26. Jesus on money teaches us to be rich toward God

This is the 26^th post as I attempt to visit everything (pretty much!) Jesus said about money in the gospels over 2 weeks. In order to do this I will be putting up around two posts each day. This is coinciding with a 2-week preaching series that we are going through at Community Church Putney- Jesus On Money.

The Parable of the Rich Fool Luke 12:13-21

‘Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”’

Jesus says,

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Jesus on money teaches us that this parable is important for all of us to consider because we are all in danger of becoming ‘selfish storers’ rather than 'rich toward God'. 

Jesus is not opposed to the accumulation of wealth; wealth is a very powerful tool when used for good! Jesus is opposed wealth creation that is not put under His Lordship; the aim of the rich man in the parable was to ‘take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ This man sought to accumulate wealth for his own selfish ends, he was not rich toward God. 

Paul says something interesting and apropos,

‘Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.’ (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

A great gauge to test ourselves on whether we are rich toward God is how our faith is being stretched; If we can live a life without the need to exert faith in God, then we are probably storing and using wealth in the wrong fashion.

Our attitude should be like that of John Wesley,

“Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can” (by ‘save’ he means avoiding unnecessary spending).

Take a moment to ask God to search you:  Are you being rich toward God? Is your generosity causing you to have to trust God?