Dear Friends,

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:13).

The man seeking justice had a point and verse of Scripture to back it up. According to Deuteronomy 21:17, the eldest son was supposed to receive double the youngest’s share. It’s a simple matter of right and wrong, isn’t it?

So if fairness and the Bible were on his side, why did Jesus show no interest at all in an equitable distribution of the estate? The answers are found in Jesus’ references to the need for diligence against “all kinds of greed” and “one’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Jesus put his finger on his questioner’s heart’s desire and touched greed. The man’s obsession with property relegated his brother to no more than a bank account. He valued Jesus as no more than a password for that account.

It is possible to ask the Lord for the right thing for the wrong reasons. Are our prayers focused on getting ahead or getting together with God and our neighbor?

Jesus’ response exposed the inherent conflict between personal ambition and devotion to God in the battle for one’s heart. Ambition insists on personal rights, but devotion yields those rights to whatever God wants.

The fact that our claim is based on the law does not make it right in the eyes of Jesus who knows our eternal life depends on what is in our heart, not what is in our pockets. An insistence that “I only want what’s owed me under the law” can mask the cruel sacrifice of relationships to the socially acceptable idol of material success. Greed sanctioned by the law is still greed.

Paradoxically, worshiping material success is symptomatic of a spiritually impoverished existence. Such an existence is eked out in fearful, greedy grabs for scarce resources in a perennial drought of the soul.

In the well-researched observation of behavioral scientist Brene Brown, people who exist in such scarcity are discerned by how they fill in the blank in the phrase “never ________ enough” as in:

-Never good enough

-Never perfect enough

-Never thin enough

-Never powerful enough

-Never successful enough

-Never smart enough

-Never certain enough

-Never safe enough

-Never extraordinary enough

(Daring Greatly [New York: Gotham Books, 2012], pp 24-25)

Jesus discerned the emptiness of the man’s heart that possessions would never fill. He followed up with the story of a rich farmer who sought to provide for his life by building bigger barns in which to bank the over-production of his fields. The very night his project was completed, “God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

This declaration of God is most revealing in the original Greek. “Fool! In this night your soul they demand from you.” The “they” more than likely refers to the “things” the man has so carefully hoarded as a hedge against the future. “Those “things” now own the man and claim his life” (The New Oxford Annotated Bible commentary, NT, p 122).

Jesus concluded his story by linking greed with fear and noting that both were dispelled by the generosity of the Father to us and our generosity to others. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:32-34).

Issues of wealth received an astonishing amount of attention from Jesus. He did not condemn private property, but he recognized that what we seek to possess will soon possess us with seductive power. That power has to be destroyed for grace to have its way in human hearts. When Adam and Eve turned away from the Creator’s provision to seek life on their own, they were left with whatever resources they could produce on their own. The problem with that is all we have is all we are going to get in the graceless economy of sin.

Perceived scarcity results in competition which escalates to violence when fear and desperation take hold. Jesus the Creator returned as Savior to break the vicious cycle of under-supply and over-demand. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” was his assessment of his mission (John 10:10).

If have read this far, you may be saying, “There’s nothing new here. I know all this — the drive to possess stuff gets in the way of relationship with God.” But the power of the seduction is disclosed in what you do with that knowledge. How is it working in the priorities of your life and worship?

In the observation of the French novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), when it comes to human nature “the more things change, the more they are the same.”  Those who market us to buy and borrow count on it.

I am writing this on my 60th birthday.  When I was 37-years old, I learned for real that I cannot buy or borrow a life. My life is a gift from the hand of my heavenly Father who loves me and sent his Son Jesus Christ to bring me home from where I’d wandered off.

Every need I have is satisfied by my God “according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19). When I remember this in grateful reverence, I live well. When I forget this in the distractions of selfishness, I live badly.

My choice is ever and always between God’s love or anything and everything else. The farther I go with him, the choice becomes easier in the light of his glory and grace.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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The Lord is the strength of his people;