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13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14 But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" 15 And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 16 And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' 18 And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:13-21 New International Version Bible)
Inheritance again? "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" We studied that this not too long ago. In other words, I don't want to work for it, but what can I do to automatically receive it? And here, the question is for the inheritance to be divided among two brothers. Hmm, sounds like the other story that Jesus told about two brothers, the youngest of whom asked for his share of the inheritance, and once it was in his pocket, the took off and squandered it all. You might remember this story as the one about the Prodigal Son. Inheritances can bless, but they also can curse; they can build up or they can tear down. And here comes the lesson from the Lord; "Be careful, and be on guard against wanting it all, because your life does not consist in how much you have." We know the made-up saying that goes, "The one who dies with the most toys wins!" Nope. He or she is still dead and may have been dead in the accumulation of those toys; dead to others, the needs of others, especially loved ones, and so physical death was only a procedure to allow for the burial of a body that was long dead. Right now the buzz is about the huge lottery amount that someone could win this coming week. It's at almost $800 million. I told my daughter, "I imagine that much money at one time for one person or one family might bring more headaches than the person suspects." The number of broke, temporary millionaires is sky high; the number of broken families fighting over money is also at record numbers; and one has to ask, "Was it worth it?" Take the grandfather who in his day won the highest jackpot in history and his one granddaughter, whom he loved and doted on for all of her life, received daily amounts of money that she could only think to spend it on drugs, and before they knew it, she was dead from an overdose and the grandfather lost his reason for living. I should mention he divorced his wife and decided it would be more fun to spend his money with strippers. You don't even have to ask that man if he could give all the money back and get his granddaughter back, what he would say.
Jesus talks about a prosperous "rich man." He owned land which "produced plentifully," and made the man think, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?" And so he makes a plan to destroy his barns to build larger ones where he could store all his grain and crops. And with this plan he says, "I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." God had other plans and said, "Fool! This night your soul is required ot you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" And states, "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
Jesus shows God calling this man a fool. Harsh? Honest? I vote for honest. The man had given himself away. To choose money over God is a wrong move. It is a losing move and it can be, an eternal wrong move. God desires us to choose Him, to choose righteousness, to choose compassion and faithful service to others, not selfish, self-serving moves. The inheritance brothers were battling over money and possessions; one because he wanted it all, the other because he wanted his half. The question was, what are they doing in the mean time? Where is God in this struggle? Jesus shared the story to emphasis that the only true choice is to choose God, Whom we need to faithfully and daily serve.
PRAYER: Loving Father, forgive us those times we have chosen things just for our own good and not for the good of others; guide us to faithfulness and fruitfulness; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Choose to bless someone with an act of generousity.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
