Verse one of Luke 12 tells us that many thousands of people had gathered in an open area to hear Christ. Can you imagine how quiet, how deathly still it must have been in order for those present to hear Christ?
The Lie of Greed
When there was a lull after He had been teaching some very heavy things, there came a voice from the crowd saying, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." Jesus said, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbiter over you?" He said, "That's not My business what you do with your stuff and your brother, but you are My business. I want to warn you to take careful heed. Beware of greed. Watch out for greed in all of its areas, for greed is destructive."
He tells you why to beware of greed. It's because greed tells a great, big, gigantic lie. That lie is that life consists in the abundance of things possessed. Greed is a serious thing. Yet, in our way of life, we've almost made it an honorable thing. Just like we get too careless with the worst sin of all ... the sin of pride ... we also get to careless with handling the sin of greed.
Michael, Milken, was one of the most brilliant minds in the financial world of Wall Street. He perceived and put into mechanism the financial process that later became known as junk bonds. In a magazine interview, he was reported to have said, "I love greed. Greed is the secret of my success. Greed is what makes America work."
Jesus Christ said, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed..." It lies to you. It tells you that life consists in the abundance of things possessed.
We'd better camp out with that line a little bit, shouldn't we? After all, do we really believe that life does not consist in the abundance of things possessed? Isn't that the way we measure ourselves? When you say, "What is man worth?" we answer in terms of dollars. But very clearly a man ... made in the image of God,
a creature of eternity which will live somewhere throughout all eternity ... is worth more than anything else God made in Genesis 1 and 2.
We talk about standards of living that have nothing to do with standards or living because we have believed the lie that life consists in the abundance of things possessed. Jesus says it doesn't. Beware. Be on your guard. Don't let greed get into your mind because if you do, you will believe the lie.
Some Questions Raised
There are some questions, aren't there? If life does not consist in the abundance of things possessed, of what does life consist? What about Jesus and all of His wealthy friends? Is it wrong to be successful? Is it spiritual to be unsuccessful? What about all the good that can be done with the material wealth of this world?
More needs to be said, so Jesus told more in a parable. He said, "There was this man who was in agri-business, the most respected business of his day."
We read in the New Testament that people of Jesus' race who were overrun by the Romans had very few opportunities for wealth. One of those was to become a tax collector for the Roman government and become known as an unpatriotic person involved in graft and illicit tax affairs. The other way to become wealthy was to become a farmer, and the most respected and hard-working, powerful people of Jesus' day were people in agri-business. Here was one of these men. He was one of the most respected people, probably, in his community. He controlled the lives of the people who worked for him. He was responsible not only for their wages and way of living but also for their food.
In a particular year, things came together just right in the providence of God.
Just as fields had been plowed, the rains came. They fell softly and saturated the earth, making it rich and ready for the seeds. When the seeds were planted, the rain came just right again. The winds blew as the plants were growing, and the cross-pollination took place, but the winds were not so strong as to damage and destroy the crop. The sun shone and ripened the crop. The man looked out on the rolling acres of unweighable grain, representing uncountable gold, and he said, "This is going to be a great crop."
Now people, take notice. This may be the only time in history that you'll ever hear a farmer saying that he's having a good year. But this man said, "I've got this wonderful crop coming in. I've got it made. I am rich. I will build bigger barns to store this fantastic crop. I will be able to take care of myself forever. I will be at ease to eat, drink and be merry. I won't have to worry about anything else anymore except how to be comfortable and free of pain. That's what I shall live for the rest of my days."
I can picture him one night at a big desk in his den, sketching out that barn and thinking about how to build it. Then, suddenly, there's a presence in the room. The doors are locked, and the windows are secured. Yet, there's a presence in that room. To him, it is a frightening and foreboding presence. It is the Lord God. The Lord says to him, "You fool! You've been giving all of your wits and your strength to a future you don't have. You're a fool because tonight you're going to die, and somebody else will get all your stuff."
God called him a fool. Is that like God, you think? In the First Presbyterian Church of Newport Beach, California, there was no small amount of fellowship disrupted over a parable printed on the front page of their newsletter. They said it was not like God to be portrayed in this way, and they thought it was wrong.
The parable went like this:
"There was a certain man who said one day, "If I just had a little more money, I'd give it to God. If I just had a little more time, I'd give it to God. If I just had a little more talent, I'd give it to God. God did something kind of unusual. He gave him a little more money, a little more time, and a little more talent. And when the man didn't give it back to God, God took it back. After a while, the man said, "If I had that money, time and talent back, I'd give it to God." And God said, "Oh, shut up!"
Do you think that's like God? This story seems to say it is. Here was a well-respected, powerful man in his community, and God said, "....You fool!..." You can imagine that when the farmer's wife found his body lying on the floor by the desk the next morning, she saw that across the sketch of the barn he had written, "Write on my tombstone, 'Here lies a fool.'"
Why did God call him a fool? It didn't seem to have anything to do with morality, honesty, hard work, or those virtues. Nothing was said about that.
He did seem to be a man who was lacking in gratitude. He didn't know how to thank God who gave him life, ability, talent, time, opportunity, wealth, the ground his crop grew from, the sun, the wind, the rain.
He seemed to be caught up in "I" disease. We read nine times in this story that the man says I and my. He was a fool because he wasn't prepared to die. Do you know the statistics about death. The ratio of life to death is one to one. One out of every one person that lives is going to die. This man was a fool because he didn't get ready for that. He wasn't prepared. He was a fool because he gave all of his wit, strength, and time to get ready for a future he didn't have. That's foolish.
He didn't have the kind of future he could have had. The last line says very clearly that God did not condemn the man for being a successful farmer. He did not condemn him for having insight in building the new barns. He didn't condemn him for anything he had done. He just said, This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." He didn't make any eternal investments.
In Matthew 6:20 in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The man was a fool because, though he laid up things for himself here on this earth, he was poverty stricken in eternity. He had nothing waiting for him there.
A rancher wanted to impress his new, young pastor in the West Texas church, so he took him to a little rise on his ranch. He pointed to the north, south, east, and west and said, "As far as you can see belongs to me." The young minister pointed up and said, "How much wealth do you have there?"
That is God's question. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Another Version of the Story
As you picture these thousands of people listening to Christ, can you imagine how quiet they must have been to hear Him? Can you imagine what Jesus was saying to them as He was sharing the very thoughts of God with those people and they knew it? What if out of that crowd the man had said, "Teacher, I need to divide the inheritance with my brother. Can you help me do that? I want to be fair with him?"
I think He would have said, "Yes, I'll work with you on that, but I want to congratulate you for not being caught up in greed's lie. I'm glad that you don't believe that a man's life consists of the abundance of things possessed, or that a man's worth is measured that way.
Perhaps He would have told the parable this way: There was a well-loved, respected, and very successful farmer. One day, he looked out upon unweighable acres of grain, representing uncountable gold. He said, "Thank you, Father. Thank You for Your blessing. Thank You for what looks like the best bumper crop we'll ever have in this whole area."
I can see him beginning to plan for what's going to happen. He's in his den late one night at the big desk, and he's drawn sketches of the barns. There's another pad on the desk, and he's written some things very carefully there: "Remember the tithe in gratitude to God. Remember to reward the people who helped you get this harvest, those who worked with you." Under social responsibility, he listed some community projects and the names of some widows and orphans he knew about.
As he was working on that sketch, there was a presence in the room. It wasn't a frightening presence. He had almost felt a it numerous times before in public and private worship. But now it was so real ... not frightening or threatening ... and warm, welcome, wanted, and kind. It was his heavenly Father ... his lifetime partner, his Lord, his Savior.
God said to him, "You've done good with the opportunities I've given you. Now it's time for the next step. It's time for you to go home with Me. I want to congratulate you for not believing greed's lie and knowing that what you invested in heaven is what you're really going to keep. Everything you've invested in the kingdom of God and in the lives of people has been accruing to your account for eternity in heaven in your name. I congratulate you, wise, wise servant, for not being a fool."
The next morning when his wife found his body in the den, I think she probably saw written in bold letters over the sketch of the barn, "Write on my tombstone, 'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21)."
