Linus is philosophizing with Lucy. "Life is peculiar," he says. "Wouldn't you like to have your life to live over if you knew what you know now?"
Lucy stares off blankly, then asks, "What do I know now?"
E. Stanley Jones once told of being on a cruise ship. There was a rather corpulent couple on that cruise who seemed to live from one meal to the next. They were retired and obviously had plenty of money, but they seemed miserable. They were always angry with the table stewards for not giving them super-service. They seemed to be afraid they might starve between courses. They never read a book or paper. Their physical appetites seemed the one thing that mattered to them. They sat between meals and stared out, apparently waiting for the next meal. One night Jones saw them sitting and staring blankly as usual, when the man suddenly noticed something. He went to the mantelpiece, picked up the vases, looked into them, and then returned to his wife with the news: "They're empty!" Jones came very near laughing. The man was right: "They're empty!" But it wasn't merely the vases! The souls and brains of both of these passengers were empty. They had a lot in their purses, said Jones, but nothing in their persons; and that was their punishment. They had security with boredom ” no adventure. They had expanding girths and narrowing horizons. (1)
Jesus and his disciples were traveling throughout the countryside. Along the way Jesus was teaching about the coming of the kingdom of God. People would stop and listen to his message. He would challenge them to examine their lives and their relationship with God. Sometimes his words struck a chord, and when that happened someone in the crowd would seek him out to learn more.
One day an unlikely person sought out Jesus. He is only identified in the Bible as being wealthy. He ran up to Jesus in the heat of the day, something that wealthy people never did, and knelt before the Master. "Good Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
This brings us to our first truth for the day: THERE'S SOMETHING MORE TO LIFE THAN RICHES.
On the surface it appeared that this man was indeed fortunate. He was wealthy. He probably owned quite a bit of land, and he had hired hands to work for him. He was the envy of the whole village. In their eyes he had it all. But maybe this man was like the couple on board the ship ” he had much in his purse, but nothing in his person. There was an empty feeling in his life that his great wealth could not fill. Notice that he was a good man who attended the temple, and not only knew the Ten Commandments but also lived by them. But there was still something missing from his life.
Maya Angelou tells about her Aunt Tee who worked as a housekeeper for a couple in Bel Air, California. She lived with the couple in their spacious fourteen-room ranch house. They were a very quiet couple. As they had gotten older they had stopped entertaining their friends and even spoke less to each other. "Finally," Maya says, "they sat in a dry silence."
Aunt Tee, on the other hand, enjoyed entertaining her friends on Saturday evenings. She would cook a pot of pig's feet, a pot of greens, fry chicken, make potato salad, and bake banana pudding for her friends to feast upon. And they would have a marvelous time together. There was always plenty of laughter coming from Aunt Tee's room.
One Saturday as they were playing cards, the old couple called her. "Theresa, we don't mean to disturb you..." the man whispered, "but you all seem to be having such a good time..."
The woman added, "We hear you and your friends laughing every Saturday night, and we'd just like to watch you. We don't want to bother you. We'll be quiet and just watch."
At that moment they both won Aunt Tee's sympathy forever. She agreed to allow them to watch her and her friends. It was a sad situation since the couple owned the spacious house, complete with swimming pool and three cars, but they had no joy in their lives.
"Money and power can liberate only if they are used to do so," Maya reflects. "They can imprison and inhibit more finally than barred windows and iron chains."
(2) There's much more to life than riches. Somebody once wrote:
Money will buy:
a bed, but not sleep;
Food, but not appetite;
Books, but not knowledge;
Medicine, but not health;
Entertainment, but not happiness;
A house, but not a home.
This one wealthy man had discovered the limitations of riches, and he came to Jesus for help. Jesus looked right at him, full of love, and was able to see what was in his soul. So Jesus challenged him, "You lack one thing: go sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The wealthy man was saddened by Jesus' reply. The cost was too great for him. It was inconceivable for him to think of parting with his wealth. He walked away. Is anyone here really surprised? Not many wealthy people are willing to part with their wealth ” even to follow Jesus.
ONE OF THE CONSISTENT THEMES OF THE GOSPELS IS THE DANGER OF POSSESSING GREAT WEALTH.
John Wesley, who was winning people to Christ out of the lower socioeconomic strata of English society, found that those who were converted stopped boozing, gambling, and wasting their money; and instead became diligent and hardworking. Little by little, Wesley observed, they crept up the socioeconomic ladder. But the more successful these new converts became, the more they turned away from Jesus, and the more they came to believe that the doctrines that Wesley preached were foolish. (3)
Several years ago, in a powerful article about learning to live with money, Philip Yancey wrote about his friends who had done well financially. "In most cases, a large home and fine furniture make them less hospitable, not more," says Yancey. "Our conversations, which had once ranged over personal and social concerns, kept drifting to comparisons of clothing labels, gourmet restaurants, and video recorders. Affluence had a strangely distancing effect. It created barriers."
(4) Wealth can distance us from others. Even more importantly, it can distance us from God.
Harvard Medical School psychologist Steven Berglas has written a book called THE SUCCESS SYNDROME. He has found that individuals who in his word "suffer" from success have arrogance and a sense of aloneness. Insider trader Dennis Levine was asked by his wife why he needed the money from insider trading and he really had no answer. Levine says that when his income was $100,000, he hungered for $200,000, and when he was making $1 million, he hungered for $3 million. Berglas says that oddly enough people who find that $200,000 did not make them happy never asked themselves why they thought $300,000 would make them happy. Asked to prescribe a cure for the success syndrome, Berglas said, "What's missing in these people (Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Leona Helmsley) is deep commitment or religious activity that goes far beyond just writing a check to a charity." (5)
Jesus challenged the unnamed man to sell his belongings and give the proceeds to the poor. Then Jesus invited him to "come and follow me." It was a call to discipleship. The man came searching for answers that he believed Jesus could give him. Jesus gave him the answer he was looking for. But the very thought of giving up his wealth was unbearable. So he walked away. Jesus told his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
But this is not the end of the story. The rich man was shocked when Jesus suggested he sell all his belongings and give the proceeds to the poor. The disciples were equally shocked at Jesus' words about the difficulty of wealthy people entering the kingdom of God. It was an accepted belief of the day that if you were wealthy, God was looking favorably on you. Besides, it's much easier for a wealthy person to serve God, at least that's what they thought. It is because of these ideas that Jesus' words concerning the difficulty of a wealthy person entering heaven shocked the disciples. They began asking each other, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them lovingly and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for with God all things are possible."
What Jesus was saying is that there is nothing in this world that can save us ” not our good works or our worthy attitudes or even our wealth. ONLY GOD CAN SAVE US. And when we put our trust in anything else, we are making a serious mistake.
One twelve-year-old boy who grew up in an atheist family had a strong sense of God. His older brother would often tease him, almost mocking him for his belief in God, but nothing could dissuade this young boy's faith.
One day he was asked what difference it would make in the world if God did not exist? The young boy paused for a moment then used his fish tank as an example. He explained that his aquarium is meant to be a perfectly balanced ecological system. The fish eat the plants and live on the oxygen the plants give off. The snails keep the sides of the tank clean, and live off the algae. It is supposed to be a self-contained cycle not requiring him to do anything. But, he explained, "my aquarium is not perfect." There were many times when he would have to do something to restore that balance, because if he didn't his fish would die. Relating his aquarium to his understanding of God he said, "And we will never know how much God does every day to keep our world working as well as it does." The young boy had a remarkable understanding of God for someone his age, or any age. (6) God has everything under control. Only God can save us.
What Jesus told his disciples both shocked and amazed them. They had left their families, their jobs, everything they had, and Peter reminded Jesus of this. Jesus replied that in following him there will indeed be many rewards. "Truly I tell you," Jesus said, "there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age."
Thus Jesus teaches us that there is more to life than riches. Be careful how you use money. It has a distancing effect ” it distances us from both God and one another. Trust God and God alone for your salvation.
1. E. Stanley Jones, GROWING SPIRITUALLY (Nashville, TN: Abington, 1953), p. 4.
2. Maya Angelou, WOULDN'T TAKE NOTHING FOR MY JOURNEY NOW, (New York: Random House, 1993), pp. 62-64.
3. "Would Jesus Drive a BMW?" Interview with Tony Campolo, YOUTHWORKER, Spring 1994, p. 3.
4. Philip Yancey, "Learning to Live With Money," CHRISTIANITY TODAY 28, no. 18 (December 14, 1984), pp. 30-42.
5. David W. Richardson, EMPHASIS, September-October, 1992, p. 34.
6. James W. Fowler, BECOMING ADULT, BECOMING CHRISTIAN, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1984), p. 88.