Rich towards God: Luke 12:13-34 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Focus Passage: Luke 12:13-34 (NASB)

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. ¹⁷ And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: 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 many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ ²¹ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

²² And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by worrying can add a single *Lit cubit (approx 18 in.)hour to his *Or heightlife’s span? ²⁶ If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! ²⁹ And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰ For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹ But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. ³² Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

³³ “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Read Luke 12:13-34 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During the times when Jesus taught the crowds, sometimes He taught what He knew someone in the crowd needed to hear with only the Holy Spirit’s prompting, while other times, He taught based on what someone in the crowd had said or asked.

During one of the times that Luke’s gospel describes, Jesus shares a profound parable about greed that was inspired by a request from someone in the crowd. Luke tells us Jesus told the crowd the following parable: “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (v. 16-22)

Before jumping to the conclusion that God will require the souls of everyone who decides to build bigger buildings to store riches that they have been blessed with, it is worth looking a little closer at the parable itself.

Jesus opens by saying that “the land” of a rich man was very productive. This means that God is at least partly responsible for this man’s wealth. Just because this man was rich doesn’t mean that he was evil or bad. It simply means that he had been blessed.

However, what is missing from this parable is the man acknowledging that the blessings he received were from God. While the parable was inspired during a discussion about guarding against greed, oftentimes I think when we read this that the idea this parable emphasizes is that we must simply be generous with what God has blessed us with.

But this might miss Jesus’ point slightly. While saving for retirement is not ungodly, Jesus talks about this man not being rich towards God. This implies, at least in my mind, that there was no tithe being returned to God. One of the first things that we are tempted to let slide when we are giving to others is returning a tithe to God. This man might have been someone who faithfully tithed, but we would have no way to know this because this detail is not included in Jesus’ illustration.

Instead, it appears that Jesus wants to draw our attention onto the following truth: Our lives are far more valuable than our stuff, and that God is the only reason we are still alive today. God is not interested in stealing our stuff from us, but for our own good, He wants us to realize and correctly prioritize our stuff as lower than our lives. Jesus came to show us how much God values our lives and our hearts. Jesus died for you and me because He loves you and me, and He loves each of us more than He loves our stuff (i.e. the stuff that He blessed us with).

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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