Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ” What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? ” And he said, ” I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ” But God said to him, ” Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? ” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:13-21 ESV)
Man who made me the judge over you? Why does this man want Jesus to be the arbitrator for the estate of these brothers? Jesus is not concerned with money. (for not being concerned with it He sure talks about it a lot!)
He tells a parable about a man…
Which brings me to a question. Is it wrong for us to save money and plan for the future? If this is the case as it seems Jesus is making here, how many of us are in the wrong? Now I will say I am glad my wife and I save money. If we had not the past 18 moths I have been on leave from call would have been much harder than it was. But that is not what Jesus is saying. He is not telling us not to save and prepare for the future.
To see what He is saying we have to look deeper in the story. Jesus makes a comment on the focus of the man, read the conversation the man has with himself again. “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” He is doing all of this stuff for himself with no thought of any one else. There is no spouse, no children, no talk of neighbors in need. He is focused only on himself and how this will effect him. He is a steward of all of these crops and needs to use his wealth and good fortune for the benefit of others. Jesus is not telling Him to not prepare and store some, that is Joseph’s story from the Hebrew Scripture. But Jesus wants us to be focused on others and not only our own needs.
It is not about saving and having wealth, it is about our focus and how we think of others before ourselves.
aSacredRebel 