“Liar” . . . “Fool” . . . two pretty strong words . . . two words used by the Lord Jesus this morning . . . one implicitly . . . the other explicitly . . . both there as a warning for all who live in affluent cultures. Uh, that would be us . . .

As I read this passage in Luke 12 (vv. 13-21), it amazes me again the sorts of things that people brought to Jesus. The reason they came to Him, in the first place, is because they had heard that He taught with an unprecedented authority — like He had written the Scriptures and not just read them (Mark 1:22) . . . they had heard He acted with unprecedented authority as He delivered people from demonic influence and possession (Mark 1:27) . . . that He healed the sick and raised the dead. And so, you’d think that when someone had the opportunity to engage Him face-to-face . . . one-on-one . . . having the opportunity to ask that one pressing question, that they’d do a lot better than, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13).

What a missed opportunity. You get a shot at asking one question of Messiah and you use it on a family dispute over money. Yet, our Lord is so good at taking the lemons and making lemonade . . . at taking the trite and using it to seed the significant . . . at exposing the way of this world in order to teach on the way of the kingdom. And it’s in responding to this question that Jesus calls the world a liar and the spirit of this world a fool.

“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” – Jesus, Luke 12:15

Don’t you just hear Jesus crying, “Liar! He who dies with the most toys, DOESN’T WIN!” Maybe not quite a temple cleansing thing, but can you imagine Jesus walking through our mall parking lots tearing that silly bumper sticker off every car that bears it. Life is not defined by what you own . . . significance is not measured by how much you possess . . . success is not determined by the size of the bank account or, as is more likely the case, the size of your credit card balance.

Jesus then goes onto tell a story of man whose barns could not contain all his crops and all his goods. The man’s solution? Tear down the old barns . . . build bigger barns and storage facilities . . . accumulate and store . . . and say to yourself, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” (12:19) To which God responds, “Fool! . . . So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (12:20-21).

It’s not just that the man in the story died leaving all his stuff to someone else, it’s that he died with earthly storehouses packed with goods and yet was poor towards God . . . nothing deposited in his heavenly bank account . . . no investments made in the kingdom . . . destitute in the economy of eternity. And the Father is left with no other option to call it like it is, “Fool!” Such is the person who is not “rich toward God.”

Now let last phrase churn a bit . . . “rich toward God.” How’s that for a bumper sticker? How’s that for a concept . . . that we can be rich toward God. Isn’t that why Jesus died to redeem us? “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2Cor. 9:9). He provided the “investment capital” that we might build on the foundation and lay up treasures in heaven (Matt 6:20) and be rich toward God. Not contending for all that we think we’re “owed” here and now but, by His grace, adding what we can to the inheritance that awaits us in His presence . . . an inheritance that is “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1Peter 1:4).

Oh, that we might take heed and not get sucked into the lies of this “toy accumulating” world system we live in. That we might not be fools, but wise, investing in the things of eternity . . . working, as much as lies in us, and by His all-enabling grace, to be rich toward God . . . for His glory . . . amen.