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Luke 12:13-21; 1 Timothy 6:10-19
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 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.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 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. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
(ESV)
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before1 Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good morning. It's lovely to see you all. I don't know if you can see me. I know it gets a little tricky with the lighting in here, but it's good to see you all. We are gonna be continuing our study of the parables of Jesus in Luke Chapter 12 beginning with verse 13.
Jeffrey Heine:It's in your worship guide, which as Joel mentioned, you can also pull up on your phones by going to our website, rccbermingham.org. Luke, Chapter 12, we're gonna be looking at the parable of the rich fool. Luke, chapter 12, beginning with verse 13, we'll read through verse 21. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Jeffrey Heine:But Jesus said to him, 'Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?' And Jesus said to the crowd, '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, and be merry. But God said to him, fool, for this night your soul is required of you.
Jeffrey Heine:And the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? And so so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word and for the chance to gather in this place to worship you.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, we need to hear from you. These days are still so strange and challenging. So will you draw near to us? Comfort us? And will you speak to us, Lord?
Jeffrey Heine:For your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Kentucky novelist, poet, and farmer, Wendell Berry once said, quote, To take Jesus literally is excruciatingly painful. For to take him seriously is the beginning of troubles.
Jeffrey Heine:To escape by saying Jesus is taking part in exaggeration to make his point is like saying, he didn't really mean it, end quote. Studying the parables of Jesus can be an unsettling venture. They aren't all endearing or comforting. Some parables are downright distressing. As with much of Jesus' teaching, we cannot go to them with the assumption that we will easily agree with what's being said.
Jeffrey Heine:Growing up, the picture that I had in my head of Jesus was of Him being nice, supremely nice. And I guess that that picture comes from the children's Bibles and Sunday school room paintings, because we don't really get that picture from the Scriptures. If you read the red letter words of Jesus, He's often curt, piercing, and at times, even harsh. Much of his teaching is like sandpaper, intentionally designed with a coarse grit, to smooth down the rough edges of our rebellious hearts and minds. Today's passage is one of those high grit parables.
Jeffrey Heine:In the Gospels, there is normally an interaction with Jesus, that Jesus has with someone that prompts him to begin telling a parable. This time, it's a man who is in dispute with his older brother over an inheritance. Has that ever happened in your family? Has anyone in your family gotten into an argument over an inheritance? Maybe it was money, or a piece of furniture, or property.
Jeffrey Heine:I've seen good families shatter apart over an inheritance. Brothers and sisters who never speak to one another again. A sibling who will complain for decades that they didn't get their fair share. That's what's happening here in Luke, Chapter 12. And this man thinks that maybe this nice rabbi will help him out, and force his brother to share what was left behind.
Jeffrey Heine:It begins saying that someone in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But Jesus is not interested in entering into this argument. He says, who made me judge over these matters? And Jesus' brief exchange with this man becomes a teaching point. The greedy man is an object lesson.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus warns the crowd in verse 15, saying, take care and be on your guard against all greed. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus' words here are easy to learn. Life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. Your life does not just add up to the gathering of stuff.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you agree with that? Not just in your mind, but in your living. Does your life reflect this truth? To say it another way, would others look at your life and be able to discern that you believe that life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. Jesus continues to speak to the crowd, now with a parable saying, there's a man of great wealth.
Jeffrey Heine:And 1 year, his farm produced an abundance of crops, far more than he needed. In fact, it was so plentiful that he didn't have enough room to store all of his crops. This little story would have immediately caught the attention of the listeners. Not very many of them would have been men and women of great wealth, but probably all of them would like to have been. We love stories about people getting rich quick.
Jeffrey Heine:It's perhaps because these stories of other people getting rich quick fuel the dream that we might be abundantly wealthy one day too. For me, I was given this picture as a kid through movies and TV shows, like Richie Rich, and Blank Check, where a kid ends up with $1,000,000, and he can buy all the video games and snacks that he wants. People like these stories. So the crowd listens to the story of a rich man who gets even richer. Now his field has produced an abundance of crops, so much so that he can't store it all.
Jeffrey Heine:It's wealth on top of wealth. What a problem to have, the people would have thought. He doesn't have enough space for all of his wealth. It's like running out of garage space for all of your cars, or running out of pockets to stuff full of cash. The wealthy man has run out of room for his wealth.
Jeffrey Heine:And so the rich man says to himself, 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, and be happy.
Jeffrey Heine:He has a plan. I'll build bigger barns, that can store all of my grain in my possessions, new, bigger barns. And then with all of my abundance, for years years to come, I can finally relax and be happy. This seems like a solid plan. One that in some form or fashion, probably each one of us have done, or we've traded in or upgraded, not because something was broken, but because it wasn't new, or the latest model, a car, a house, technology.
Jeffrey Heine:What was once satisfying, bright, shiny, and new has lost its luster, and the next new thing is just within our grasp. Not only that, but we've probably all looked toward the future, and thought that if I could obtain that thing, reach that point, achieve that success, arrive at that status, then then I can relax and be happy. A relationship, a graduation, making partner, buying a house, moving to that city. Psychologist and author, Daniel Kahneman writes about this looking forward in his book, Thinking Fast and Slow. He calls it the focusing illusion.
Jeffrey Heine:In short, the focusing illusion is about the thing that we focus on, buying something, achieving some life change. We focus on that thing, and then we exaggerate how getting that thing is going to make us happy. The problem is 3 fold. The focusing illusion can cause people to be wrong about how happy or unhappy they are right now, How happy other people are who have that thing. And how happy they can be in the future.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are the illusions. I'm so unhappy now because I don't have this thing. Other people who do have this thing are so much happier than me, and I will finally be happy when I have it too. And when we do this, when we believe in the illusion of riches, we can make really bad decisions. The researchers call this, miss wanting.
Jeffrey Heine:The rich man saw the abundance of the field as his route to rest and happiness for his soul. This means that his soul was not satisfied before. His soul was not at rest before. His soul was not happy before. And these bigger barns were the illusion of happiness.
Jeffrey Heine:The man was miswanting. He believed that he was finally going to be happy, and his soul at rest. Jesus continues the parable. But God said to the man, you fool. This night your soul has required of you.
Jeffrey Heine:Tonight, you will die. And the things that you have prepared, these new and bigger barns, whose will they be? Why does God call the man a fool? Is he a fool just because he's rich? No.
Jeffrey Heine:Is he a fool just for building a bigger barn? No. It's important to note that Jesus isn't giving instructions on wealth in this parable. The rich man did not acquire his abundance and affluence via deceitful or dishonest means. It literally came up from the ground.
Jeffrey Heine:I think God calls him a fool, Because the man looked at his abundance, and his hope was in his barn. His life consisted in the abundance of his possessions. He presumed he'd live forever, and his riches would finally make him satisfied. He was a fool because he didn't realize that his life would soon be over that very night. And all this stuff that he was trying to make his life consist of, God asks, whose will they be now?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, these bigger barns and all the rich man's wealth would become an inheritance for somebody else. Perhaps 2 brothers, who would argue over it, distrust one another, and never speak to each other again. Those barns were supposed to bring the man happiness, and now they simply belong to somebody else who might just sell off the grain, tear down the new barns, and just sell it for scrap. The thing that you want so badly, someone else already has it, and it's not making them happy. The place that you want to go, someone is already there, and they just want to leave.
Jeffrey Heine:The goal that you think will make you feel important and special. Someone has already done it, and they feel lost and empty. The bigger barn doesn't satisfy a person. It's an illusion that eats away at your life like rust and moth. Jesus closes the parable by saying to the crowd, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Jeffrey Heine:What is Jesus saying here? The foolishness of the rich man is like anyone who strives to selfishly store up wealth for themselves, who tries to make their souls happy with possessions. But Jesus says that life doesn't consist of possessions. So what does life consist of? Jesus says life consists of being rich toward God.
Jeffrey Heine:What does that even mean? If it's the alternative to foolishness and greed, I think we should at least know what it is. How can we be rich toward God? The apostle Paul wrote a letter to a young pastor named Timothy. And in one letter, he writes to Timothy about how to love and teach people in his church who are wealthy.
Jeffrey Heine:And Paul says this, 1st Timothy, chapter 6, verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Paul says, remind these wealthy Christians not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, and instead set their hope on God.
Jeffrey Heine:The fool, building his bigger barn, had all of his hope in his barn full of wealth. That is why he was a fool. Being rich didn't make him a fool. Building a bigger barn didn't make him a fool. It was his hope.
Jeffrey Heine:Hope in his wealth and not in God, that made him a fool. He trusted in the uncertainty of riches. Paul doesn't instruct Timothy to teach the wealthy Christians that they were wrong for being wealthy, or that they had to give everything away to be real followers of Jesus? No. He told them to hope in God.
Jeffrey Heine:He tells them to be generous and ready to share. And in doing these things, they will resist the urge to put their trust in the uncertainty of riches. Paul tells Timothy to teach the wealthy in the church to hope in God alone, to do good, To be rich, not merely in money, but in good works. To fill the bigger barns with works of goodness and mercy, so that in the future their souls would not rest in the illusion of riches, but rest in what is truly life. That is how we are rich toward God.
Jeffrey Heine:We hope in God alone. We fill up bigger barns with gracious and generous living that glorifies God and does good for our neighbors. That is the antidote to the illusion of miswanting. And if we're going to take Jesus seriously, and not say he didn't mean that, then we have to consider how in our own lives, at times we've put our hope in the wrong things. Because life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.
Jeffrey Heine:Your life does not add up to what your gathering of stuff. And when you die, what will you leave behind when you are gone? Will what is left behind only be stuff, an inheritance to be fought over? Will it be a storehouse full of rusting treasure? Will it be a treasury of good works done in the name of Christ?
Jeffrey Heine:Will it be a life consisting of what is truly life, hoping in God and in the certainty of Christ? Let's pray. Holy Spirit, would you help us to hope in God, and to put our certainty in Christ alone? Would you help us to be generous and ready to share? Would you help us to take stock of our own hope where we might be miswanting, where we might be believing the illusion of riches.
Jeffrey Heine:And spirit, would you help us to obey all that Jesus has commanded of us? Would you give us the strength and the clarity to know what is asked of us today? We pray these things in the name of Christ, our king. Amen.