a man. To such unbelievers, God says: a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

The rich man in Jesus’ parable didn’t understand his wealth. He didn’t understand how he had gotten his wealth or why he had become rich. Jesus said that the ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. From God’s perspective, it was the ground that produced the riches, not the man who happened to “own” it. The good crop was a gift from God. But the rich man didn’t recognize this. He thought to himself, I have no place to store my crops. As far as he was concerned, the good crop was his solely because of his hard work. How foolish this man was! Any farmer knows that you can work sun up to sun down, seven days a week, using the best fertilizers and pesticides, and still get a poor crop if the weather or the soil isn’t right. No one has complete control over the harvest of his fields. But the rich man was arrogant; he took all the credit for himself.

The rich man also didn’t understand why he had been given the gift of wealth. God gives generously so that we can be generous with each other. Jesus said: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19). If we are not to store up our wealth, we must dispose of it for the benefit of others. But since the rich man doesn’t see that his wealth is a gift, he has no inclination to share it. Instead of praying to God for guidance, he consults with himself and decides 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.” Thus, he insults God in a number of ways: first, in his arrogance he did not ask for Divine leadership in what to do with his abundant harvest. Second, by hoarding his excess, the poor were deprived of help he could surely afford to give. Third, by storing up for the future, he showed that he did not trust in a loving God who would care for his needs, year after year. Fourth, by hoarding and taking his leisure, his good field would end up lying unused, benefiting no one during the years of his expected “retirement.” The rich man had taken God’s gift and selfishly kept it all to himself.

So often, we are that rich man. We fail to give God thanks for our food, our clothes, our home, our paycheck. We treat our money and the things it buys as if we earned them, instead of the gifts that they are. Even worse, we take these gifts of God and make them the center of our lives, instead of the God who gave them to us. We fix our eyes on something we want—a fancy house, a new car—and we work hard to earn the money to buy them, sometimes missing worship because of work or scrimping on the collection plate so we can get that down payment scraped together. Then, when we finally get our prized possession, we lavish time on it, and thinking about decorating the house or cruising in the car causes us to daydream at work or to only half-listen to what our children are trying to tell us. Soon, our prized possession needs upkeep, so we spend more time and money on repairs and maintenance, time and money that doesn’t go to God or our neighbors. When our possessions become so important that we seek them before we seek God and His righteousness, we have begun to worship that possession in our heart—we have become idolaters.

Why does this happen? Why do material things hold such power over us? It’s because they are visible and God is not. In the Old Testament, the heathen nations could not understand why the Israelites worshipped an unseen God, when everyone else bowed and prayed to trees, carved images of gods, or the sun. Today, unbelievers cannot understand how Christians are able to remain content when hard times come. Unbelievers haven’t understood Saint Paul when he says: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:12-13). Unbelievers don’t understand that joy in life comes not from the gift, but the Giver of the gift.

Our unseen God is the giver of all good things. He gives freely and He gives generously. God gives us life. He gives us family and friends, food and drink, clothing and shelter. God gives us jobs and the health that allows us to make a living. At times, He gives us just enough to meet our needs; at other times, He delights us with more than we need or could even think of asking for. Most importantly, He has given us the gift of rescue—rescue from loneliness, guilt and despair, rescue from sin.

Sin separates us from God and each other. Sin makes us unacceptable to God, and sin makes us unacceptable to everyone else. Sooner or later, our natural selfishness alienates everyone in our lives, and we find ourselves alone, cut off from love. We buy things, thinking that something new and shiny will distract us from our loneliness, but our unwillingness to share our new toys with others just serves to isolate us further. But Jesus doesn’t care about our toys. When two brothers fought over an inheritance, Jesus wasn’t interested in dividing up property. Jesus came into our world to repair broken relationships. Jesus is God’s living gift to us, the gift that removes guilt and reconnects us to our Heavenly Father and each other. Jesus shows us how worrying about our property distracts us from the important things—a relationship with God and relationships with each other. When we see that we’ve misplaced our priorities, Jesus forgives us and brings us back to the Father; Jesus can do this because He suffered and died to satisfy His Father’s anger over our selfish sins. When Jesus returned to life, our divine punishment was left in His grave—now, Jesus is the living gift through which all of God’s other gifts come to us.

When Jesus is in charge of our lives, we receive God’s gracious gifts properly. First, we always give thanks to God for the kindness He shows us, from keeping us alive to giving us an unexpectedly good harvest. We thank God in prayer when we get up, when we eat, and when we go to bed. We also thank God by giving Him credit for our blessings when we talk with others. Second, when God gives us more than we need to support body and soul, we joyfully share His gifts with others. We give generously, because God gives generously. And when we share with others, we let them know why we’re sharing—we tell them that God has been good to us, and we want to share His goodness with others. In this way, we open the door to share the most important thing of all—the Good News of Jesus’ work in our lives. We can share nothing more precious than this.

Jesus told the brothers who were divided over an inheritance that they should be rich towards God. With Jesus leading us, we can all be rich towards God: thanking Him for His countless blessings, and sharing His good gifts freely and generously with everyone in need. It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor in the eyes of the world; we know that God gives to us generously of His love and care, enabling us to give generously, regardless of how many “shiny toys” we have. If we have the means, we can support a charity; if we don’t have lots of money, we can donate our time as volunteers. And no matter what our situation, we can always share the greatest of all God’s gifts to us—His Saving Word. Giving thanks for God’s gifts and sharing them with others—this is being “rich towards God.” May you be rich towards God today and every day of your life.