Do you see how out of place that request was? It would be like interrupting a session of the United States Supreme Court by saying, "Hey! Could one of you guys settle a $50 parking ticket for me? I don't think I was fairly treated."

Dear Ann Landers,

I have lost my wife. No, she didn't die. She didn't leave home to make a career for herself. She didn't run off with another guy. She became hooked on refunding. Delores is constantly clipping coupons, mailing rebate forms, saving and filing product wrappers and labels. Nothing can be thrown away in case it might one day be proof of purchase. As a result of the collecting refunds and coupons, she has piled up enough food to last for two years. On my last trip around the house, I counted 34 boxes of dry cereal and 27 boxes of crackers. We can't have company because the house is so cluttered. I doubt Delores makes the minimum wage for all the time she puts in, but even worse, it has turned her into a minimum wife. What should I do, Ann? I'm ready to send her back to her mother for a refund.

L. B., Pennock, MN

Dear L.B.,

Delores, who probably always was a frugal shopper, has slipped over the line. She is now obsessive-compulsive. The woman needs professional help. This isn't funny. I hope she gets it.

As some of you may be wise coupon clippers, let me be sure I throw in a disclaimer before I begin my message this morning, lest you misunderstand and my phone start ringing off the hook before I get home this afternoon. There is nothing wrong with clipping coupons. I clip a few once in awhile myself. In fact, I have heard that some folks add quite a bit of purchasing power to their households by doing it. If I'm speaking of you, then I commend you for your wisdom and frugality. I read this story because, as Ann Landers pointed out, this woman "slipped over the line." She became "obsessive-compulsive," whatever that is.

Actually, there is another name for it in the Bible. Its called "greed," and it has been around a lot longer than the psycho-babble label that Ann Landers and others put on it. In fact, it's standard equipment of the carnal nature of every human being, though not every human being consents to be driven by it. Not surprisingly, the Bible warns us about it.

A man possessed by concern for his family inheritance approached Jesus. As we'll see in the passage we're going to read from the Bible this morning, he had "slipped over the line." In His response to this man, Jesus taught His followers a lesson about mixed up priorities that can cause anyone to get dangerously close to that "line." The story is told in Luke 12:13-21.

(Read the Passage Through)

Let's go back now, and consider the details of this story. It begins with:

1. A Request.

(Read v. 13)

We miss the impact of this man's question and perhaps the entire lesson of this passage unless we consider its context. In the verses immediately above this text, and going back into chapter 11, we see that Jesus had just confronted the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees at a private luncheon. It was not a polite exchange. So sharp was His rebuke of their inconsistency that they openly acknowledged that He had insulted them.(1) But that didn't slow Him down. He told them they were like cups full of wickedness, clean on the outside but rotten on the inside. He told them they disregarded justice and were arrogant. He said they were like concealed tombs that unsuspecting people walked over and polluted themselves. He accused them of being just like their fathers who murdered God's prophets and He told them that the blood of every righteous prophet all the way back to Adam's son Abel was about to be charged to their account.(2) You see, this Jesus wasn't just the gentle, perfect Lamb of God who allows little children to come and sit on His knee and who takes away the sin of the world.(3) This was also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah(4) who roars against injustice and things that lead innocent people astray.

When Jesus left the luncheon He stepped out into the midst of a huge crowd that had gathered. Look at the first verse of chapter 12:

(Read 12:1)

He went on to warn about subjects of extreme gravity. Everything hidden was about to be ripped open and exposed to the light.(5) Fearful persecution was soon to come upon those who chose the light. They would be afraid of their persecutors, yes, but they should fear God who was able to cast them into eternal Hell even more than they feared persecution.(6) Then He told His disciples that the Pharisees had blasphemed the Holy Spirit, a sin for which they could never be forgiven. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut it with a knife!

Then in the midst of that tense situation, with every eye fixed on the Messiah, wondering what He would say next, someone in the crowd popped up and said, "Hey teacher! Can you tell my brother to give me my share of the family inheritance?"

Do you see how out of place that request was? It would be like interrupting a session of the United States Supreme Court by saying, "Hey! Could one of you guys settle a $50 parking ticket for me? I don't think I was fairly treated."

The request was trivial (compared to the current subject matter) and totally out of context. Where had this man been for the last several hours? On a trip to Mars?

No. I suspect he had been right there - at least his body was right there. His mind, well, that's a different issue.

You see, the danger of greed is that one becomes so obsessed with the object of his or her desire that it becomes the only thing that is important. Someone possessed by greed develops tunnel vision and in that tunnel, they can see only their own selfish desire.

Greedy people walk all over the rights and needs of others and to them it is no big thing. They along with their needs are the only things that count.

A greedy husband or wife makes a miserable marriage, as we saw in the letter to Ann Landers. A greedy politician makes a miserable life for his or her constituents. A greedy religious leader makes terrible distortion of God's teachings. A greedy boss makes miserable employees. I could go on, but I think you get my point.

Some have wondered why this man would bring his dispute to Jesus in the first place since there were courts available to him in that day for settling such problems. Yet an examination of the history of that day indicates that it wasn't uncommon for people in Palestine to take their unsettled disputes to respected Rabbis since they were considered experts in the law. The problem here wasn't the request. It was the fact that this man was so obsessed with his desire that he totally missed the monumentous issue before him. Unless he got on board with the Messiah, he was going to be cast into Hell!

Perhaps this explanation helps us to understand what we find next in the text:

2. A Refusal.

4. A Parable.

(Read v. 16-21)

Several observations from this passage can help us get better at spotting the dangerous potential for greed in all of us.

First, a time of great potential for greed occurs when opportunity presents itself.

Notice in verse 16 that it was when the man's land became very productive that the greed began to grow in his life. Any of us can be rolling along just fine, free from the problem of greed for a long stretch, and then suddenly be confronted with it when what seems like a great opportunity is put before us. We should not, therefore, conclude that just because greed has not been a problem for us in the past, we are somehow immune to it. None of us is immune. Our lack of greed may just be that we've lacked opportunity.

I'm told that the germs for those nasty "cold sores" that some of us get on our lips are always present and only begin to grow when our immune systems become run down. They grow only when there is opportunity. Greed is the same way, so we need to watch out for it whenever we are presented with what looks like the "golden opportunity." There is nothing wrong with opportunity. The problem is how we deal with the opportunity. A time of great potential for greed occurs when opportunity presents itself.

Secondly, this parable implies strongly that abundance can foster false security. Verse 19 again:

"And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.'"

To paraphrase: "I have so much laid up now, I don't have a care in the world. I can just sit back and enjoy life and not think of anything other than my own gratification."

Don't misunderstand. The Bible doesn't condemn making provision for the future. Looking ahead, planning for down times and rainy days is not the problem.

Where we run into problems is when our provisions become our security rather than God. The man in the parable decided that because of his abundance, he had nothing to worry about. But he was wrong! Even though he was rich in this world's goods, he was poor in spiritual things. As Jesus said in verse 21: He was "not rich toward God."

When resolving our insecurity drives us to accumulate more and more rather than driving us to seek God more and more, we are in danger of being possessed by greed. Like the man in the story who interrupted some of the most serious exchange in Jesus' entire ministry with his petty request, we have a terrible case of tunnel vision. Our focus is on the petty rather than the perpetual.

Abundance can foster false security.

A third warning from this parable might be stated this way: One who strives for abundance to the extent of impoverishing himself spiritually is a fool.

Someone says, "Are you calling me a fool?" No, I'm not, but Jesus is. According to Him, if your desire for this world's goods takes precedence over a concern for your spiritual life, you're a fool. "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you… so is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Conclusion

A Christian man once took his son to visit a rich landowner. The man took them to a vantage point on his ranch where they could see in all directions. Pointing to the west, he said, "It's all mine, as far as you can see." He did the same turning to the north, south, and east. Then he turned to the boy and said, "What do you think of that, son?"

"Well sir," replied the boy. "There's one direction you didn't look. You didn't look up."

The heaviest toll that greed takes on us is just that. It keeps us from looking up toward our Maker who will, sooner than we like to think, call us into account for our lives.

"Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed," Jesus says, "for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."

Footnotes:

1. Luke 11:45
2. Luke 11:47-51
3. John 1:29
4. Revelation 5:5; cf. Genesis 49:9-10
5. Luke 12:2-3
6. Luke 12:4-5
7. Mark 8:36-37

 

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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