Sermon Transcript Dougie Simpson Luke 12:13-21 The Rich Fool 19 th April 2015 C onsider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader s Digest, which tells about a couple who took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke; a spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life your one and only precious, God-given life and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the Great Day of Judgment: Look, Lord. See my shells. That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of pounds to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Don t buy it. Don t buy the lie. Don t waste your life. Jesus takes this opportunity to teach the crowd about what real life is about, and he starts by: A) Exposing a Lie (v13-15) Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (v13). The demand here came from an anonymous individual who was so obsessed with
getting what he considered his rightful portion of the family inheritance that he rudely accosted Jesus right after Jesus passionate call to confess Christ before men. His interjection was out of sync and disruptive. This guy's not hard to figure out. He can't wait for the Lord to stop talking about heaven, salvation, God, forgiveness, revelation and get to the really good stuff. He didn t ask Jesus for a reasoned decision regarding the fairness of his claim but just demanded Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Why would he request that of Jesus? It could be in that he calls him Rabbi, or Teacher. In those days, and at that time, civil suits like this were not taken to some; there were no secular judges, in that sense. You would go to a rabbi. The rabbi would apply the biblical law and make the adjudication of the case. But Jesus was not on the Sanhedrin. He was not one of the trained, accredited rabbis who would sit in the temple courts and would adjudicate questions and issues and civil cases and so forth. He was not part of the system, so why was he being asked? Here s why he s being asked. He s being asked because, if you read through the book of Luke (or any of the Gospels) in one sitting, the thing that would immediately amaze you is the fact that Jesus talks about money more than he talks about any other single subject, except maybe himself. He talks about money relentlessly. He talks about wealth and possessions and justice and mercy with money constantly. It s a constant emphasis. Most of chapter 12 is about it. Most of chapter 11 is about it. Most of chapter 16 is about it. Back in Luke 3, when John the Baptist is asked, for example, How do I repent? what does he tell them? He says, Don t be greedy. Be content with your wages. When the Pharisees are being denounced in Luke 16, they re called lovers of money. When Zacchaeus life is completely transformed in Luke 19 by Jesus Christ, he immediately gives away 50 percent of his 2
wealth. Luke 11 is the only place in the Bible where Jesus Christ affirms the tithe as a standard for giving: a tenth! Jesus is continually talking about it, and of course, 11 out of Jesus 39 parables are directly on money and on what we re supposed to do with our money. That means at least 28 percent of the time Jesus Christ opened his mouth, and maybe more, he was talking about money. That s the reason this man asked this question! Jesus is continually talking about the proper use of your wealth, and so he asks Jesus, Help my brother with this. Jesus didn t like the impertinence at all because he addressed him as Man, as if he were a stranger. Jesus would not be drawn into settling domestic accounts. He was not interested in being a divine judge in a people s court. He came to bring people to God not property to people. In this situation he was concerned with the attitudes of those involved, not who got what. In other words, Jesus is saying, my calling is different from what you are asking of me. I do have something relevant to say to you, but I am not the one to be drawn into the details of this dispute. So Jesus issued a warning, which applies to us all: Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. The word here means to lust to have more than one s fair share, a boundless grasping for more. It describes one who lives in perpetual transgression of the 10 th Commandment. The book of Proverbs views the dividing line between righteous and evil people: all day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back (Proverbs 21:26). Jesus specifically warned the wannabe inheritor who in reality, the would-be fool about material greed. The sin is not in having more. The sin is being discontent. The sin is not in having wealth; the sin is in what you do with it. It's not the 3
amount: it's the attitude. Abraham was wealthy. Job was wealthy. Solomon was wealthy. Even in the New Testament, no doubt Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy. And there were wealthy people in the New Testament who had the church in their home because they had a large enough home to have a church. It's not about what you have; it's about how you feel about what you have. And that's what the Scripture warns about. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Guard yourself against the lust for more and more money, against coveting your neighbour s clothing, his house, his car, his wife, his education, his position and his children. We must heed the divine warning against all kinds of greed. Ask yourself, when others have something you like how long is it before you have to have it too? What is the process that you go through? Does the pursuit of it consume your time, energy, money? Is prayer involved? Does your need to have it put a stress on relationships close to you that s what s happening here. The man is putting his financial need on a higher priority than the relationship he has with his brother. Jesus sees a man losing his grip on his portion of the inheritance. This inheritance was lying to the man. This is why money is so hazardous. It lies to us. It tries to deceive us. It woos you with the words: "I give you life. Your life will be drab and boring and empty and meaningless and unhappy without me. I am your life. That s what the inheritance was saying. And to this Jesus says in verse 15b, life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. the word for life which is used here is zoe, and encompasses all that makes life worth living, all that is real life: satisfaction, fulfilment, enjoyment, meaning, purpose. And he says, "Even when you have surplus and you have excess, that s not really living, that doesn't take care of giving you real life." In fact, the life He's referring to here is 4
eternal life because that's the only kind of life that is fulfilling, satisfying, meaningful, purposeful, producing peace and joy and hope and blessing. You're never going to get that real life from the material world, even if you have more than enough. So Jesus is saying to this man and everybody who thought that way, "You're going down the wrong path. You're drinking salt water here. You're never going to have your thirst quenched because the life that you need, the life that satisfies, the life that fulfils, the life that is eternal and lasts forever is the life of God in your soul and it's not going to come through acquiring possessions." Greed is idolatry. It's worshiping the creature, not the Creator. Jesus said in John 10:10, "I've come that they might have life... the real life... and have it more abundantly." He wants to give you the life that truly is abundant... and it's that eternal life. Take care, and be on your guard. Not only is this inheritance not your life. If its idolatry, it is about to take your life. You can t help but be struck with the fact that at this particular time in our society in the western world, in our lifetime, we enjoy staggering material prosperity. It doesn t, after all, take a mega-millionaire to be rich by the world s standards. It s fair to say that many Westerners are wealthy, not only by present-day world standards, but also by the standards that apply across the centuries. Our lives are filled to overflowing with material things. We have so many possessions that they possess us. We are consumers being consumed by our consumption. We have stockpiles of possessions and the debt incurred to acquire them, which some people will spend their lifetime attempting to pay off. There are entire rooms in our houses that are just filled with stuff. If it disappeared tonight, our life would be uncomfortable 5
for a few days but then we d move on still able to wash, sleep, eat, work and relax. My family moved to Kirkcaldy in 89 and the first thing my dad built was a garage. Do you know where the car was parked up until they moved out in 2006? That s right, the driveway! The garage just filled with stuff. My folks downsized, and do you know where the car has been parked for the last 9 years? That s right the driveway, because the garage is just full of stuff. I quite often want a garage, but do you know what I do with it? I d fill it with stuff! Maybe you can get your car in, maybe you can't. I was thinking about this driving across town last week the rise of the self-storage place, like the place on Muggiemoss Road. 24 hour access to keep all your stuff in. And I always wonder, what is in there that you don't need and can't get at easily? And how many people are still paying off the credit cards that bought the stuff that's in there? Material excess will never make one alive or happy or fulfilled. The greedy person lives as if the most important things of life are assured when they have amassed the superfluous. Oh, how vulnerable the fallen human heart is mine is to feeling that having lots of things equals being really alive. But Jesus teaches about real life and firstly exposes the lie and said, Life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And now secondly: B) Jesus proves the lie (v16-20) Jesus proves the lie by showing the folly of a life like this. Jesus then told the would-be fool, (and all who would listen) a parable about a rich fool. He said the land of a certain rich man was very productive. Now that's good: no dishonesty here, no extortion, no crime, nothing. He just had a great crop; it was just absolutely huge. 6
He had come by his wealth honestly, like so many of us. He did not cheat to get his fields, he did not devour widow s homes and he was not an abuser of employees. God blessed him materially just the right amount of rain and sun, no disease or pestilence and huge yields. He was a success in everyone s eyes. New respect came his way. He had arrived. The rich man was a farmer but he represents all human beings who are seduced by all kinds of greed, whether statesmen or craftsmen, or peasants or lawyers, or nurses or doctors or secretaries or professors or mechanics or students. But unknowingly, he, like some of us, was in great danger. And so verse 17, this man began reasoning to himself saying, "What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops?" Well, that's a good question, that's a reasonable one, isn't it? He faces a dilemma about what to do with this massive harvest. He could build more storage, but if you build more storage he'd use more land and that would take up the land that he grows the crop on. Maybe that's not the good way to go because this is good productive land. What am I going to do? Where am I going to put all this? Now, that begins to give you a little bit of a giveaway. I could think of a lot of options at that point, but the one that he came up with in verse 18, he said, "This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods." You know what strikes me about that? Two verses, six I s (8 in Greek) and four my s : I, I, I, I, my, my, my, my. And here you get the insight into the materialist. This is an imaginary story, but wouldn't there be (in the minds of the people standing there listening to this) an imaginary group of people who went out and pulled in the harvest, and maybe you might say to those hard-working people, "I'll share some with them." And wouldn't there be an imaginary village with some widows and some orphans? And wouldn't there be an 7
imaginary village with some poor people? And isn't there a temple and isn't there a synagogue? And isn't there the work of God? And wouldn't God be up for consideration for some of this stuff? But no: I, I, I, I, my, my, my, my. What's wrong with this picture? I would have thought he would have said, "You know, God, you're the one who makes the rain fall, you're the one who makes the earth warm, you're the one that makes the seed to grow. I need to take some of this that you've given to me and give it back to you, because I know I'm to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and I can't be restrained in my giving to you because my love commands me to be generous with you. Love gives; it can't not give. And then I know the second law is to love your neighbour as yourself and because your love abides in me, I love these people and I want to share this with others." No, none of that here! Look at verse 19, "And I will say to my soul." You want to know how much of a materialist this guy was? I don t know if there is a Mrs Rich Fool in the story. I mean, it would have been a little window into something good about this guy if he would have said, "I said to my wife..., or, I said to my family... " This is the miser. "I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. You're set for life!'" He has it all. He makes the financial decisions, and they revolve around a life of ease and comfort for him. The take your ease means to retire. This is the only place in the Bible where retirement is spoken of, and here it is in the context of disapproval. Of course, the Bible recognizes aging and slowing down, but retiring to a life of selfindulgence finds no favour with God. 8
The problem with this man s retirement package is that it was a ticket to hedonism. Eat, drink and be merry, blatant Hedonism. That's it, just eat, drink and party. A retirement that lives for self is un-biblical and immoral. As Christians, retirement should be a time of increased opportunity to do God s work. Work is part of God s design. There is a great exchange between Frodo and Gandalf near the beginning of J.R.R. Tolkien s The Fellowship of the Ring, a conversation that sheds light on how we should view retirement: I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. The truth is that each of us has to decide how to redeem the time that God has given us. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise (Ephesians 5:15). This means that we take every opportunity we have to serve the Lord. For many, retirement may give them new ways of working towards the kingdom, be that in paid work, in relational activities, in voluntary commitment, pastoral visits, or in the ministry of prayer. Seniors have things that younger people don't always have: opportunity, maturity, experience, humility. They ve got to an age where they realise that they don t know everything there is to know about the world! Some of you may remember Robin Lochhead, who used to be an Elder here. Robin got the opportunity to retire early; however, rather than use that time to get a deep brown tan, lower his handicap, and become a connoisseur of the Royal Caribbean s sailing routes he took up a pastoral post at St Nicholas Church down in Sevenoaks. Then a time came for him to retire from the full-time role, so surely now it s time for that deep tan? No, Robin has enrolled in a preacher training course so that he might serve the local church better! 9
Then comes the surprise which is so common to Jesus' stories. In verse 20: "But God said to him, 'You fool,'" "This very night your soul is required of you and now who will own what you have prepared?" This is the materialist's worst nightmare. Tragedy! Somebody else gets it all! He was a fool because life is short. A sensible person will choose what is best for the long run. He will consider what will be best for him between his twenty-thousandth year and his seventy-thousandth year, not these 70-odd years. The man was a fool because he did not reckon with the fragility of life. This is understandable when you are a child, but when you are thirty, or fifty, or seventy and you live as if what is now will always be, then you are a fool and will (as Jesus said with certainty) not receive the things you have prepared. Our wealth opens up choices for us that allow us to pursue our own interests in a variety of ways. Such pursuits can easily keep us from using resources in a way that is most honouring to God. Note that Jesus isn t condemning wealth as such, but its use. How do we use what God has given us? Do we seek to pile up treasure for ourselves? Are we a keep the change guy, or I think you owe me 1 from last month guy? Is generosity our habit? Or does compassion take a back seat to our personal desires? I can t give more because of our outgoings TV, social membership, car, holidays, gadget, eating out, holiday again, another hobby, another membership, (did I say eating out?), but we just can t afford to support that missionary, or building project, or Bible translation, or Intern training for ministry. So how do we do this? 1. We study to see and savour the supreme value of Jesus above all earthly things. Paul says in Philippians 3:8, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my 10
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. We are daily on a quest to see him this way. 2. We pray that this would free us from the love of money. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! (Psalm 119:36). Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 3. We trust in God s promises for every need to be met (for my family and the church) 4. We set aside (electronically) our regular gift to the church, and then add spontaneous gifts as and when we feel led. 5. Finally, we put protections in place against bigger barns and we turn the prosperity of our fields into blessings for others. Maybe each year, as a regular practice, we should increase not only the amount we give, from our salary, but the percentage as well. If we don't put something like this in place, we will call more and more and more things needs which are really only wants. Jesus teaches about real life and firstly exposes the lie and said, Life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions Secondly, Jesus proves the lie by showing the folly of a short sighted life of indulgence (that s v16-20). And so finally: C) Jesus, the wisdom of God, Teaches the Truth and says to us all: So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. 11
The world says, Store up, and the Bible says, Empty your barns. It says it in many ways. Jesus says, The one who wants to find himself must lose himself. And of course the world says that s utterly ridiculous. It s a war of sanities. But see, Jesus puts it right out here when he says, right here at the very end, This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself That s the world s way to strength. but is not rich toward God. Obviously, rich toward God must mean that the principle of spiritual progress is to empty your barns. Give it away. How do we know this is true? Who is sane? God says to the person who s storing up, You re a fool. To Christians, or anybody who follows this principle that says, Give away your honor. Admit when you re wrong. Serve other people. Sacrifice. Surrender. Give it away, while the world says, You re a fool! Who s the fool? Jesus shows who s right. Do you realize who Jesus is? The rich fool is the person who stores up; but Jesus Christ on the cross is the ultimate fool, at least as far as the world is concerned. Paul puts it, in 1 Corinthians 1, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. [ ] For the foolishness of God is wiser than man s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man s strength. Jesus Christ has proved it. When he went on the cross, he won through losing. He was filled through emptying. He got glory by emptying himself of his glory. He s proof! Here s a man in sandals. Here s a man without a home. Here s a man who had no money. Here s a man who had no organization. Here s a man who had no publicity, and today he is the most influential man who has ever lived, and his followers are still the power in the history of the world, without a doubt. 12
He has proven who is sane. He has proven who is crazy. He has proven who is a fool. And you know, the gospel works that way. Do you know what the gospel is? The gospel is that Jesus Christ came with his spiritual riches. 2 Corinthians 8: Jesus Christ, though he was rich, became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. Do you know what it means to become a Christian? Every other religion says, Store up. Do your good deeds, and at the end, say to God, I m full, and God will let you in. Christianity says, No, no, no, no, no, no. If we want to unite with Christ and be Christians, we have to do exactly what Jesus Christ did. If you go to God and say, I m full, he ll say, You re empty, but if you go to God and say, I m empty, he ll say, I will now fill you. If you come to God and say, I have nothing. I have nothing that can merit your salvation. I am weak. I am meritless; I don t deserve it, then God says, Come in. It s the same thing. Money will blind you to that, and once you see it, it will change your attitude toward your money. Somebody says, Okay, how do I overcome this? Jesus says, You have to become rich toward God. 2 Corinthians 8:9, it says, Though he was rich, he became poor, so that through his poverty, we might become rich. But in 2 Corinthians 5:21, the same book, Paul says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And that s it. Jesus Christ gave up his entitlements. He came to earth. He was entitled to be protected, and he was blasted. He was entitled to access, and he was cut off. He was entitled to glory, and he got ashes. He was entitled to these things. He lost them so we could have them. 13
When you become a Christian, you become rich. Here s how you know you really have become rich: that you have seen what Jesus has done, that it has melted your heart, that you have actually come to God, not full but empty, and he has filled you. Here s how you know that he has changed your standing, he has changed your status, he has given you the protection, he gives you the access. Now, because of what Jesus has done, you re clothed in his righteousness. You re holy and blameless before God. You re rich! Here s how you know. Charles Spurgeon, the old Baptist preacher, says one way you know that Jesus Christ is precious to you is that nothing else is. Everything else is expendable. Your money isn t precious to you anymore. Your possessions aren t precious to you anymore. These things don t have a hold on you anymore. Don t you see? If you re in your right mind, you can look at the world and you can say, World, you owe me nothing, and you cannot frighten me. I don t care what the stock market is doing. The price of oil will come and go. I don t need this or that from you, because I m rich. I m rich beyond the dreams of the wildest billionaire. As a result, it doesn t matter what you do. It doesn t matter. I m rich. Being rich toward God therefore is the heart being drawn toward God as our riches. Rich toward God means counting God as greater riches than anything on the earth. Rich toward God means using earthly riches to show how much you value God. This is what the prosperous farmer failed to do. And the result was that he was a fool and lost his soul. That is what I meant when I said, Jesus considered money hazardous. It lures us out of love for God. It lures us away from treasuring God. The issue isn t that the man s fields prospered. The issue is that God ceased to be his supreme treasure. 14
Jesus teaches about real life and firstly exposes the lie and said, Life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions Secondly, Jesus proves the lie by showing the folly of a short sighted life of indulgence. And finally, Jesus, the wisdom of God, Teaches the Truth and says to us all: Real life is rich toward God. 15