Get Rich for Life
The meaningfulness of life is not found in what we own, but in who owns us. Riches for life are what our Savior talks to us about in his Word for us today. Luke 12:13-21 shows us how to "Get Rich for Life." August 8, 2010.
It’s important to be good managers of our wealth and possessions. The danger for us, whether we have little or much, is to become too focused on those material things that we are drawn away from what truly makes us rich. Riches for life are what our Savior talks to us about in his Word for us today.
Warning about False Security
Jesus was teaching his disciples as a crowd of “many thousands” gathered to listen. He spoke of the vital importance of believing in him for eternal life with God. Just then a man in the crowd asked the Lord to be an arbiter between him and his brother over the matter of their father’s inheritance. According to Jewish code, in the case of two sons, the older received two-thirds of the inheritance and the younger son the remaining one-third. With the larger inheritance, the older one was expected to care for needy family members. Evidently, there was a problem in settling the inheritance matter between the two brothers, and the one who came to Jesus did so probably because he felt he was being slighted.
Jesus refused to judge the case. He had come not to judge in earthly matters, but to bear witness to the spiritual truths which save people from eternal death. Did the man, however, entertain covetous thoughts regarding the inheritance? That was probably the case because what follows is a warning from the Lord about greed. "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed."
We are all prone to greed; it is a sin which erupts so often from our sinful natures. Greed is sinful in the eyes of God. In fact, the Bible says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry”(Colossians 3:5). Our sinful hearts are prone to value worldly possessions and put so much interest and effort into getting more of them, that appreciation and attention to God and his will are crowded out. Remember the parable of the seed that fell among the thorns – “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature”( Luke 8:14).
We have this sinful inclination that leads us to think that the most important things are those which satisfy our physical life. And the more we go after and get, the better our life will be – that’s what we think. But that is far from the truth. Jesus says,“A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”People can secure possessions upon possessions and satisfaction still eludes them. The more we are driven to fill our lives with things, the more complicated and difficult our lives often become. One author put it this way: “The increase of worldly goods serves not as water to quench, but as fuel to increase the fire.” The meaningfulness of life is not found in what we own, but in who owns us. God gives us life, and life is only truly worthwhile when we live in connection with him.
To make sure we take this lesson home with us, Jesus illustrates this truth with a parable. A rich man harvested a bumper crop from his fields. This man was a respectable person. He had not gained his wealth through dishonest activity, but though honest work. He was wise and prudent. But behind the respectable exterior of the rich man lurked the heart of an idolater. His life was centered upon his earthly wealth of which he had much, but all in all he was very poor. Amidst the abundance he had to lavish the life of his body, his soul was starving to death.
One sign of his spiritual poverty was his failure to give thanks to God for his new-found wealth. He took the credit for obtaining it rather than acknowledging that“every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17.) As Jesus narrates in the parable, notice the rich man’s frequent use of “I” and “my”. 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." It was not just wise management on the part of the rich man to build more storage for his bumper crop. This action was sinful because of the motivation behind it. The rich man congratulated himself that he would have the means to live a long life devoted to indulging all his physical appetites and earthly desires.
Though the man thought himself to be rich and wise, God called him a fool - one who is ignorant of what the real situation is. He thought that his wealth would assure a life of ease and pleasure for many years to come. However, that was not to be. “This very night” on which he laid all his plans for the future, God declared that his life would end. All the preparations he had made for his life were useless. All the earthly riches which he was sure would sustain him for many years would now be used by others (“Meaningless” as Solomon said in our Old Testament lesson today:Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26). What was even worse, since these were the only riches with which he had concerned himself, his death left him as an absolute beggar before God. He faced the final judgment with no spiritual resources. Indeed he was a fool!
And so is everyone who set their hearts upon earthly wealth and riches more than the treasures of God which he gives us in Jesus Christ. Our Lord knows how attracted we are to the circumstances of the rich man in this parable. He knows how easy it is for us to fall into the trap of greed, pursuing with much desire and great effort the kind of earthly wealth that can make our life easy and pleasurable. Heed the Savior’s warning that our life doesn’t consist in the abundance of our earthly possessions and wealth, that the meaningfulness of life is not found in what we own, but in who owns us.
Wise Investment Planning
There’s lots of advice for acquiring wealth. There are all too many advisors that claim they can help us get rich. Your Savior has something too to say about the subject – but pertaining to a different kind of wealth. He has some investment advice for the wise, “be rich toward God” and you will be rich for life.
The riches of God are something you already have. You are wildly wealthy. For Jesus Christ “became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The biblical meaning of the word “rich” is the wealth that a person has in such abundance that he does not have to work for a living. That’s the kind of riches we have in our faith-connection with God. We are so wealthy that we do not need to work to live with God. Through the gospel, he gives so much wealth that we never have to work to have security and life with him. That’s because Jesus did all the work for us, and we benefit from the rich inheritance we are given by faith in him. And these riches will never be taken away. We will never outlive them. They last forever!
A missionary to Africa brought the Word of God to old woman who was very sick. She listened intently and quietly embraced her Savior by faith. Just a day before she died, she told a friend to give this message to the missionary: “Tell the pastor, ‘thank you and goodbye.’ I am going to Jesus.” That woman had very few worldly possessions, but she was very rich. She had Jesus!
It’s not a sin to have worldly wealth, or to work hard to have possessions that give our life a level of comfort. But being rich toward God means that our minds understand that there are more important riches than earthly possessions, and our hearts keep their highest focus on the treasures that God gives us through Jesus. The valuable riches of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are ours. Our life in connection with our God is completely satisfied with his blessings and fulfilled with his promises.
Life truly consists not in the material, but the spiritual; not in the temporal, but in the eternal; not in the worldly goods, but in heavenly blessings; not in what we can do for ourselves, but what God gives us in Christ. Only a fool thinks otherwise. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on August 8, 2010
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