Text: Luke 12:13-21
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.”
The Bible defines worldliness by centering morality where we intuitively know it should be. Worldliness is the lust of the flesh (a passion for sensual satisfaction), the lust of the eyes (an inordinate desire for the finer things of life), and the pride of life (self-satisfaction in who we are, what we have, and what we have done).
Worldliness, then, is a preoccupation with ease and affluence. It elevates creature comfort to the point of idolatry; large salaries and comfortable life-styles … become necessities of life.
Dave Roper, The Strength of a Man, quoted in Family Survival in the American Jungle, Steve Farrar, 1991, Multnomah Press, p. 68.
In life there are necessities and the Lord desires to give you good things, but also warns that when the focus of life becomes the things we covet and desire we need to be reminded that:
Do not trust in things, but in him who made all things!
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus had just been talking to the crowd about the leaven of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy, not to fear those who kill the body but fear the one who has the authority to cast into hell and to acknowledge the Christ before men so that Jesus will also acknowledge them before His Father in Heaven.
This is pretty heady stuff about life, death and your eternal security … right?
And from the crowd someone yells out in interruption, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Sounds whiny to me and like this guy hadn’t really been listening to what Jesus had been talking about all along. So, as interruptions go Jesus replies:
14 “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
Now, I don’t know about you because the Bible doesn’t necessarily give us a sense of how Jesus might have responded but every time I’ve read this response from our Lord I always get a sense to read it as …
14 “Man! … who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
I hear just a little bit of emphasis on “Haven’t you heard a thing I've been saying?” “I’m talking about eternal security and your thinking about temporal blessings?”
And then the Lord gives him and the crowd this little reminder:
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.”
Now, that might have been enough to sit the interrupter down. But the Lord decides to use this interruption as an opportunity to teach by parable or a story, and illustration if you will, what covetousness can ultimately lead to. This might be the parable Jesus would have used had he in his humiliation walked among us in our day:
Ill.
A young banker was driving his BMW, in the mountains, during a snowstorm. As he rounded a turn the vehicle slid out of control and toward a cliff. At the last moment he unbuckled his seat belt and jumped from the car. Though he escaped with his life, his left arm was caught near the hinge of the door and tore it off at the shoulder.
A trucker passing nearby witnessed the accident, stopped his rig, and ran back to see if he could be of help. There standing, in a state of shock, was the banker at the edge of the cliff moaning, "Oh no, my BMW, my BMW.” The trucker pointed to the banker’s shoulder and said "man you’ve got bigger problems than a car".
With that the banker looked at his shoulder, finally realizing he’d lost his arm, and began crying "Oh No, my Rolex, my new Rolex!”
Now, Jesus’ parable gets to the meat of the matter. What shall I do with all my stuff 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, my BMW and my Rolex 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; nice home, 60” flat screen, house on the lake and even a boat, relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
Have you been there? Have you let the desires of the world keep you from the true joy of faith in Christ?
God knows you have. It seems that no sooner than the acquisition of the next thing on the demand schedule than you and I are off with our eyes set on the next need. The sinful nature can do that. That is why we are warned in the 9th and 10th commandments not to covet your neighbor’s house and wife, manservant and maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
I’ve talked before of some of my own coveting. Usually stylish and made of wood … or fast and sleek and made of steel … yes … guitars and bicycles! I have quite a few at times to my own dismay. The guitars have accumulated over many years while the bikes just a few over the last few years.
It can consume you: Boy that yellow one would look good! or maybe it’s a vintage Trek from the 80’s or a Schwinn, Superior or Paramount; maybe a Peugeot from France or Bianchi from Italy? a Raleigh from England? All good bikes and all … completely unnecessary … but fun none the less.
Back in 1981 George Carlin did a piece called “Stuff” that hits the nail on the head. He said in part:
So when you get right down to it, your house is nothing more than a place to keep your stuff … while you go out and get … more stuff!
George Carlin 1981
It’s funny because the irony that he uses is true; exaggerated but true. We all fall victim to this need for stuff. And when we get the stuff we want … we want more stuff. That is what Jesus said in the parable when he brought it to its logical conclusion:
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 (all that stuff) and is not rich toward God.”
The reality hit home again for me and for us all upon hearing of the passing or Roy Kushnereit. Life has a way of giving us the perspective that we don’t know the day or the hour.
Jesus knows our needs. He desires to give you the desires of your heart.
Last week he promised that:
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
He has given His Son to die for you and me has made you heirs along with Christ. You have all things good given to you. In Christ you have an eternity that will never end. Roy knows that now all too well. For your sake Jesus has conquered sin and death and has triumphed over the devil, just for you. You have been adopted as sons and daughters of your Heavenly Father.
While the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – guitars and bikes - can cloud your view of the Kingdom. God has given you clear vision through Baptism as you have been washed clean and marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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