Avarice Series

Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.

Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost.

As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead.

Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide (Bits & Pieces, November, 1991).

What is Avarice?

The apostle Judas found a similar reward as the peasant farmer, as does everyone else who commits the deadly sin of avarice. But what is it? Avarice is the self-serving and inordinate love of and desire for money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions. This results in a constant craving for things—a covetousness or greed—that makes us want to own and hoard things, and further results in an attachment to them that causes us immense grief when having to be parted from them.

Matthew tells of a young man who had such a problem (see Matthew 19:16-29). This man once asked Jesus what he needed to do to gain eternal life. “Well,” Jesus answered. “You know the law. ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Do these things and you got it made.”

“I do all these things,” the young man said, rather self-righteously. “What else do I need to do?”

I imagine Jesus giving him a long, searching look before answering, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth and he couldn’t bear to give it up.

Then Jesus said to his apostles, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Would we be able to be parted from our wealth? Or the other things we are attached to? Avarice is extremely possessive. It takes our basic need of security and ownership to perverse levels, making us work for them rather than have them work for us. We end up craving for things, very often belonging to others, accumulating them, and then refusing to part with them, having become immensely attached to them.

What do you own that you cannot be parted from? Is it your collection of books or movies? Do you find it difficult to lend them? And if you do, are you able to rest easy until they are returned? How about the curios that adorn your showcase? What if one of them breaks? Does your heart break with it? What about a treasured item of jewelry? If it goes missing do you turn your house upside down trying to find it, getting increasingly desperate with every moment? What about your house, itself? If you had to suddenly leave it one day, how difficult would it be for you to walk away and not look back?

Lot’s wife found it extremely difficult (see Genesis 19:1-29). Before he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent an angel down to tell Lot to get out with his family because he was found righteous in the sight of God. When they had come out of the city, the angel told the company of people: “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.” Lot’s wife, however, couldn’t resist stealing a look back at the city of pleasure she was leaving behind, and all the possessions she had in it—and instantly became a pillar of salt.

There is a strong moral to this story. Inordinate attachment to material things can lead to a perversion of the soul. Greed makes one mean spirited and obnoxious and our literature is replete with stories of men like that: Scrooge, King Midas, Silas Marner, the Grinch. We find ourselves detesting these men and rejoicing when they change, very often not realizing how much we mirror them.