July 28, 1999
LIFE & WORK: There are
no pockets in a funeral shroud
___Luke 12:13-21
___By Brett Younger
___Lake Shore Baptist Church, Waco
___A young man pushed through the crowd: "Rabbi, make my brother divide the inheritance. I want my share."
___"You are lucky enough to have an inheritance? I have no where to lay my head."
___The young man was not amused: "I'm not an heir yet. My brother refuses. All the rabbis since Moses have insisted that if one of the sons wants it, the inheritance must be divided. All I want is what is rightfully mine."
___Now Jesus was not amused: "Who made me a divider between you and your brother?"
___"Rabbi, I just want what is coming to me." His voice was as logical as a ledger.
___Jesus replied: "Once there was a rich farmer who had a big harvest. He decided to build new barns to store the surplus. The farmer thought, 'I will never be hungry again.' Jesus stared directly at the young man: 'He never was hungry again, because he died that night. What will happen to all that was rightfully his?'"
___This story is so harsh; we would like to think it is only about really rich people. We would like to think our ideas are just like Jesus', but it is not so. We would like to agree with Jesus that the rich man is a fool, but he does not sound like a fool.
___He is a successful businessperson who has worked hard and been rewarded. He saves for his retirement. Why would Jesus call the farmer a fool?
___Jesus' warning is that one's life "does not consist in the abundance of possessions." When we meet someone and ask, "What do you do for a living?" is it a subtle way of asking, "How much money do you make?" When we learn someone is wealthy, are we impressed? When we learn that someone has little, do we feel superior?
___Jesus called the farmer a fool because his affluence kept him from seeing others. In these 46 Greek words the farmer refers to himself 12 times. The pronoun "I" occurs six times, and the words "my" or "mine" six times. The farmer thought first and foremost of himself.
___When he discovered he had excess goods, the one thought that never enters his mind is to give it away. His attitude is the reverse of Christianity. He doesn't see his possessions as tools for helping others.
___Jesus ends the story with the death of the farmer. At every funeral, it is obvious a financial ledger poorly measures the value of a life. A grim Spanish proverb has it: "There are no pockets in a shroud."
___There are better questions than "How many barns do we have?" Are we living as we would like to be remembered? Should we pay less attention to money? Do we share what we have?
___We are not so different from the farmer building barns or the young man worried about his inheritance. But Jesus, who left no property at all, offers us an inheritance of riches that last.
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