Sermon transcription (may be edited for clarity)

By the end of the ninth chapter of Luke, Jesus has set his face to go toward Jerusalem where he will eventually be crucified and later resurrected. By the middle of the nineteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus has actually entered into the city. Between those, Christ goes about teaching, healing, casting out demons, doing the works of the ministry that we’ve known him to do. And about half-way, well, not exactly half-way through, a little under half-way through, by the thirteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus makes an allusion to his upcoming death in Jerusalem.

Now, just prior to that, which is where we find ourselves in today’s lesson, Jesus is teaching his disciples about the challenges that they are going to face as a result of following him. He’s talking to them about being aware, or taking heed, and being careful of being hypocrites, right? He wants to warn them against the doctrine of the Pharisees and Scribes. These were religious leaders that were hypocritical. After that, he talks to them about how to handle being persecuted, what to do when they come before tribunals, or judges, or people who would wish to destroy their very lives. And he says to them, “Don’t be worried, your father is with you.”

In the midst of these kinds of sobering teaching- this kind of sobering teaching- someone in the crowd shouts out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!” Doesn’t really fit, does it? Christ is talking to people who are preparing to give their lives on his behalf and this person wants Christ to resolve an issue for him. So, as Christ often does, he takes these kinds of situations and uses them as an opportunity to teach his disciples, and that’s where we find our lesson today.

He starts out by turning to his followers and saying to them that they should be on their guard against every form of greed, he tells them. And then he says to them–first he says to take heed and beware of covetousness, right? And then he tells them to be on their guard against every form of greed and he follows it up with a parable to respond to what the man had said to him. Now, some think that Jesus actually didn’t answer his question when he said, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” But, there’s a lot more to the narrative and I think you’ll see that Jesus responds to his question in a way that not even the man could have predicted.

Now the first thing to notice at–you know I use the word question loosely-because the man didn’t actually ask Jesus a question. Did you notice that? He goes up to him and he says, or he shouts out rather, “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!” Now we’re not told anything about this man you know. We know that the inheritance must have had some substance to it because he sought redress from Christ who was a rabbi, a teacher, in that community, so we know that there was probably some estate to be had. So there was some measure of wealth there.

The second thing we know is that this man’s a little arrogant, right? He feels like he’s not going to come to Christ and call him Lord, he’s not going to appeal to him for mercy or ask him, or make a request. No, he’s going to tell Christ exactly what he wants Christ to do and expects him to comply. Never mind that Christ was a religious leader, this man is someone who’s used to telling people what to do and getting an answer that he wants. So that’s the first thing.

The second thing is, we don’t know anything about the man or his brother, right? We don’t know who’s older, who’s younger, we don’t know if there are more brothers or sisters, or what’s going on with the inheritance. We only know that he is saying one brother of his has taken everything. Now under the law, the firstborn son is entitled to a double portion of his father’s estate. So, he would be entitled to twice as much as the other sons. In the event there were no sons ,the daughters would be entitled to an inheritance, so there’s actually something to this man’s request when he says, you know, this brother of mine has not divided the inheritance with me.  If in fact what the man is saying is true.

It’s also perfectly reasonable that he would bring this request to Christ. Because that’s what rabbis–those are some of the functions that rabbis performed in the community during those times. You could come to them and bring questions like this–who should that inheritance belong to or whatever kind of familial dispute or various other things. That would have been expected. So, the point that we’re to understand from the beginning of this, and this is before Christ gets to the parable, we’re supposed to understand that we have a dispute here between brothers because one of them has taken an entire inheritance and he hasn’t left anything for his brother.

Now Christ responds in a way that’s probably not what we would expect, right? He says, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” Now, why would Christ say that? He was a rabbi; He was respected in the community. This was a request that rabbis would have responded to. The timing of the request is certainly unusual, and probably not advisable. And even maybe the motive of the man’s heart, which appears to be greed wouldn’t have been advisable, but the request itself– I mean, even the tone of the request, right? Telling Christ what to do would not be acceptable but the request itself, there isn’t a problem with.

So what Christ is doing here is he’s rebuking the man but very subtly and he’s also establishing his claim to God’s authority. And he does this by citing Exodus, right? The second chapter and referring to something that was said to Moses when he was still living in the house of Pharaoh. Now, just taking a brief aside, those of you who are familiar with this story know that Moses was raised as an Egyptian in Pharaoh’s house even though he was Hebrew. One day, as he had become a man, he was walking outside and saw an Egyptian abusing one of his Hebrew brothers and he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

The next day, Moses came out and was walking around and he saw two Hebrews fighting. He went to the man who was in the wrong and he said to him you know, “Why are you at odds with your brother?” He tried to set them at one, tried to help them be at peace and the man said to him, who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you going to kill me just like you did the Egyptian? And so Moses was afraid and then later ended up having to flee until he later returned to work God’s deliverance for Israel.

But now, why would Christ cite this, given that the man has asked him to tell his brother to divide the inheritance. Christ is doing two things. On one hand he is reminding those who are familiar with the Scripture that at the time Moses was seeking to reconcile the two Israelites, the men had no idea who he was or what he was there to do. They knew nothing of God’s mission for him. They weren’t in a position to evaluate what he was doing and rejected him. Christ uses this same language, in part, to indicate that people also don’t know what God is doing through Him.

The second piece is, we have to actually answer the question. When you see questions anywhere in the Bible, ask yourself what the answer is. When Jesus asked this question, “Who made me a judge or a divider over you?” the answer is of course, God. Therefore, Jesus is now imbuing his words. What he’s saying is, “I’m invoking the authority of God on what I say.” So, a subtle rebuke in that you be careful in terms of your terms of address, right? In terms of telling me what to do. You’ll notice that Christ often did that. He wouldn’t allow people to simply speak to Him or, or address Him any kind of way. He would set these things in the right order. And then he’s also indicating that the response he’s going to give has the authority of God.

So now we’ll turn to the actual parable, and this is really interesting, this parable, because it starts out not by talking about the man but by talking about the ground. So often when Christ teaches in parables, He’ll say a certain man went into a far country, a king did such and such, this man had two sons, often He focuses on the person. But here, He starts out by talking about the ground and He says that the ground of a rich man brought forth abundantly.

So, the first thing that we’ve learned here is that this isn’t about the man. This is about this ground that’s producing and where is the ground fruitfulness coming from. It’s coming from God. Throughout scripture we read in many places that God is the one who provides an abundant harvest. That He makes the land fruitful. That He multiplies seed sown and provides blessings. And we also know that humanity, after the fall, one of the curses that came upon the earth actually, because of Adam, what God said to him was that the earth “will bring forth thorns and thistles because of you.” In other words, it won’t be abundant, it won’t be fruitful because of sin. So, when you hear Jesus say that this man’s ground was fruitful, and the emphasis is on the ground not on the man, it tells you right there we’re talking about the blessing of God. But we see no acknowledgment, nor do we hear this from the man.

Instead, look at what the man says to himself, and I want you to pay careful attention to this. The man says to himself, “What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? This is what I will do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. I will store my green, my goods.” Could the man be more self-centered? I, my, my, I, I, me, me, my, my, I, I. It’s ridiculous.!He’s just completely consumed with himself and he says, after seeing that this ground is producing, doesn’t offer an ounce of thanksgiving to God, no mention of God. Instead, he says, “I’ve got to tear down the barns I have and build bigger ones,” right? Because I need to store this grain for myself. Do you see why he couldn’t build more barns? Because that would have taken up the ground that was producing so abundantly. So, what he had to do was tear down the barns he had and expand them just a little bit so that he would have just enough room to take in this new store but without encroaching on the land because the land was producing so much.

Now, this is not, and I want to be very clear here, this is not in any way a prohibition against saving and preparing for the future. And I want to be careful to say that here. You recall in Genesis with Joseph, Pharaoh and so forth, Joseph knew of the coming abundance and then the coming famine after that, that they stored up grain during the good times. That they stored up and prepared for rainy days, the days in which they wouldn’t have enough. So, the idea of preparing for the future, whether it’s retirement, 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, these kinds of things, that is wisdom to prepare that way for your life. We don’t know what the future holds and we should be prepared that way.

That is not what this man was doing. This man had so much, more than he could use and simply wanted to build bigger barns to store it even though he had no intention of using it. And then he goes further. It’s not enough for him to, to do these things, but he says he’s going to say to his soul “eat, drink and be merry.” Now, this is interesting because he is making a reference, in part, to Ecclesiastes 2:24 (if we could see the slide). Solomon said, “there is nothing better for a man, than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.” Do you see how the rich man left something out? He’s happy to say eat, drink, and be merry and nothing about it being from the hand of God, right? Nothing about it coming from God.

And so, no sooner than he attempts to position himself as wise, what is God’s response to him? Fool! Right? God says to him, you’re attempting here- and this is all going on in the man’s heart. The man hasn’t said anything. It’s important to understand. God judges our hearts just like he judges our actions. We may think we’re getting away with something or that God isn’t noticing the things that we do inside, right? Things that we would do if we had the opportunity. Or things that we think about and meditate on in our hearts. God is searching even those things and responding to them as he did with this man.

And God he says to the man, “Fool!” But what’s interesting is the way God uses the term, right? Because, the Greek term used here in the New Testament— it’s like in English, we have a couple different ways to say it. If we were going to say somebody is not smart, we might say that they are stupid, or we might say they’re are unwise. We might say they’re not smart, right? I mean, we have a bunch of ways that we can convey the same concept. So here, the English translation, fool is correct. But in the Greek, the significance is actually that this is someone without reason. In other words, this is someone without. This is someone who is already rich, now his ground is producing abundantly, yet he’s still lacking. He is still without.

He’s without sense and what does God say to him? “This night, your soul is required of you.” So here God is determining the date and the timetable of this man’s life and death. The man’s life is going well at this point, right? He’s quite wealthy, he has the ground producing abundantly, he has more than enough and while he is thinking about what to do with all of this, God is telling him, tonight is it. That’s it! You’re dying–time’s up and your soul is required of you.

So, not just that your dying, but that you’re actually going to have to answer to someone and then he goes on and says, “Who will these things belong to?” Now I want you to think about this for a moment. Now we are back to the original question. Do you remember what the man said? This is before the parable. He shouts out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” And now Jesus is saying, “Who do these things belong to?” Now, Christ provides a test of ownership and here’s how you know that you own something. Do you retain power over it after you die? See this rich man has all of these things. He has the wealth already. He has the land producing. But who owns those things after he dies? Does he retain power over them? No. And some might say, “ooh I can write a will and still have power over it.” But that leads to only things like what happened at the beginning which is a dispute. Now that this man says my brother took the whole inheritance, he’s going to the rabbi, so even if you leave a will, can people not still dispute it, or challenge it, and go back and forth in court? You still don’t have complete power over the disposition of any of these assets, anything that you owned.

So, who do these things belong to? Of course, they belong to God. We bring nothing into this world, the Scripture says, and we take nothing with us when we die. When you hear about these archaeological digs where they dig up an ancient tomb, what do they find inside? Clothing, gold coins, all kinds: silver, bronze, various implements, sometimes weapons. All of these things are things that people are supposed to use in the afterlife. Where are they? Right here on earth. God is the owner of all things and this is why when we talk about stewardship–when we ever say the word steward we are referring to ourselves as stewards because we don’t own things. God has seen fit, for what ever reason, to put certain things under our care and in our charge. But, just like this man, we will answer to him about them.

Now earlier, the man had made reference to Ecclesiastes 2:24, right? Eat, drink, and be merry, and had left God out. But when God responds, God actually makes reference to a verse later in that chapter, Ecclesiastes 2:26, which says, “For to a person who is good in his sight, meaning God, God has given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy, while to the sinner he has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to the one who is good in God’s sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.” This is what I was reading earlier. So, when God says to him, “Who are these things going to belong to that you have provided?”  Of course, God knows.

This man lacks wisdom. He’s without the blessings of God. The blessing of God that would enable him to not only have this wealth but also have power to enjoy it, he’s missing those things. And so now he’s gathering and collecting and has no idea who’s ultimately going to end up with all of the wealth that he has. So when Jesus says here, people aren’t rich towards God, he’s talking about people who are hoarding wealth selfishly. He’s not talking about people who are preparing for retirement. He’s talking about people who are hoarding wealth, people who do not acknowledge that their blessings come from God. And, he’s talking about those who don’t consider God in their use of wealth.

So we have some lessons here to take from this. The first is that we should always acknowledge and know that our blessings come from God. Not just financial blessings, but also family that loves us, a supportive and loving spouse, beautiful children and grandchildren, health, comforts, peace, walking around not having to worry about what could happen to you, just because you drive down the street and go to the grocery store, able to live our lives comfortably without difficulty. These are blessings that come from God. We must acknowledge that.

The second thing Jesus teaches is that covetousness is a problem that cannot be solved. See, see he’s saying to the man, the issue is not just that he took the entire inheritance which could be covetousness, or that you’re desiring the inheritance, which is also covetousness. The point is that you’re never going to be satisfied. Look at this rich man. He was rich to begin with. His ground produced plentifully and all he wanted was more. I’m going to tear down these barns and build bigger ones. More, more, more. The things you want will never be satisfied.

Later in Luke 15 Christ deals with this issue again in the parable of the lost son. Remember the older brother and the younger brother? The younger brother went to the father and said give me my share of my inheritance, went out and squandered it, and then came home and was reconciled with his father. The older brother, meanwhile, stayed with his father and actually owned everything that the father owned because the younger brother had already gotten his portion of the inheritance. Was the older brother satisfied?

Remember he was angry when the younger brother came home because the father killed the fatted calf. Some of you may or may not be familiar with the story, but those of, of you who are understand what’s happening here. Nothing is ever enough. Covetousness is destructive. It’s not just enough to say I have barns and I’ll fill them. I’ll build more. No, no, I’ve got to tear these down barns down and build more. See, the nature of covetousness is destructive.

We learn that death and judgment are in God’s timing. It’s in the midst of increasing wealth that God announces the rich man’s death. Death can come in times of prosperity just as much as it can come in times of distress. Whether, it’s the beginning, the middle, the end of our lives, it’s God who decides this timing and that there’s a reckoning for the gifts he’s given us.

A few more things, just a couple. One is that we’re not alone in death. Did you notice how alone this rich man seemed? You don’t hear of a spouse, or kids, or grandkids; you don’t hear of friends. All he’s doing is talking to himself, ruminating, just thinking and thinking about himself and his wealth and what he’s going to do. He’s alone. Those of us who are in Christ don’t have to worry about this. Remember Christ was just teaching his disciples that they’re not alone in persecution. He goes on to tell them after this about how they don’t have to worry and that he will continue to care for them. That the Father will continue to care for them. We too can count on God’s care and love and concern when we die.

And finally, we have an eternal inheritance in Christ. You may not be aware, some of you are, that after we die, we inherit the kingdom of God. Now, as is often the case when you inherit something, someone has to die for it. In this case, Christ died so that we might have an inheritance in God. How do we know that we have this inheritance? Because God has given us of his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the evidence that we have that we are inheritors of God’s kingdom to come.