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Text: Luke What Do You Work For? In the name of him loved us and gave
his life for us, dear friends in Christ:
Jesus was teaching the mysteries of the kingdom of God to large crowd
when a man spoke up and made a simple request of him: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me.” It was clear to
this fellow that Jesus was someone well versed in the sacred Scriptures, and it
was not uncommon in those days to ask an esteemed Rabbi to interpret the Law of
Moses in order resolve this sort of dispute.
And more than that, I suspect that Jesus’ reputation for having a
uniquely compassionate understanding of the Torah made this fellow think that
with Jesus he was more likely to get a favorable hearing than he would with
other more conventional Rabbis. But we aren’t given any of the details of his case. What was this guy’s beef with his brother? We don’t know. Was it that his brother was holding out on him and not giving him his proper share the inheritance? Or was it that he was protesting the universal custom of that day to give the eldest son an extra portion of the father’s estate – and he didn’t think that was fair and that Jesus might agree with him? Or maybe it was something else entirely. The simple fact is that we’re not told – and the reason for that is that ultimately it does not matter. That’s because when all is said and done, the man’s request bubbles down to one thing: “Jesus, help me get more money.” And in his reply, Jesus makes it clear that that’s not what he or his ministry is about. In fact, there is some real irony in
the man’s request. In the verses
preceding this text, Jesus has been speaking about what people really ought to
be concerned about. He said not to worry
about those who can kill the body, but rather to fear God who, after the body
is destroyed, can assign the soul to hell for all eternity. He was talking about keeping things in
perspective and understanding that spiritual matters, and faith, and your
relationship with God are infinitely more important than anything you might
suffer in your body. And so while he’s
going on about this vital focus on things that matter eternally, along comes
this guy with a purely temporal concern.
It’s like: “Hello-o! Have you been listening to anything I’ve been
saying?” Clearly not. But then, his enormously obtuse hearing of
Jesus’ message is not by any means uncommon.
All of us hear the words, “Don’t worry about what you will eat, or
drink, or wear; but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
then your Father in heaven will see to it that you have all these things that
you need” – we hear that; but when the chips are down, rarely do any of
us show any evidence of really believing it.
And so the man’s foolishly inappropriate request serves as a jumping off
point for Jesus to provide his hearers with a concrete application of precisely
what he’s been talking about: namely,
our tendency to place our trust for the things we need in life not so much in
God, but rather in worldly wealth. And it’s extremely important that we
not brush this off as something that doesn’t matter so much because, after all,
it does not affect our eternal salvation.
The fact is that it can. You see,
in the same way that the human life seeks to find security for its future on
earth in the accumulation of wealth rather than on God who has promised to
provide all things, so also the human soul seeks to hang its hopes for eternal
salvation upon its own record of achievements rather than on the merits of
Christ. The two are closely related –
the question is whether we trust in ourselves or in the promises of God. Now, I’m certain that we would all say that
we believe that we have been given eternal life in heaven because God’s own Son
came into this world to bear our sin, suffer and die on a cross, and to be
raised for our justification. Each one
of you would confess that truth. But
this raises the question, “How can you claim to trust the Lord for the greater,
eternal blessings that remain as yet unseen, if you don’t trust him to take
care of the lesser, temporal ones that you can see?” It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Instead, lack of trust concerning the things
of this life is a pretty strong indicator that you don’t trust the Lord for
what really counts. And with that in
mind, I’ll ask you this morning to spend some time examining your own heart to
determine to what (or to whom) it is you look for a sense of security in the
present, because that may very well reveal some gaps that need to be repaired
in your faith as it pertains to your eternal salvation. There’s an advertising campaign that
one of the big, well-known financial investment companies is currently using
that revolves around the theme: “What do
you work for?” I’ve seen their ads
several times in various news magazines that I read – perhaps you’ve seen them
too. Usually there’ll be a picture of
someone, oh, around age sixty or so, enjoying some kind of outdoor
activity. The last one I saw had a woman
carrying a kayak over her head. I guess
she was about to shoot some white water rapids or something. And underneath the picture was the campaign slogan,
“What do you work for?” All in all, I’d
have to say that the ad conveys a very powerful and seductive message that
appeals to the materialistic culture in which we live. What’s that message? It’s simply this: you work so that you can play. Or to be more precise: you work so that you can retire, so that you can keep on playing, doing whatever it is you
enjoy doing without a care in the world.
The campaign assumes that you’re working so that you can stash enough
money away so that you can reach the point when you no longer have to work and
you can just rest secure on your accumulated wealth; and of course, the purpose
of the ad is to tell you that their team of financial advisors is eager to help
you realize this goal. It’s quite
clever, because I think they’ve put their finger on what has over the last
couple generations become the American dream:
to attain the status of being idly rich – and to attain it at as young
an age as possible. You know, up until eighty years ago
or so not one person in ten thousand reached that goal – and most of those who
did were European nobles who inherited their wealth. The vast majority of people worked their
whole lives through; worked until they were physically incapable of it, and
then they were cared for in the home by their families. There were no such things as retirement
communities or nursing homes. Instead it
was common for there to be three and sometimes four generations of a family
living under the same roof – and everyone who could, worked. And in most of the world, that’s the way it
still is; but not here, not any more. The reason for that is that we live in an
extremely wealthy nation where there is enough capital floating around that
just about anyone can at some point in his life, with a little foresight and
planning, attain the goal of financial independence – that is to have enough
stored up so that he doesn’t have to work anymore. And I think that because it’s become so
accessible and commonplace that most of us have been seduced into thinking
about it as if it were a normal, spiritually healthy expectation and goal. But is it? The reason I ask is that this is
precisely the goal realized by the man in the parable Jesus told. He was already rich by the standards of his
day. He had a large estate that produced
enough for him to live quite comfortably from year to year – but, of course,
that meant that he had to plan and manage and hire workers and so forth. He was rich – but he had to keep working to
stay that way. Ah, but then one year he
has a superabundant crop that puts him over the top. He crunches the numbers and realizes, “I’ve
done it. I’ve achieved financial
independence. I don’t have to work
anymore – and I’m not going to.” And there are a few things about his
attitude that we should sit up and take notice of. He reveals where his heart is in the little
discussion he has with himself. First,
there’s the question of to whom he gives credit for his success. You’ll notice that there’s not even a hint of
being thankful to God for all his blessings.
But look: it’s likely that he
inherited most of the land he owns that produces his wealth – that was pretty
much the only way to get land in his day.
So that was a gift, pure and simple.
It’s true that he managed the estate well; but then, who gave him the
intelligence and wisdom to do that? Also
a gift from God. And then, of course,
who gave him the overflowing harvest?
Everything he has is a gift of God; but you wouldn’t know it to hear
him. Then consider the totally
self-absorbed way he ponders how this wealth might be used. It’s all about him. He’s got more than he can even store – which
means that he has enough to live high on the hog (or for a Jew maybe I should
say “high on the lamb”) and still use the excess to help those who are in need
– and there are plenty of them around.
But no, he’s determined to keep everything he’s got for himself – he
just needs more room to store it all.
And it makes you wonder about his employees. What are they going to be doing while he’s
living off fat of this one year? It’s,
“I’ve got what I need. So this farm is
closed. I guess you’ll have to find a
job someplace else.” He never stops to
think that his work that he is about to hang up creates work and a living for
others. And then the biggest problem of all
is where he places his trust for the years that are coming. He’s built his dream of idle luxury on the
pile of riches he has stored up. That’s
foolish on two counts. One way, not mentioned
in this parable but that appears elsewhere in the Bible is the problem of
keeping it all. Thieves, rats, a leaky
barn roof that causes the grain to spoil … it wouldn’t take much to lose it
all. No fortune amassed by man is ever
really secure. The Lord who graciously
gives must also extend his hand to protect such wealth or it will soon be
lost. And of course the other
consideration is the gift of life itself.
That is the way the parable ends, when the man to whom God gave so much
– but who did not acknowledge its source, so selfishly used it, and who trusted
in it rather than in God who gave it – had his great plans suddenly interrupted
and brought to nothing. And just in case
we might have missed it, Jesus gives us the moral of the story: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores
up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” And here I want to make something
perfectly clear. It was no sin for this
man to be rich in the things of this world.
It was no sin for him to have a great harvest – to be made richer by the
Lord. His sin (or rather sins)
had to do with his thoughts and attitudes regarding his wealth. Though he was wealthy by the world’s
reckoning, his greed, his self-indulgence, and his misplaced trust demonstrated
that he was utterly destitute of the treasures that matter most. As Jesus indicated, he was not rich toward
God. What does that mean? One commentator put it this way: “To be rich toward God is to believe
that God is the giver of all things, including life [and everything needed to
support it in the present] and [ultimately for] salvation. To show that one believes is to share
with others the gifts that God gives.”
The man in the parable didn’t think about sharing his excess because he
was looking to it rather than to God to provide for his future. And as we apply this story to
ourselves and to our own efforts to achieve financial independence, we have to
ask, “How much would you have to accumulate to ensure that your future is
secure?” Inflation is on the rise again,
we’ve seen that markets can fluctuate widely eliminating fortunes overnight,
health care costs are skyrocketing out of control, and no one knows about the
sort of wildcard happenings that can make all the plans come undone. The fact is that there is no such thing as
financial independence – we are always one hundred percent dependent upon the
Lord. So, how much is enough? If your trust is in your wealth, no amount,
however much, will ever be enough. If
your trust is in the Lord, then you are truly rich, and no amount however small
with be too little. And just as a side note here, I
sometimes run into people who are horrified that due to their poor planning or
other misfortunes that when they get older, they may end up having to work at
McDonald’s or be greeter for the local Wal-Mart in order to make ends
meet. I wonder, why? Some people look at older people working at
such places and think, “What a terrible tragedy.” But isn’t God still taking care of them? And aren’t they still contributing something
to the community? What’s so tragic about
that? For many of them it would be a
far greater tragedy if they didn’t have anything else to do. And let me issue another corrective
here lest I be misunderstood. It happens
that the Lord has blessed some people, perhaps some of you, with what might be
called financial independence – at least by the world’s standards. This too is no sin in and of itself. But let me suggest that such people have been
given an excess of another commodity that few people ever have enough of, and
that’s time. The question for
such people is what are you going to do with the excess? Will you hoard it for yourself like the man
in the parable who dreamed of being idle so that he could spend all his time
playing and satisfying his appetites? Or
will you contribute some of it to the service of others? Those who do not have to work for themselves
are in a unique position to do volunteer work.
And again, how you look upon the gift that God has given will determine
what you do with it. So, with all that has been said up to
this point in mind, I’ll ask you to spend some time reflecting this week upon
the question, “What am I working for?”
For where our trust has been misplaced and our priorities out of whack,
may our gracious heavenly Father bring us to proper repentance. May he impress upon us that he is the source
of everything we need in this life – and more importantly, through the merits
of Christ Jesus, his Son, the giver of what we need for life eternal. May he move us by his Spirit to work for
those riches that cannot lose their value and that will never fail: to be faithful to him and to serve one
another in his love. In Jesus’ holy
name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |
