It’s such a blessing to live in a first world country. No one here had to walk to a well upon waking to fetch water for the morning bath and breakfast. No one had to gather sticks to make a fire for their eggs and bacon. Nor did anyone have to chase the Thanksgiving turkey through the bush. You just had to drive to the nearest supermarket to get one. And there won’t be any shortage of desserts at your Thanksgiving meal. Sugar is plentiful in first world nations. But so are diseases associated with a diet of too much sugar and a life of little exercise. Are the blessings of living in a first world country actually a curse? They can be. Although we have gathered to thank God for all of his blessings on this Thanksgiving weekend, we’ll want to listen carefully to Jesus as he warns us against letting those blessings become a curse. No, Jesus isn’t going to lecture us on our sugar intake; he’s going to caution against the sin of greed.
The setting of our text from the Gospel of Luke is this: a crowd of many thousands had gathered to listen to Jesus teach (Luke 12:1). When there was a pause in the lesson, a man suddenly yelled: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). What would you think if the next time I paused in the sermon to gather my thoughts, Jesse suddenly yelled out: “Pastor, tell Shannon to give me the $10 bucks he owes me!” In my 14 years of serving you no one has ever interrupted a sermon or a Bible study to ask me to settle a family dispute. What was so important to the man in our text that he should interrupt Jesus while he was in the middle of teaching a crowd that would have filled a small stadium? Money. This man felt certain that his brother was cheating him out of the family inheritance and he wanted Jesus to do something about it.
Jesus replied: “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:14, 15). This man wanted Jesus to judge his brother. Instead Jesus judged him and pointed out a heart that was motivated by greed. How many family disputes would cease if we took an honest look at how we contribute to the problem? Sure, it’s aggravating when we seem to be the only ones who do any work around the house. But why are we aggravated by this? Because we think that others should serve us. We forget that Jesus said the greatest in the kingdom of God are those who serve – just as Jesus selflessly served us with his whole life.
But the sin that the Holy Spirit wants us to consider this morning is not laziness; it’s greed and covetousness. But so what if I’m not happy with my perfectly good but slightly out of style tennis shoes? So what if I secretly yearn to be a millionaire because I want a fancier house and car? There must be worse sins? If Jesus had seen it that way, he would not have gone on to tell a parable about the danger of greed. The parable went like this. There was a farmer who was blessed with an abundant crop. He wondered what to do with it because his barns weren’t big enough to hold the wealth. He thought it over and decided that he would build bigger barns. After that he was certain he could retire to a life of ease. But that very night God said that his life would be demanded of him and he wouldn’t get to enjoy all those blessings he was storing up for himself.
Note how this farmer doesn’t seem to be a bad chap. He hadn’t gotten rich through an illegal marijuana grow-op or by ripping off his customers. He worked hard and was no doubt respected in the community. Nor was he careless with the blessings God had given to him. He wasn’t going to leave the grain out in the field where the birds could get at it. He was going to store it away like any prudent man would. And then he was going to enjoy retirement. Was he going to travel the world and party it up? No. He was going to stay close to home and eat, drink, and be merry. That doesn’t sound very different from how we look forward to a long weekend like this when we can cook a special meal and savor it with friends. This guy in the parable wasn’t a crass unbeliever. He never cursed God, he just forgot about him. But that’s just as bad, as God made clear by calling him a fool.
Are we like this fool? How do you speak about the blessings God has given to you? Do you speak of them as “yours”? The farmer had called the bountiful harvest, “my crop, my grain, my goods.” Do we speak of “my house, my car, my music, my medal” forgetting that all these have come from God? Even if we have worked hard to get them, it is God who gave us the energy and the smarts to accomplish what we have. When we start to forget that, we think that these blessings belong to us and can be disposed in the way that we see fit. The farmer in the parable, for example, was at first perplexed. What was he going to do with all that grain? Build new barns! That would take care of the storage problem. But the rich man already had storage available: in the mouths of the needy (Ambrose). That thought, however, never occurred to him because he believed that all those blessings were for him. When our love for others diminishes that’s a clear sign that our love for God is fading too.
But can you really blame the guy for storing away the grain for himself? I mean how is that different than putting money into a retirement savings plan? Ah, now we’re hitting close to home aren’t we? The question to ask ourselves is this: does my retirement plan hang the number of zeros behind my savings, or does it hang on the one in whose hand my eternal future rests? (Michael Otterstatter) That rich farmer certainly could have kept some of the grain for himself but he also should have shared his wealth with others, trusting that the God who had given him such an abundant harvest could provide in that way again if that’s what the farmer needed. Likewise we don’t need to hoard our wealth. The God who gave you riches today will give you what you need tomorrow and the day after that. In the verses after out text Jesus said: “And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well” (Luke 12:30, 31).
“Seek first God’s kingdom…” That’s not something the farmer in the parable did. He was so busy trying to attain a life of ease and planning for retirement that he forgot about eternity and that you really can’t take it with you! He had also forgotten that judgment can come at any time. God isn’t necessarily going to wait for you to turn 100 before he demands an accounting of your life. How foolish that farmer was. He had let God’s blessings become a curse.
Because Jesus didn’t want that to happen to any of his listeners he used the present tense when he said: “Continue to be on guard against all kinds of greed.” Do we take that warning seriously or do we needlessly and daily expose ourselves to the sin of greed when we pour through the advertisements that come in with the newspaper? Do we really need to feed our sinful nature’s desire for the best and the brightest when what we have is working just fine? Do we steel ourselves against greed at dessert time when Mom is scooping out ice cream or do we give full vent to the cry: “Why did she get more? No fair!”? Wasn’t that what the man at the beginning of our text had said? His brother had received more of the family inheritance. “No fair!” But that man should have been thankful to receive any money at all! It’s not like he had worked for the inheritance.
How it must have pained Jesus to hear evidence of that man’s covetousness. Jesus would feel quite literally the pain of that sin again on Good Friday when he suffered for it on the cross. But he did so willingly because he had come to mediate a heavenly inheritance for all greedy sinners, including you and me. Do you see why Jesus pleads with us to guard against this sin? If we don’t guard against greed, we’ll end up cashing in a glorious and eternal heavenly treasure to obtain and to hold on to a short-lived and imperfect earthly one. That’s foolish – like the child who tosses aside the $100 bill because it’s an “ugly brown piece of paper” to clutch instead a shiny dollar store toy.
“Be rich towards God,” Jesus pleads (Luke 12:21). How do we do that? As one Bible translation put it: “Fill your barn with God, not with Self” (The Message - adapted). We fill our barn with God when hearing and studying his Word is prized above all activities. If work and sports gets in the way of worship attendance, find another time to fill yourself with God’s Word. If you don’t have the discipline to do that, then find a job and hobbies that don’t conflict with your worship attendance. Seriously! What good is it, Jesus asked, if you gain the whole world but give up your soul? (Mark 8:36)
We are truly blessed. Not only has God given us spiritual riches here in his Word and the Lord’s Supper, he has given us first world citizens tons of material blessings. For this we’re taking time to thank God this weekend. But let us also pray that these earthly blessings don’t become a curse, for there is nothing more precious than Jesus, his Word, and his forgiveness. Amen.
