[Machine transcription]
Jesus says,
“Take care, be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
You may be seated. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints,
The Lord is not against us having stuff. When you become a Christian, it is not required that you take a vow of poverty. After all, the Lord made you to live in a garden and to rejoice in His provision. It’s good for you to have food and drink, for you to have clothing and shoes, for you to have house and home and all the things of this life.
In fact, so much does the Lord want you to have stuff that He has given one of His commandments to protect it. You shall not steal, which says to your neighbor, “Don’t take your stuff.” It also says to you, “Don’t take your neighbor’s stuff.”
And that is what we want to get into, because when the Lord gives a gift, there’s always the danger that it would be abused. Particularly, the gift of possessions, the gift of money, and the gift of wealth is abused. It’s dangerous. Jesus is warning us about the danger, so we’ll work our way into it, first by considering the seventh commandment and then kind of pressing into what Jesus says in the parable.
The seventh commandment, “You shall not steal,” sets us to work hard to bless our neighbor and it condemns the twin vices of greed and laziness. Greed on the one hand and laziness on the other. Greed, which would have us collecting as much as possible and gathering together all this stuff, surrounding ourselves with even more than we need. Greed is, you know, I haven’t seen this lately, there used to be this bumper sticker that said, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.” Have you, do you remember that?
Or I heard the country song, in fact I listened to it this morning just to review for the sermon, it’s a song about how love or how money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a boat. This is the idea; you’re just gathering up all the stuff and thinking that by gathering up all the stuff you’ll have some sort of happiness or protection or something, just hoarding it. That’s what the guy, the fool, is doing. He has a great year and he has so much stuff he can’t stuff it into his barns, trying to figure out what to do with it—greed on the one hand.
But the seventh commandment also forbids, on the other hand, laziness, not working at all. And how about this for interesting? I was thinking about it this week. I think that we often, because we are like self-justifying machines, we are just experts at covering up our own sin, that we often use our lack of greed to cover up our laziness, or we use our laziness to cover up our lack of greed, or vice versa.
So we say, we might be greedy or tempted to greed, but we say, “Well, I worked hard for it. I’m not lazy, so I should just be able to keep all the stuff I want.” Or on the other hand, if we’re lazy, we use our lack of greed to cover it up. We say, “Look, I don’t want to get into the rat race of, you know, all this business, people running around earning all this money. I’m not like that.” We use that virtue to cover up our own laziness.
We’re experts at this. I sometimes wonder when we confess our sin, you know how we say, “I’m a poor miserable sinner.” I don’t wonder if sometimes we ought to say, “I’m an expert sinner. I’m a really good sinner.” And we get better at it the older we get, covering up our own sins under the guise of virtue. But the seventh commandment won’t have it. It exposes it. It says both greed and laziness are sins against the commandment.
The commandment, the seventh commandment, sets us to live in this life under the virtue of a thankful and hard-working generosity. That’s what the seventh commandment means, that we’re supposed to be thankful, that we’re supposed to work hard, and that we’re supposed to be generous. That’s how we’re supposed to be. That’s why the Lord has given us stuff, so that we can bless the neighbors that He’s given us.
There’s a reason that the second commandment is connected to the sixth commandment, which is connected to the fifth commandment. The Lord sets us in families to give life, and He lets us put our name on stuff for the benefit of the family and the community.
Now this often doesn’t happen. I mean, you know, the commandments expose our sin, and in this way, in fact, it exposes our sin in a very profound way, because while the Lord has given us the gift of having stuff, we often abuse that stuff and put our faith in stuff.
It’s an amazing thing that money can so easily become an idol. When Jesus is preaching against the idols that we encounter in this world, He most often preaches against the idol of mammon. That’s the Aramaic word for money. He gives it a name. And this idol is the most common idol in all the world. In fact, here’s a bit of Luther—this is Martin Luther’s large catechism on the first commandment where he unfolds this truth that the most common idol in the world is money.
Here’s how he preaches it: “Many a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and possessions, and he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. Look, such a man has a God. His name is Mammon—money, possessions, on which he sets all his heart, which is the most common idol in all the earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure, is joyful, and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of paradise. And, on the other hand, the one who has no money doubts and is despondent as if he knew of no God. For there are very few to be found who are of good cheer, who neither mourn nor complain if they don’t have mammon.”
This, Luther continues, this care and desire for money sticks and clings to our nature even to the grave. There is a great danger to money. In fact, James warns us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
And why? Why? Because money, maybe more than any other idol, invites us to trust in it. Money preaches, and it preaches, I think, two sermons—one sermon, and maybe it’s more, I don’t know, you guys will have to help me with this, but I think the preaching of money kind of breaks in two different directions. Money comes to us and says, “If you have me, you’ll be safe,” or “If you have me, you’ll be happy.” That’s the sermon that’s being preached to you from your wallet right now.
Maybe it’s barely whispering, you’re like, “My wallet doesn’t preach anything.” I wonder, and I’ve got to think about this a little bit too, and you guys can tell me what you think, but I don’t wonder if money might preach differently to men than it does to women. Different sermons there. “You’ll be safe if you have me, you’ll be safe if you have me, you’ll be happy.” But how much do we have to have? It always seems like, doesn’t it? It always seems like it’s just a little bit more.
But money is a false preacher, and mammon is a thief. Mammon steals away your trust that you ought to give to God. Mammon steals away your affection, which you ought to have for the Lord Jesus. Mammon steals away your contentment, which you ought to have in God’s Word, and says, “Give all of those things to me. Come and worship me.”
Mammon steals joy from life because it steals away contentment. It’s always just a little bit more and a little bit more. In fact, Jesus tells us, this is an amazing thing, that the liturgy that we use to worship money is worry. He says, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to drink or what clothes you’re going to put on; the pagans worry about those things.” That worry is the liturgy of money worship.
And in the end, like every false idol, like every false god, mammon requires human sacrifice. You often see it. I mean, how often do we talk to people who are at the end of their lives and who got caught onto the trap of the treadmill of achievement and of possession? They get to the end of their lives; how often do they say, “I wish I would have spent a little more time at work. I wish I would have had a few more late days in the office. I wish I would have taken a little more time away from my family and given it to my job.”
How many people have those regrets? And we see in that what the worship of money demands. It demands everything; it consumes everything—your body, your energy, your activity, your mind, your worry, your sleep—it consumes you all under the illusion of giving you protection and happiness.
Now we should know better. I mean, there’s a reason why we print an eagle on the dollar bill. It’s to remind us that these things fly away. That the Lord can make us rich or poor in a day. How many of you have looked in the bank account one day and seen that there’s some money there, and then all of a sudden the next it’s gone?
This world is where moth eats; it’s where rust corrodes; it’s where thieves break in and steal, and none of these things are sure and eternal, and we know that, and yet we forget and we think that if we have enough we’ll be safe.
And in this way, the Lord Jesus is able to connect covetousness with idolatry. This might seem kind of extreme; I mean we might think idolatry, that’s like first commandment stuff, that’s pretty serious, and covetousness, you don’t get that until you get to the ninth and tenth commandments—that’s like at the end after bitterness and greed and loss and anger, then comes covetousness, like the smallest of things.
But did you hear what Paul said when he wrote to the Colossians? We had it in the epistle text. He said that covetousness is idolatry. It’s here in Colossians 5. He says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
Now that is strong words, and I think we need these words. Covetousness, amongst all the sins, is a unique sin because it seems like it flies under the radar of the conscience. It’s like covetousness is like the stealth bomber of sins. It just doesn’t get picked up on the radar of the conscience. We know if we’re bitter, or if we’re angry, or if we’re wrathful, or if we’re lustful, or if we’re rebellious, it stirs up something in the conscience and we feel that sin. But covetousness doesn’t seem to act in the same way.
Remember St. Paul said, “I would not have known you shall not covet unless the law told me.” So the law of God has to thunder against this covetousness and say, “Don’t trust in it.” In fact, Jesus thunders against it in the parable, and He does so by making fun of us.
Now I don’t know a better way to say this. It might sound impious, but I think that when Jesus is telling this parable, He’s snickering at the way that we trust in our wealth. He sees this guy come to Him and says, “Lord, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
How many times, by the way, have fights over inheritances broken up families and destroyed love and affection? It’s incredible. I mean, I think every one of our families has these stories of the fight over money coming and wrecking havoc in the house.
And it had happened with these two brothers. They weren’t sharing the inheritance. So one comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” And Jesus says, “Man, who made me an arbiter over you? Beware of covetousness and evil desire,” and then He says, “Let me tell you a story.”
There was a guy—a farmer with barns, and he had a really good year, and he had so much in the harvest, he had so much stuff that he didn’t even have a place to put it. So he looks at all of this huge pile of stuff, and he says, “What should I do? I know! I’m gonna tear down these old rickety barns, and I’m gonna build a bigger barn so I have a bigger barn for bigger stuff and more things, and then I’ll be happy, and I’ll be content.”
And then Jesus says again, I think with a bit of edge to it, He tells how this man starts to talk to himself. This rich man apparently doesn’t have anybody else better to talk with than himself, and he says, “Self!” or “Soul! Oh, look at all my stuff! Look at how good I’ve done! Look at this huge barn filled with all of this grain and all of these things. You know what I’m going to do, soul? I’m going to take it easy, I’m going to relax, I’m going to eat, I’m going to drink, I’m going to be merry.”
And you know who shows up that night? God Himself. And you know the first word out of the mouth of God to this man? Fool. You fool. You’re so proud of your barn. You’re so proud of your stuff. You’re so proud of your accomplishments. But look, tonight your life is demanded of you, and what good will it do on the judgment day? What good will your bank account do on the day of judgment? What good will your barn do on the day of judgment? What good will your retirement account do on the day of judgment? They help us none.
It’s a cloud dust idol. It’s an illusion of security that vanishes when it comes right down to it. So Jesus says to us, to me, to you, “Beware! Your life consists of more than your possessions.”
But, and this is important and maybe even the point of the whole text, Jesus is not, Jesus is not contrasting earthly riches with earthly poverty. That’s not what He’s doing. He’s not saying you shouldn’t be rich; you should rather be poor. That’s not how He ends the sermon. He ends the sermon by comparing two kinds of riches.
Jesus says this is verse 21, “So it is with the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” There’s an earthly wealth, and there is a divine wealth. There’s earthly kingdoms, and there are spiritual riches. And Jesus contrasts those two. He does not say it’s bad to be rich and good to be poor. Jesus says it’s bad to trust in money; it’s good to trust in God.
Jesus doesn’t say it’s bad to have earthly treasure; it’s good to have no treasure at all. No, Jesus says it’s better to have treasure in heaven. Remember how He preached in the Sermon on the Mount, “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, for where your heart is, there your treasure is; there your heart will be also.”
The reason, the reason why Jesus pokes fun at the rich fool in the parable and why He prods us a little bit for our idolatrous trust in our stuff is because Jesus knows that there’s something better. There are treasures that are better than big barns and piles of grain, heaps of gold. There’s something better, and that’s what He wants us to have.
He, Jesus, when He dies on the cross for us, opens to us the treasure chest of heaven. He lavishes us with the riches of God. He puts forth for us the boundless, almost unthinkable gift of His kingdom. Paul says it like this. This is 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9. Paul says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”
When Jesus gets after your earthly treasure, He is not doing it so that you have no treasure at all. He is doing it so that you have room in your heart and your mind and your conscience for the treasures of heaven, so that He can give you Himself and His name and His kingdom and His Spirit, which no moth can eat and rust corrode, and thieves break in and steal.
He gives you His righteousness and His perfection and His mercy, and He gives you life that never ends. He gives you, can you imagine? He gives you authority to trample on the demons. He gives you His Word, which is for us more precious than rubies or many fine jewels. He gives us heavenly wisdom. In fact, Jesus gives us Himself, and He gives you His body and His blood and the forgiveness of all of your sins.
Paul says, and this is 1 Corinthians, Paul says, “All things are yours.” Can you imagine? Here we are chasing after these little kingdoms and trying to build bigger barns, and Paul says, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”
For what eye has seen or ear heard or heart of man even imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. For He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also together with Him, give us all things?
Dear saints, you are Christ’s and all things are yours. All things. The Father gives Himself to you with all of creation. The Son gives Himself to you with His blood and sacrifice. The Holy Spirit gives Himself to you with all of His gifts. All the treasures of heaven and earth belong to you. They are yours now, and you will see it on the last day.
So may this be our joy. May God the Holy Spirit kind of root out that thorn of covetousness that sits in our flesh, and may He give us the freedom and the life of the children of God, that we would know that Christ has given us Himself, and forgiven our sins, and made us the inheritors of His kingdom. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Please stand. And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.