Putting Wealth in Perspective

At Goroka Airport

As I’ve mentioned before, my trip to PNG lasted one day longer than I expected.

I was all set to fly home on Tuesday. I had three flights lined up. I knew the time between the connections were relatively tight but I had calculated that a delay of up to an hour and I would still be fine.

I checked in to Goroka Airport in good time - sent Fiona a message - and while I had thoroughly enjoyed my time away, it was at this point that I really just wanted to be with my family.

From the departure lounge at Goroka, you get a good view of the runway. I watched as the plane came in to land. I looked at my watch, it was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes, which I knew was not going to happen. But I did some estimates in my head, allowing time for the incoming passengers to hop off, our luggage to be loaded, the plane re-fuelled and the passengers on my flight to board we should still easily be within the allowable delay so I could make the next connection.

As I watched what I was expecting to unfold, some unexpected things started happening. For starters, a noticed someone putting a bucket under the plane. The I noticed an emergency vehicle racing toward the plane. Men in firefighting equipment jumped out.

My hope of making my next connection quickly started to fade.

It wasn’t long, and an announcement was made - and it was confirmed, I would not be seeing my family that evening.

And I thought to myself - it’s not fair!

…it’s not fair...

You know, I’ve reflected on that thought.

Why was it not fair?

For it to be not fair implies in some way that I deserve to be above all of the problems of this world. But what have I done to deserve such a privilege?

It was interesting that while I was waiting, I spoke to a lady who was from Goroka, and she told me that she had actually meant to board a plane the previous day, but that one had been cancelled - in some ways, her situation was much worse than mine - yet here I was thinking that I was the one being hard done by.

Now I know that of all the bad things that could happen to me - this actually wasn’t that bad. I did safely get home the next day, and while it was frustrating to be delayed a day, it wasn’t that bad.

But it’s interesting how quickly we can think that we should only deserve good things, and not the bad.

An inheritance

Now the parable that we are looking at today, comes on the back of a question from someone in the crowd who obviously think they have been hard done by.

He’s had some sort of dispute with his brother over an inheritance. Now we don’t know anything about this dispute. We don’t know why the brother is not sharing things - but obviously the person posing the question to Jesus thinks it’s unfair.

Now look, quite possibly this brother could make a much better case for this not being fair than I could about being stuck in another country for an extra day.

But what where going to find is that Jesus is about to raise an issue which will show that the issue of fairness is not really the issue that’s at stake here.

It’s something that shifts the focus onto ourselves, and when this happens it becomes so much easier to think that when we don’t get what we want, we’ve been hard done by.

And so this morning, as we tackle this particular parable of Jesus, I want us to think about how we can have a better perspective of this world. In this way, whether we go through a time of blessing, or a time of hardship, we don’t lose sight of what God is doing.

Context

So we remain in the gospel of Luke, which as it’s turned out, all of our parables in this series have been in this particular gospel.

In the previous chapter (that is, chapter 11), Jesus has started taking aim at the hypocritical nature of the Pharisees and the experts in the law. And as we move into chapter 12, Jesus continue to warn the crowds against many of these ways of the Pharisees.

But as I’ve already alluded to, as we get to verse 13, a question from the crowd starts to shift the focus in a different direction.

Actually, I call it a question, it’s actually someone telling Jesus what they want him to do. They say: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Now this might seem like a slightly strange (possibly rude and inappropriate) thing to say - however, in this culture, asking a Rabbi this sort of thing is something you would do. A Rabbi would normally have the wisdom and skill to discern a matter and give good counsel.

Except that, Jesus is not your typical Rabbi.

You see, Jesus could easily have sorted the matter out. But I think he knows that even if he came up with some fair and equitable idea - there was a deeper issue at play.

And so Jesus answers: “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

Now the interesting thing to note at this point is that we know that in fact Jesus will be the judge of this age. But when Jesus judges, it’s not about your bank balance - it’s about what’s in your heart.

Jesus doesn’t just want the surface issue sorted out, he wants to sort out the issue below the surface - the one that is driving what is going on.

Greed

And so in verse 15, Jesus gives a warning: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed”.

Greed! It’s that intense and selfish longing for something. And when Jesus says: “…all kinds of greed...” there can be a variety of things that can become the focus of our greed. Money being an obvious one. Food being another. But also things like power and influence.

You see, this man in the crowd, he just wants the inheritance sorted out - but Jesus can see that it is greed that has taken over him.

This man has bought the lie, that if he has more, his life will be better.

And to illustrate his point, we now come to the actual parable.

The Parable

The parable pictures a rich man who farms some sort of crop.

Now he’s evidently very successful at what he does, because he’s able to fill up his store houses, and then still has more.

Now if you didn’t know the context of this parable, you might actually think what happens next is actually very wise.

You see, let’s think about it, you don’t know what the future holds and so it’s good to keep some supplies in reserve.

Next year’s crop might, after all, be a bad one, so having reserves would mean that you’ll still be fine.

It sounds like good management to me.

In the parable, the rich man then realises that he barns are not big enough, but a problem like this is nothing a smart business man can’t get around. So he knocks down the smaller barns and build the bigger barns.

This is one smart operator. In verse 19 - we get what seems to be the climax. We get to the point that we all want to achieve… the point that we can now take life easy… and of course, east, drink and be merry.

If all we had was verses 16 to 19, you could be forgiven for thinking this was actually a parable about the virtues of saving.

But in verse 20 - the parable takes a very dramatic turn.

If this was a cartoon, it’s at this point that a lightening bolt strikes the man killing him instantly. Of course, the parable doesn’t mention the cause of death, but it’s a lightening strike in the way I imagine it.

In the parable we get the pronouncement from God: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

The implication is clear.

It does not matter one little bit about how big your barns are when you die. Once you are dead, your worldly possession do not matter one little bit.

Some people seem to live by the slogan - ‘he who dies with the most toys wins!’ - but of course it’s absurd. They don’t win anything. He who dies with the most toys still dies.

The alternate strategy

So what is the alternative to this parable?

Let me first suggest that this parable does not mean we shouldn’t save our money.

Having a reasonable level of savings is one way in which we can be good stewards of what God has given us.

What do I mean by a reasonable level of savings? Well, you know what… in some ways, I think that is the wrong question. Our focus should not be on the size of our bank balance, but rather on your heart.

You see, it is verse 21 which helps understand the way of the heart, and also the alternate strategy we should be taking.

On the one hand, like in the parable, we can be storing things up for ourselves… on the other, we can be rich towards God.

It is this richness towards God that we should be thinking about when we look at our heart, rather than the bank balance.

Being rich towards God

What does richness towards God mean?

Well, first and foremost, it must mean that love for God and love for others must trump your love of your bank balance.

But let’s think about this even more. In part, we can get back to some of the same ideas we thought about two weeks ago when we looked at the parable of the Shrewd Manager. In case you’ve forgotten, that was the parable where the manager was about to sacked, but he acts quickly to make friends. The point of that parable was that we should use worldly wealth to achieve kingdom goals.

It’s when we are acting in this way, that we naturally avoid the lures of our greedy heart.

We still might want to save, but not to make ourselves rich, but to enhance our ability to be rich for others.

Fairness

Now, I want to bring this back to the issue of fairness.

You see, here’s the thing - the original question from the person in the crowd around Jesus just wanted what he thought was fair.

And then… Jesus tells a parable where it very well could be argued that what the rich man was doing was very fair.

He had been working hard. The fact that he wanted to enjoy himself with his bigger barns, wasn’t because he was lazy - it was because he had worked very hard to get there.

Now this is what I want to suggest - we so often use the issue of fairness as cover for what is actually greed.

The man wanted the issue of fairness sorted out. Jesus effectively said - it’s not fairness that needs sorting, it’s your greed.

You see, here’s the thing… sometimes we may have a legitimate claim to cry “it’s not fair”, other times, we might not, but when we make it about fairness, then we don’t need to acknowledge our desire for more.

When we think - I got this money, or these possessions because I deserve it, then we have legitimized the reason why we can store it up. Why should I be generous when I worked hard for it all?

Why this is difficult

What I find interesting, and it happens in many of the parables Jesus teaches… is that we can read them and wholeheartedly agree.

In this case, we know that the slogan - ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’ - is a load of rubbish.

We are actually much better at quoting the saying - “Money doesn’t buy you happy-ness”

But yet, while we know all of this, the reality is, we so often don’t live like it.

We live like our possession really do matter.

And we do it all with the cover of fairness. The simple reason being - I deserve it!

I think the eye opener is when you go to a developing country and you meet people who don’t have much.

When I was in Gono, I saw many people travelling on the roads with no shoes. And the reason was simple. They didn’t have the means to have shoes.

Now here’s the thing - was the fact that I was able to wear my really good quality shoes that were specifically designed for bush walking - was that because I was somehow more deserving than that person with no shoes?

I don’t think you can make that case. These people do work hard and contribute towards their community.

It’s when we think about such things that we need to throw out this concept of ‘it’s only fair’/’I deserve it’ as a cover for our greed.

You may have worked extremely hard to get what you get - just like I suspect this rich man in the parable of Jesus probably worked very hard to get into the fortunate position that he did.

But a selfish attitude spoils all of this. You see, you should be seeing your hard work as a service to the Lord. The results of that labour, should be given back to the Kingdom.

Yes there should be a place for enjoyment - in fact God wants us to be joyful - so within reason, spending money on luxuries is fine.

The Test

But it’s verse 21 that is the real test for us. Are you storing things up for yourself? Or are you being rich towards God?

This is actually a hard thing to examine.

It’s not exactly easy to assess what an appropriate amount of money is to put aside.

Let’s say your in a position to invest money - you can sometimes be faced with a choice, if I invest this money it has the potential to earn interest which could set yourself up better for the future. From a positive perspective, this might mean you could support kingdom work for longer. It might also mean your being self-serving in looking after yourself.

You could on the other hand invest the money in kingdom works, but then you have less to help later. The kingdom investment however, could have great rewards though.

The point I’m trying to make is that this is actually not simple. You need to put a lot of prayer into whatever you do with your money.

But you should always be asking yourself the question, am I being rich towards God?

But this also applies, even for those who are just scraping by in life. The question of investing money might be the most furthest thing from your mind.

But yet, the same principle applies. Are you being rich towards God? Or are you just trying to serve yourself.

Eternity in Perspective

When we talk about money and possesions, it’s not easy, but if we have eternity in perspective, it becomes a lot easier.

Even if you live a very full life and make in well into your 90’s, it’s all going to look like a speck in comparison with eternity.

Let’s just think about this man asking Jesus about his inheritance. Let’s assume he has a legitimate claim on that inheritance. Let’s assume it’s even a sizable inheritance.

He’ll claim it. He might buy himself a few new things. But it’ll be a momentary whiff of good fortune.

Let’s say however, he unfairly misses out. But yet he lives a full life devoted to God.

Those few years still happen, but he enters heaven knowing that he’s made a difference to the kingdom that will last.

Isn’t this better?

Now, I’m not saying that if you are entitled to an inheritance that you shouldn’t bother claiming it.

I’m saying rather that you need to check that your desires have an eternity shaped direction to them.

Conclusion

All of this calls for a different perspective on money. Money is neither inherently good, nor inherently bad.

It’s your heart that is important. And your heart condition, effects the way you deal with money.

If your heart inclined towards yourself? Or is it inclined towards God?

The way you use your money will be a good indicator to show this.

You can justify all you like why the money in your bank account is yours and can be spent the way you want to - but just know this - your final day on this earth will come - will it have shown that you have been rich towards God?

Let me pray...