Much Ado About Nothing Series

EASY COME, EASY GO (LUKE 12:13-21)

The worst financial losses in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, according to percentage, are:

Bank of America - $86.3 billion, or 36.5 percent

Morgan Stanley - $32 billion, or 43.8 percent

Citigroup - $138.9 billion, or 58.7 percent

Merrill Lynch – $39.7 billion, or 62.1 percent

Wachovia - $67.5 billion, or 68.6 percent

AIG - $147.5 billion, or 82 percent

Washington Mutual - $28.2 billion, or 90.7 percent

Lehman Bros. - $31.9 billion, or 92.6 percent

Fannie Mae - $64.1 billion, or 98.9 percent

According to capital:

Bank of America - $86.3 billion, or 36.5 percent

Citigroup - 138.9 billion, or 58.7 percent

AIG - $147.5 billion, or 82 percent

(“A Year of Heavy Losses,” New York Times, September 15, 2008) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/15/business/20080916-treemap-graphic.html

For major markets in 2008, New York was down 33.84%, London was down 31.3 percent, Sydney 41.3 percent, Hong Kong 48.3 percent, Singapore 49.2 percent, Shanghai a whopping 65.2 percent.

(“Record stock market falls in 2008,” 31 December 2008, BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7805644.stm

In Luke 12 Jesus was addressing thousands of people in the crowd (Luke 12:1) when a man interrupted His public and passionate discourse with a private and selfish request. Naturally, Jesus denied the petitioner’s request to arbitrate and settle a sibling dispute over money. Jesus refused to act as a money manager, a family lawyer, a funds investor, an expert negotiator, or a skilled mediator. He warned hearers against greed in any form. In fact, he called a person who is obsessed with money, goods, or property a fool.

Was the rich farmer in Jesus’ riveting story a fool because he liked to sleep? Was he a big spender? Did he lose his savings? Did he spend others’ money? None of the above. One who gains and earns the riches of the world but loses and empties his soul in the process is a fool and a loser in God’s eyes.

Why is a greedy person a fool in the sight of God? Why is mindless devotion to wealth a worthless pursuit to God and a loss of one’s soul? Is there something more to life and in life than eating, drinking and partying?

A Fool’s Boasting Is Bankrupt in God’s Eyes – Your Treasures are Earthly

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 “Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. (Luke 12:13-18)

A fool’s little world is summarized by two words: “more” and “me.”

Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller, the 19th-century kerosene and oil king who was the Bill Gates of his times, the question: “How many millions does it take to satisfy a man?” Without hesitation, he answered, “The next million.”

In the nineties, insider-trading arrests were the biggest business news. A key player named Dennis Levine disclosed why he and his famous partner Ivan Boesky traded illegally with the information they had as insiders, buying stocks of soon-to-be-announced merging companies and then selling them for profit when the stocks rose on the completion of the deal, implicating big names Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert in the crime.

Levine explained to Fortune magazine (5/21/90): “People always ask, ‘Why would somebody who's making over $1 million a year start trading on inside information?’ At each new levels of success I set higher goals, imprisoning myself in a cycle from which I saw no escape. When I became a senior vice president, I wanted to be a managing director, and when I became a managing director, I wanted to be a client. If I was making $100,000 a year, I thought, I can make $200,000. And if I make $1 million, I can make $3 million.”

To the man’s request in the imperative mood – “tell” (v 13), Jesus answered with two imperatives, “Watch out! Be on your guard” (v 15). Greed (v 15) is a craving, an obsession, a demand for more and more things, goods, property - more than what we need. Someone has said, “Money is a good servant, but a bad master.” A greedy person can never have enough of physical or material things. He thinks of making more money, creating more wealth and becoming more prosperous. He dreams of money in his sleep and he brings up money in his conversation, believing that money talks, money makes money, and money makes the devil his employee. The void in his heart becomes a hole and, if unchecked, a crater. The rich man was already a well-off landowner (v 16) with money, land, and barns, but his appetite for wealth was insatiable. In today’s business terms, barns will have to make way for warehouses and depots, stores will have to give way to chains and franchises, and land will need to be opened to trucks and bulldozers.