One thing I learned a long time ago is that the Bible makes sense. Some things, of course, are mystical and difficult to understand. Other things seem fantastic and beyond the reach of reasonable explanation. But in the grand scheme of all that we find in scripture, everything begins to make sense as we see God’s plan laid out before us.
With that in mind, when I hear Jesus say, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor,” I have to wonder: Does he mean for us to sell everything? It seems like quite a blanket statement on the surface of it. “Sell your possessions” has no qualifiers. He didn’t say, “Sell half your possessions,” or “sell a tenth of your possessions.” He merely said, “Sell your possessions.” Frankly, it sounds like he wants us to sell it all.
It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that. For one thing, if every Christian sold all their possessions and gave all the money to the poor, we would die out inside two weeks. I’m just guessing, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the Lord’s intent here. Being a guy who believes the Lord meant what he said; I’ve got to struggle with this one.
The apostle Paul once wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica and reminded them of a rule they had instituted while he was with them. It was a simple one. “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). He also said something similar to the Ephesian church. He told them to do something useful with their hands “that they may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28). These instructions seem to dovetail with what Jesus is saying in today’s text.
Selling possessions and giving to the poor cannot be done unless we’re earning a livelihood. If we’re not working and producing, selling and giving things away will put us into the category of the down and out before too long. If we’re all poor, we’ll all starve. I’m quite sure that’s not God’s plan for the human race.
It sounds like Jesus and Paul want us to be productive and then be generous with what we’ve earned. In so doing, we will be investing in God’s kingdom. Our treasure will be in heaven, and our hearts will follow. It sounds easy, but it takes a lot of courage to live like that.
Jesus understood this, which is why he led into our passage by saying, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” In order to live a life of generosity, we must first place our trust in the Lord. We must have enough confidence in him that we expect him to come through for us. If our giving is significant, there will be times when we will be the ones in need. Do we trust God enough to provide in those times?
I’ve heard people say that we should live by faith in such a way that, if the Lord doesn’t provide, we won’t make it. That, my friends, is a life lived close to the edge. I’m not sure I would be very relaxed living like that. Like most of you, I feel more comfortable when there are a few dollars in the bank. On the other hand, when I’m invested in the things of God, my heart resides with him and my faith grows as I see him provide.
The passage leading into our scripture lesson for today is all about worry — more specifically, not worrying. Jesus is telling his followers that God will take care of their needs. It follows that, if we’re trusting God for our own needs, we’re not going to fret over helping someone else. We’ll be able to do that without fear. We have a tendency to hedge our bets when we consider offering our hard earned dollars to others in need. Jesus is basically telling us to go for it — be generous. God’s got our back.
While everyone was trying to absorb what Jesus was telling them, he launched into two short parables. At first blush, these parables seemingly have no relation to what he had just said about possessions. However, a closer look provides us with a deeper connection than first perceived.
The first story Jesus told concerns servants waiting for their master to return home from a wedding reception. They didn’t know when he would get back, so they were admonished to be ready and on the alert for his return. Jesus noted that the man could arrive home at any hour of the day or night — even as late as daybreak. Still, the servants should be “dressed and ready for service” (Luke 12:35) .
This story ties back into his previous parable about the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21) whose life was required of him before he got to enjoy the fruit of his labors. Like him, these servants are up against a timetable without a clock. They don’t know when their services will be required. They just have to be ready when the time comes. The final line of the second parable explains the real meaning. “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:40).
The tie-in becomes obvious when we think about our lives and our possessions in terms of time. We don’t know when our lives will be required of us. We don’t know when Jesus will return for us. Neither do we know how long we will have our possessions and wealth. Anything can happen. We’ve seen these things occur in the lives of others, and we could be next.
The question for us then becomes one of service. Are we in service to the master now, or are we waiting for some other time to be faithful with what we have? Are we currently using our means (our wealth and possessions) to be of service in God’s kingdom? Are we investing in heaven now by coming to the aid of humanity? If we do the latter, we position our hearts with the Son of Man rather than with our own selfish desires.
The second of the two parables is virtually identical in meaning. It’s only one verse long — one sentence. In Luke 12:39 Jesus simply states, “But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” The watchword of these two related parables is readiness. Be ready to serve at any time. Don’t wait for some future date to be generous with your time, your wealth, or your possessions. That date might never arrive.
This, I suppose, begs a couple of questions: “When should we serve,” and “How often should we be expected to give?” Verse 35 says everything we need to know about this. Be ready. Be prepared. Have the mind and heart of a servant twenty-four/seven. The idea is not to keep tabs on the number of times we give or the amount we offer. The idea is to be ready, willing, and able. If this is our state of preparedness when opportunities for service and giving arise, we’ll be of a mind and heart to jump in to do our part.
The actual context for most of Jesus’ teachings in Luke chapter twelve is a question posed in verse thirteen. Someone had asked Jesus to intervene in a dispute over a family inheritance. Jesus’ immediate retort indicated in no uncertain terms that he was not an arbiter in such matters (nor did he care to be such). He warns the quarrelers against greed and tells them the Parable of the Rich Fool who dies. His overall point in all of what follows is this. If we’re following Christ, our possessions are his, we are his, and our heart is his. What we own will become secondary. Everything we are and have will be positioned for service to our Lord.
There’s a slightly different way of looking at this as well. That way is the way of expectation. When you’re expecting someone, your heart and thoughts are with them. If we’re expecting Jesus, we’ll have a heart for his work. Our thoughts will be aligned with his will for our lives. Our possessions (including our very lives) will be implements of his grace, mercy, and compassion. We will be doing what we can to usher his kingdom into the lives of those around us. If he has won our hearts, the blessings he has bestowed upon us will be expendable in our quest to serve him well.
In verse 39, Jesus speaks of a thief. The owner of the house must be ready for the thief who would come and steal into his home. The Son of Man (Jesus) is not a thief of that sort. Yet, he steals our hearts. We want him to be near to us. We expect him to come. Thus, we are always ready and waiting for him to show up. We don’t have to think about it, we just are.
And show up he does. He comes on our scene in so many ways. When we look into the face of a starving child, we see Jesus. When we put our arms around a woman whose heart has been broken by divorce, we are holding Jesus. When we help a wounded veteran put his life back together, we are helping Jesus. If we’re willing to see Jesus in the faces, hearts, and lives of those around us, he shows up in myriads of ways. It’s our calling — it’s his voice echoing out across the circumstances of life.
Jesus is the love of our lives. As such, we recognize him as the real owner of the things we like to call “our possessions.” They’re not ours — they’re his. We are merely trustees. He has entrusted us with blessings to be used in his work. The return is guaranteed.
When I was a credit manager for a large produce firm, I was introduced to the PACA statute. PACA stands for Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. It was instituted by Congress to protect those who sold agricultural goods that had a short shelf life. The industry credit standard was net thirty (meaning the customers had thirty days from delivery to pay). The obvious problem is that the produce would be long gone by the due date — even if it went unused, it spoiled by then. That left nothing for the seller to reclaim or repossess.
The PACA law essentially put the produce into a trust. At the end of the thirty days, even though the original potatoes or bananas were gone, the trust remained. As a credit manager attempting to collect debts, this was a handy law. We seldom lost a case because of the automatic trust that was created by the initial transaction.
The Lord has given us possessions, which we similarly hold in trust. The restaurateurs who used our products in their menu items would earn enough money to pay us at the end of the month. They no longer had the produce, but they had the profit of their sales from which to pay their initial bill. Likewise, we can’t pay the Lord back by returning his original blessings. We can, however, use those blessings to produce fruit for the kingdom of God.
When Jesus is the true love of our lives, we’re always ready to serve him. We’re waiting for the opportunities to do so. When he arrives on the scene, we’re there to greet him — to tell him we love him — to offer our service in whatever ways we’ve been equipped to do so.
When Jesus is the love of our lives, our hearts belong to him. Our trust is in him and his provision for us. We are inheriting a kingdom — the kingdom of God. If we’re looking to a bottom line, we can be assured that our assets will always outgain our losses. Jesus’ opening words in the passage then become truly significant. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).