When I was coaching a five-year-old soccer team, I sent David into the game to play a defense position. As David stood obediently in his “spot” he kept checking out the sidelines to be sure his mother was still there. When he spotted her, he waved. Everyone laughed of course, and David’s mother seemed quite embarrassed. The fact is David had his values in order. To him, his relationship with his mother was more important than kicking a ball around the field.
We read today of a man who needed to learn a lesson from little David (Luke 12:13-21).
“Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.’ He replied to him, ‘Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?’ Then he said to the crowd, ‘Take care to guard against greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.’”
The man in the crowd had the Son of God standing before him. He was looking at eternal salvation in the eye, and yet he wanted to use Jesus to resolve a family squabble. What if the man had said, ‘Jesus, may I be one of your disciples?’ or ‘Jesus, how can I be part of your Kingdom?’ Instead, he saw Jesus as someone who could use his power to twist his brother’s arm so that he would get his share of the inheritance. Where were this man’s values? Did he honor his parents by fighting his brother over possessions?
Let’s go back to the beginning and interview Adam and Eve a few days after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. How do you think they felt? Sad, devastated, remorseful, despairing or all the above? What do you think they missed most, the “perks” of Eden or the experience of being in love with God? The “perks” might have amounted to 1% of their joy; 99% of their happiness, however, consisted in being saturated with God’s love. What they missed most was not the pleasures of Eden, but the relationship with their Creator.
We live in a mixed-up world in which greed rather than God’s love is seen as the solution to happiness. Though our world does not honor God, and probably doesn’t know much about Adam and Eve, it believes that with enough money it can reconstruct the Eden that was lost through sin. Even if Eden were re-created, without God’s love it would amount to no more than a passing pleasure. Those elite financiers who want to reconstruct the order of the world have not caught on to the fact that their efforts are more than a waste of time if they do not seek first to reconnect the human race to the One who created us.
Jesus followed his words with the parable of a rich man who had an abundant harvest. He built larger barns, sat back in his easy chair, and said to himself:
“Now you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink and be merry!”
Little did this greedy man know, but he had less than twenty-four hours to live. God said to him,
“You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you…”
We all have choices each day. Are we preoccupied with the things that money can buy? Is our goal to sit back in our easy chairs and enjoy life? Or are we seeking the treasure of God’s love that brought total happiness to our first parents in the beginning? Is it greed or God?
