Luke 12:13-21 Covetousness
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 12 and verse 13. We are going to look at verse 13-21 and that’s on page 871 in the pew Bibles.
Last week we looked at a passage of Scripture that warned against the unforgivable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And as vague and complex as that idea is and its understanding so cloudy and hazy, I would rather chew on that text ten times over before I would happily dive into this one that stands before us this morning.
But that’s not how it works here. We work through the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse so we can’t skip over the stuff that we don’t get, or don’t like, or that makes us uncomfortable. And so this morning we come to Luke 12:13-21.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Let’s pray.
Now you may remember from our previous studies that Luke arranged his Gospel more thematically than chronologically, and just as the last few passages that we have looked at dealt with similar topics so the next few passages will too.
In these next few passages Jesus is really dealing with our priorities as his disciples, what we put first in our lives, what takes priority.
Here in our text for this morning Jesus uses a request from someone in the crowd to teach His disciples and us a little bit about arranging our priorities.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
Jesus’ job while here on earth was not to settle disputes between people as Moses had done. Moses spent all day listening to arguments and accusations and dispensing judgments and divisions of goods until it wore him out. That was not Jesus’ role and it was a mantle He was not going to pick up.
His concern was not who got what in the dispute between these two brothers, but rather, what was at the heart of the dispute.
Jesus knows the heart. He knew what this man’s desires were, and what his priorities were. He knew what the man would do with the inheritance once he got it and that is what motivated the warning and the parable.
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Covetousness is the crux of the issue here. Some translations use the word, “greed,” this is where the word, “avarice,” comes from.
Covetousness is a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more than other people have, all irrespective of need.
Irrespective of need is a pretty important part of that definition.
Not coveting another person’s goods was important enough to our Heavenly Father that it made His top ten list of things not to do, it’s the tenth commandment!
The hard pill to swallow is that Jesus said, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” That pill tastes so bitter because I agree with my head that it is right, I will preach from this pulpit that it is right, but when the rubber meets the road I don’t live like it is right.
Take a walk through my house, or worse, take a walk through my wood shop, I don’t live like this is right. Maybe I’m not the only one.
I’m sure that you have heard it said that money doesn’t buy happiness. JJ vanOosterzee wrote, “That riches in and of themselves do not give happiness is undoubtedly true, yet not the chief thought of this parable.” Money can’t buy happiness is not Jesus’ point here. I think it’s a little closer to: don’t waste your life and your resources on yourself.
Let’s take a look at the parable.
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
First things first, this guy was already rich, let’s be clear about that. In the past his land had produced well enough that he needed multiple barns to store his crops, and now is faced with a bumper crop, more than he ever expected.
The farmer was faced with a choice: what to do with this abundant harvest. He could have filled his existing barns and sold the rest, he could have filled his barns and given the rest to the poor, instead he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones in order to keep the abundance for himself.
Jesus is not saying that having wealth is evil, neither is He denying the validity of earning income, or possessing worldly goods. What he is warning against is covetousness which has at its heart selfishness. That heart attitude that causes a person to crave what they don’t have or even more of what they do whether they need it or not.
Take a look at the farmer’s statement when considering his problem.
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’
You know what I see? Eleven times he refers to himself in three sentences.
Again, vanOosterzee states, “That his increased prosperity offers him opportunity to do something for his poor brethren, does not even come to his mind. Selfishness strikes the key note.”
Selfishness is at the heart of covetousness.
The man thought that he had reached the pinnacle of human life, he had all he needed, but he had no regard for God or his neighbor, he just wanted to live out his life at ease.
The trouble was that he overestimated how much time he had left!
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Warren Wiersbe said, “People who are satisfied only with the things that money can buy are in great danger of losing the things that money cannot buy.” He who dies with the most toys still dies.
Again, this is not a lesson against material things but materialism- the selfish seeking of the essence of life in the abundance of stuff.
The rich man was not a fool because he was rich, he was a fool because he was blessed abundantly by God and didn’t have the wisdom to acknowledge that it was God who blessed him, and he didn’t have the wisdom to use his abundant blessing to bless others.
Proverbs 3:8-9 says, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
It was no accident that Jesus taught us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.”
Being rich toward God, or rich in regards to God is recognizing that man’s life is wholly dependent on God not on our possessions. Being rich in regards to God is relying solely on His providence not trusting in earthly things or the pursuit of even more earthly things whether we need them or not.
What this all boils down to is our priorities, what comes first for us in our everyday reality? Trust in our Father’s daily provision for our need, or our endless pursuit of more stuff? If you look at my Amazon order history you might wonder.
This can all be summed up in the Great Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
When we love the Lord with all we have, we recognize that all we have comes from Him and belongs to Him and should be used for His glory, and when we love our neighbor as we love ourselves we’ll share our abundant blessings with them.
Amen.
