Die With the Most Toys

A man in a crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of what our father left us when he died.”

Jesus answered, “Who gave me the right to settle arguments between you and your brother?”

Then he said to the crowd, “Don’t be greedy! Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe.”

So Jesus told them this story:

A rich man’s farm produced a big crop, and he said to himself, “What can I do? I don’t have a place large enough to store everything.”

Later, he said, “Now I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I can store all my grain and other goods. Then I’ll say to myself, ‘You have stored up enough good things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’ ”

But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?”

“This is what happens to people who store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight of God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

People think that what they can see and touch is what will keep them safe and well. They think that they are in control of their lives.

Our treasures on Earth are just as transitory as our physical existence. We’re reminded of that truth every time something breaks or we get sick. Sooner or later, everything around us crumbles. There is more to life than the stuff we manage to accumulate.

Becoming rich toward God comes with a shift in perspective and a reordering of priorities. For the rich man of Jesus’ parable, building more storage facilities to protect his burgeoning crops really was a good idea. In itself, there was nothing wrong with his plans. Grain left out in the rain would rot. But in his focus on barns, he’d lost sight of God. Moses had warned the ancient Israelites that when they finally came into the Promised Land and started reaping their crops and enjoying their prosperity, that they must not forget who had given it all to them. The rich man lost sight of what Moses had warned the Israelites to remember.

Jesus’ words were designed to remind his audience of what they should already have known from the Old Testament. Everything they had came from God. Since that was true, they should focus on God, not on what he had given them.

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