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.”
People feel that they are entitled
to stuff. One of the first words a
child learns is “Mine.” In fact,
babies and small children often operate on the assumption that they own
everything. There is a cute story
my mother likes to tell. When my
twin brothers John and Mark were babies, my mom gave each of them a cookie. Mark stole John’s cookie. So my mom gave them each two cookies,
with the idea that if Mark’s hands were full, he would not be able to snatch
John’s cookie. Mark then put one
of the cookies in his mouth, freeing his hand to snatch one of John’s
cookies.
It
can be cute when children do such things, but the reality is, this describes
our troubled condition. We believe
that we are entitled to things over which we have no control or even have
rightful claim. Just as the
one-year-old Mark did not bake the cookies he was so confident were his, we are
not the source for anything that is ours.
The
man who demanded that Jesus make his brother share the inheritance missed the
point in two ways. First, he was
coveting. He was not content with
what he had and he desired what was not his. Secondly, the man preoccupied
himself with the wrong inheritance.
He wanted an earthly inheritance of money or land or goods and he wanted
Jesus to get it for him. Jesus had
an inheritance to share with the man, but it was not his brother’s material
inheritance. Jesus’ inheritance,
which was His by virtue of His relationship with His Heavenly Father, was the
one for which Jesus wanted the man to ask.
Our
Heavenly Father happily gives us everything we need. When we are not content with what we are given by God, we
despise His gifts.
No
matter what we do, we cannot take credit for anything we own or produce. If we plant something, we cannot make
it grow. Even if we plow the soil,
plant the seed, or water the plant, we cannot cause it to grow. God causes growth. Paul uses this analogy in 1st
Corinthians 3 to explain God’s activity in causing His Church to grow. Though Paul planted and Apolos watered,
they could not cause faith to grow.
God caused the growth. Both
spiritually and physically, God is the source for all things good. When we boast over what we have we are
as foolish as the rich man in this text.
Your money, property, job, spouse, children, even your pets, God
provides them all for you. This is
a humbling message, but it also brings great comfort. Our heavenly Father knows exactly what we need and happily
supplies them.
It is peculiar that the rich man tells
his soul to relax, eat, drink, and be
merry, because he has so much food stored up. A man’s soul does not thrive on succulent meat, luscious
fruits straight from the orchard, or delicious bakery-fresh bread, not even on
Niagara Region wine! As
Scripture declares, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God.”
(Matt. 4:4; Deut. 8:3)
While the man had no control over the bounty of his crops, he most
certainly had no control over the departure of his soul. When His soul was demanded from him,
his food storage was useless.
The
rich man made his greatest mistake when he thought that his soul could be
content with earthly treasures.
Jesus said that his sad predicament is the fact that he stored up
treasures for himself, but he was not really rich, because he was not rich
toward God. Jesus says later in
this same chapter, “Provide yourselves with…a treasure in the heavens that does
not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” (Luke 12:33)
But
how can you store up treasures in heaven, when you cannot even store up
treasures on this earth? You
can’t. Just as the possessions you
enjoy on this earth are given to you by God’s goodness and favor, your treasure
in heaven is also stored for you.
Your
treasure in Heaven is Christ’s inheritance. Only heirs inherit inheritances. That was the problem with the man in the beginning of the
text. He was not the heir, his
older brother was. Unless you are
a child of God, you cannot have His inheritance in Heaven. In fact, because of our sinful nature,
which shows itself in our discontent and covetousness, we cannot even enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven, because you have to be perfect to enter into the
Kingdom. But the God, who provides
all our earthly goods to us, wants us to have this inheritance and come into
His kingdom. So He sent His Son
Jesus, the undisputed heir to the inheritance, to take our place. Our covetousness along with every other
sin we commit, are not trivial mistakes with little or no repercussions. The
cost of our transgressions is eternal death and the punishment of hell.
This
dreadful situation places us tremendously far from any heavenly inheritance.
Abraham in Heaven spoke to the rich man suffering in Hell, “Between us and
you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here
to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” (Luke 16:26)
The sentencing to Hell attached to our sins sets us far away from the
heavenly treasures.
But even
this sentencing did not prevent Jesus from being the perfect replacement for
us. He became man. He lived in perfect obedience. God was pleased with Him. Then Jesus was sentenced to death. He went to the cross. He cried out to His heavenly Father and
got no answer. As Jesus hung dying
on that curséd tree a great chasm was set up between Him and His Heavenly
Father. Jesus truly took our
place. He suffered Hell on the
cross. He died. The Father, however, did not forget His
Son forever. He raised Him from
the dead and conquered death. A
chasm no longer exists between our heavenly inheritance and us. That is what our Heavenly Father did to
store up our treasures in Heaven.
Indeed this treasure cannot be taken away from us.
The
man from the crowd asked for a share in the wrong inheritance. Jesus was not interested in that
earthly inheritance and it would have only sustained the man a little while
anyway. What Jesus wanted to share
with him, was that inheritance He would earn for him on the cross.
We
should not be like the rich man, who thought that his soul was content with an
abundant harvest. Nor should we be
like the man from the crowd, who grasped at a temporary inheritance. As we look toward our heavenly
inheritance, death cannot take this treasure away from us.
You
are rich toward God when you give Him your sorrowful spirit and broken heart
and you believe that you have an inheritance in Heaven on account of
Christ. God gladly exchanges your broken
heart and sin-tarnished spirit with a heart made alive in Christ and a spirit
purified by His Holy Spirit.
During this harvest festival, remember that you have treasures secure in Heaven, not because of what
you did, but because of what
Christ did for you. And in
addition to that God blessed you with the earthly treasures abounding in this
harvest. Just don’t be content
with them. They will pass away and
by the way, so will you. Be
content with the treasure Christ has earned for you in Heaven. This treasure will be yours for
eternity.
Amen.
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