Somewhere along the way I saw a cartoon of an elderly man of obvious wealth on a canopied death bed, surrounded by servants, family members, lawyers, and all sorts of “hangers-on”. It was quite clear why most of the people had gathered there, but now the old gentleman is sitting up with his arms folded and a very determined look on his face. One bystander says to another, “Someone just told him he couldn’t take it with him, and so he says he isn’t going.”
We chuckle at that. It’s a caricature that is not far from the picture Jesus paints in our parable today – the parable that has been titled, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” For a long time, the working title of it was “Can We Be Successful and Rich and Also Christian?” In my thinking I was adding another picture of Jesus to this parable – that funny, but mind-stopping picture of a camel struggling to pass through the eye of a needle. And then, Jesus’ dogmatic and challenging word: “It’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.”
Though it may take you back, it’s a legitimate question, “Can we be successful and rich and also Christian?” If I had pursued that question, I would have eased the minds of most of you by answering the question right off. “Yes,” yes, it is possible to be successful and rich and also Christian. Otherwise most of us here today would be condemned already, because though not all are rich, most are successful.
I couldn’t pursue the sermon in this fashion because it would let too many of us off the hook. Not many of you here today would admit that you are rich, so you could rationalize the issue quickly. In fact, this is one of those parables of Jesus that too many dismiss out of hand, thinking it has nothing to say to them because it’s about a rich man – a rich man whom Jesus called a fool. But look how the parable begins, verse 15:
“Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” That’s the way the Revised Standard Version has it. “Be on your guard against covetousness in any shape or form. For a man’s real life in no way depends upon the number of his possessions.”
Though I’m not overly fond of The Living Bible, there is a very practical and piercing edge to the paraphrase of this verse: “Beware! Don’t always be wishing for what you don’t have. For real life and real living are not related to how rich you are.”
You get the point. The parable is now about how much we possess, it’s about how we feel about what we possess. It’s about priorities.
Notice how the parable ends. Jesus condemns the “rich fool,” then brings us all into the realm of judgment, verse 21: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Our focus then is a broad one. None of us are excluded from this sharp and challenging teaching of Jesus. We’re talking about a danger common to all of us as we ask the question, “How do we escape being possessed by our possessions?”
I.
In answer to the question I want to first sound two reminders. First, any one of us can become victims of a covetous spirit.
Sometimes, those who don’t have much are more covetous than those who do. “Indeed, many a relatively poor man is greedy at heart. Many rich men realize the emptiness of riches alone. They sometimes escape from covetousness by using their goods in the service of God and humanity. The greatest danger from covetousness comes to those who are in between poverty and wealth. The enterprising, ambitious man often comes to measure success by a dollar sign and nothing else. This is deceptive and dangerous. We think it will bring happiness. It often brings misery and bitterness. When a man is a slave to the almighty dollar, he is undermining his own life at the roots.” (1)
Have you ever thought of it this way? We envy people who are rich; Jesus pitied them. When we hear of people inheriting fortunes, we say ‘lucky people.’ When we hear of men winning rich prizes through their own industry and skill, we’re willing to admit that we would gladly be in their places. We think of the sense of security and the relief from financial strain that wealth could bring, of the desirable things it could purchase, of the opportunity it would give for doing good, and after considering all this, we conclude that it is good to be rich.
Jesus taught otherwise. As James Denny points out, he taught that men should be afraid to become rich. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom.” (Mark 10:24-25)
“This parable (of the rich fool) is designed to show how riches and good fortune in life tend to lead not to blessing but to tragedy. Here we discover one of the great differences between the thinking of Jesus and our own.” (2)
Isn’t it true? We envy people who are rich; Jesus pitied them. All of us can become victims of a covetous spirit.
Now the second reminder. Values in life are not measured by material things.
Someone has said that money can’t purchase happiness, but it can enable you to look for it in some very interesting places. A very wealthy man who had amassed a tremendous fortune at a young age asked his wife one evening, “Honey, would you still love me if I didn’t have all this money?” She replied, “Certainly I’d love you, Sweetie. I’d miss you, but I’d love you.”
How easy it is to misplace values. In the Franklin County Courthouse in Virginia, the will of the man who owned Booker T. Washington is preserved. Since most of his property was in slaves, the owner had listed them and set down the price of each one of them. Opposite the name of Booker Washington he had marked, “$200.”
Was this a fair estimate of that youngster’s worth? He turned out to be one of America’s great men.
It’s easy to misplace values. Each of us has to answer in our own hearts, within the context of our own particular vocation, situation, and walk of life. I confess to you that there are temptations that are peculiar to the ministry – to my vocation – that would threaten to pervert ambition and center it not in the Kingdom of God but in ourselves. I wrestle with that almost daily.
Two reminders: Any one of us can become a victim of a covetous spirit; two, it’s easy to misplace values and put self in the center of things.
II.
Now, some questions – questions that will give us perspective as we seek to escape being possessed by our possessions. The first question: Where do I place my security?
Our Lord is quite explicit about the reason why he regarded the possession of wealth as undesirable. To possess wealth gives a man a false sense of security. Jesus spoke of the “deceitfulness of riches” (Matt. 13:22). When a man possesses riches, he’s deceived about his position in life….
“The rich man in the parable is an illustration of this. When his ground began to bring forth plentifully, he took an inventory of his possessions and found them enormous, almost embarrassing, and he began to say to himself, “At last I can be at ease.” When he surveyed his balance sheets, and looked over the huge new barns he had built and the enormous stock he had laid up, he said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years so take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” How secure he felt and how settled he considered himself! He did not need God now; he did not need prayer; for he had so much else. He did not think of the possibility of death and then the judgment seat; he had so many pleasant things to absorb him.” (3)
So we need to ask: Where do I place my security?
The second question: Do I include the fact of God in my planning?
“The rich man reached affluence mainly by reason of the common wealth…(the gifts of God – the land and the seasons, yet he had no gift of sympathy). ‘What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits?’ Was there no sickness to heal, no nakedness to clothe? Were there none on whom a sharper problem pressed, who were compelled to ask, ‘What shall I do, because stark poverty has come to be our guest?’ Deliberately this man proposed to spend the rest of his days on the pleasure of his body: “Soul, thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” He was heedless of his comrades of earth, even as he was heedless of God.” (4)
You see, when we don’t include God in our planning, we grow blind to the world around us. We also grow blind to God and our spiritual need.
Sir John Wilson travels 50,000 miles a year in behalf of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, an organization that (annually) brings sight to 141,000 people. What is remarkable is that Wilson himself is blind. A few years ago he traveled to the village of Nakong in Northern Ghana where almost everyone is blind. Farmers taught him to plant grain by following a straight piece of bamboo. Their wives went to the well by following a piece of rope. He discovered that these villagers we so accustomed to blindness they found it difficult to believe that the rest of the world could see. (5)
Something like that happens to a spiritual vision. Some people become so accustomed to the dark that they no longer believer the light exists. That happens to us when we leave God out of our planning. That’s what happened to the rich fool. His plans were spoiled because God had another intention. This wise man had not consulted God and his plans were spoiled because he had considered the welfare only of himself. His plans, inspired by selfish ambition, were all folly, because God has the final decision, and this is God’s world. (6)
Do I include the fact of God in my planning?
The third question: Why do I want more? Most of us don’t stop to ask that, do we? We get on a roll and we don’t even question why we are doing what we are. Accumulation and gaining more, becomes an end, rather a means.
Why do I want more?
Security? We’ve addressed that question.
Status and ego identity? Read the story and notice how many times the word “I” and “My” occur. The rich man uses “I” six times, and he used “my” or “thine” addressed to himself six times…the language of a self-centered, selfish, egotist.
Is that the reason we want more? To satisfy our ego, to give us status?
The question comes around to a fourth one: What would I like to be remembered by?
Someone has said that there are 3 kicks to every dollar: the kick of earning it, the kick of having it, and the kick of giving it away. Isn’t it true that persons are remembered most and best by what they give away – how they spend themselves or refuse to spend themselves in love to others.
George Willis Spann lived in Pueblo, Colorado. They called him “Pop” Spann. For 34 years, “Pop” was caretaker of the public school in Pueblo. “He loved and served the children far beyond the call of duty. And they loved him. He listened to their troubles and helped them out of scrapes. He bandaged their hurts and fixed their bicycles. He played with them after school hours, even though he had to work later to do his chores. He strengthened the weaker ones and gave friendship to those who needed it. He loaned them money and bought them presents. He often spent part of his own salary for more equipment for the children. At Christmas, he always gave them a paper mural of the nativity for the cafeteria. All the community came to love and respect this modest, sincere man. Shortly after his retirement, the city of Pueblo built a handsome new school building for $375,000. It proudly bears the name, “George Willis Spann” in honor of “Pop,” the man who lived a life the same time he was making a living. (7)
What do I want to be remembered for?
Now the fifth and final question: Am I rich toward God? That’s the clenching question, and that’s the note on which Jesus closes his parable, verses 20-21: “God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
In the vast Dallas – Ft. Worth Airport is the mounted skeleton of a plesiosaur. His bones were found during the excavating necessary to build that ultra-modern air terminal. The plesiosaur is said to be 70 million years old. He was a great lizard, 25 feet long and weighing 10,000 pounds. When you stand in the midst of that monument to the latest in modern technology, you can’t help but be impressed by those ancient bones in contrast to this most modern of airports; and the combination of the old and the new causes you to think about life itself. When centuries have passed, how significant will be the things we allow to cause us anxiety, or the things we presently think are important? The question that has eternal significance is, “Are we rich toward God?”
A man’s life is surely a tragedy and a failure if he has been a success in everything else, but in the end, he lacks the one that matters. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, He looked at him and loved him and said, “One thing you lackest; go and sell what you have and give it to the poor – and you shall have treasure in heaven.” (Matt. 19:21)
What is true wealth?
A clear conscience – cleansed by prayer and the forgiving grace of God.
A committed will – kept strong by a day-to-day Gethsemane “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
A loving family – our own husbands, wives, parents, children – but also that wider family that is ours when we care and allow others to care out of our love for Christ.
A companionship with the living Christ whose love atones our sins and mistakes, and whose presence is kept alive by our response to his promise for presence: “Abide in me, and I in you; for apart from me, you can do nothing at all.”
That’s true wealth, and that is the wealth which a certain rich man exchanged for overflowing barns. We don’t want to make the same mistake, do we?
1. Charles M. Crow, Sermons on the Parables of Jesus, Abingdon Press, MCMLIII, p. 120.
2. Ronald S. Wallace, Many Things in Paradise, New York, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1955, pp. 145-46.
3. Ronald S. Wallace, Many Things in Parables, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955, p. 146.
4. George A. Buttrick, “The Parables of Jesus,” New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1928, p. 131.
5. Pulpit Digest, September – October, 1980, p. 35 – “From Robert C. Shannon’s Pulpit”.
6. Wallace, Ibid., pp. 147-48.
7. Charles M. Crowe, Ibid., p. 124.
