Thoughts From Luke - Day 58

                                                  Luke 12:13 - 21

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ 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.”
¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
¹⁸ “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. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
²⁰ “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?’
²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”


        In context, this question always blows me away. Jesus just talks about heavy things like blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and someone from the crowd cries out "tell my brother to split the inheritance with me." This is probably one of those leather-lung guys like at Christian concerts yells out to the band, "We love you Switchfoot" or "Sing, Girl Named Tennessee". It's sort of like teaching kids spiritual truths in Sunday School and in the midst of the best part of the lesson, one raises their hand to ask the question, "What are we having for snacks?" Now maybe I'm being too hard on the guy because Jesus had just been teaching on selfishness, so maybe the guy was tracking with His teaching. Nonetheless, Jesus responds to the guy's question in a couple ways.

      First He says that His function isn't to be a lawyer on Earth. This is interesting because in Heaven He does function as our advocate. Steven, as he was being stoned and about to enter Heaven, sees Jesus standing before the judge of Heaven as if to be his defense attorney pleading His case. We are told we have an advocate on high and He is our Wonderful Counselor. This, however, was not why He came to Earth, to resolve the unfairnesses heaped upon you by this sinful, worldly system. He came to deliver us eternally from that system. Therefore, in the midst of trials, injustices, questions of litigation, remember - you are just visiting this planet, act accordingly.

       Secondly, Jesus gives a warning about excesses. The guy yelling out to Jesus, obviously had enough to keep him alive otherwise he wouldn't have been there. His basic needs were being met. Yet, he wanted more. He wanted an abundance. Inheritances often are like that. You want them so you can buy more stuff or pay for the stuff you have gotten in debt over while living in excess currently. Life isn't a Monopoly Game where you try to get ahead of everyone by owning more properties, having more cash, and building more and more houses and eventually hotels. What is the problem with that? You get rich while everyone else gets poor. The Biblical principle is distribution of wealth so everyone's needs are being met. I sound like a democrat, don't I. Ha. Well, if the rich are too greedy to give their wealth away, I guess we have to go socialistic. Ideally though, the principle seen in this passage is that God gives to some abundantly in order that they can give it away, not hoard, and then receive from God treasures in Heaven and more on this earth to give away because they have been found faithful.

       Today is Dec.24th, the day before we amass treasures in excess. First of all, don't be mad if you gave graciously and someone else didn't. Don't be like Charlie Brown who is mad because no one sent him a Christmas card. Like the man who wanted his brother to give him his equal share, this world isn't fair. We are the ones to extend grace and don't expect others to give it to you. God has given you all the grace you will ever need. He has filled your cup to overflowing. Secondly, this is a good time to add up how much you have given away this year. Let Christmas remind you that you have one week to empty your coffers so God can fill them back up again.