Eat, Drink, Be Merry
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You
are more than the sum of what you own. To illustrate this truth, this warning,
Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool. The rich man’s land produces so richly
that he doesn’t have enough room to store it all. So he decides to tear down
his barns and build bigger ones. Then he gives one of the silliest speeches in
Scripture: “Soul, you have ample good
laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry”—as if that what life
is all about.
God
has the final word in the parable. “Fool!
This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared,
whose will they be?” There’s nothing inherently evil about relaxing,
eating, drinking and merriment. But the rich man expects his riches to take
care of his soul. Saving souls is the work of God. That is the rich man’s
problem: he has made his wealth into a false god. When God requires his soul
that night, it does nothing for him in the Judgment. So the rich man is more
than the sum of what he owns. Possessions cannot prevent his death; when he
dies, they do nothing for his soul.
The
parable is a clear warning: beware the sin of greed. Obsession with possessions
is a terrible temptation. It leads you to value things over God. It leads you
to put your trust in things that fall apart and pass away. It tempts you to
resent God if you don’t have all you want. It seduces you to believe that your
soul is good in God’s eyes because you have enough things. Greed is a dangerous
idol, and it’s never satisfied: the more you have, the more you want.
You
don’t even have to have possessions to be guilty of the sin. While the rich man
in the parable already has all sorts of wealth, Jesus tells the parable because
of a man who desires wealth. This whole thing begins with someone saying to
Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide
the inheritance with me.” It’s a family squabble, with an inheritance to be
shared. Yes, God provides all things, but Jesus isn’t there to divide out the
family farm. He hasn’t come for such temporal things. He’s come to do what
goods and grain, what relaxing and eating and drinking and merriment can’t do:
He’s come to save souls for eternity.
So
Jesus warns, “Take care, and be on your
guard against all covetousness.” And then He adds, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
We should expand that, too, because you’ll covet and be greedy for more than
grain and goods. You are more than your popularity. You are more than your
looks or fashion sense. You are more than your health. You are more than the
knowledge you’ve gained, or the peace within your family, or the goals that
you’ve attained, or the promotions you’ve received, or the items you’ve crossed
off your bucket list. Still, you are tempted to covet all of these things: to
believe that they are what give you life and quality of life, to believe they
are good for your soul. But none of these things give life to your soul. Flee
these temptations, and repent when you give into them. All of these things are
false gods when you put your trust in them, and putting your trust in them
reveals even more about you than greed or covetousness.
The
Lord gives you so much more than the abundance of your possessions or other
things that will pass away that. He gives you gifts that do not pass away. He
gives you life that does not pass away. Jesus became flesh and went to the
cross for you. He died for you, bearing your sin—including greed and
covetousness and every evil desire. He died your death for you, so that you
might not go the way of all things in this world which pass away. He rose again
to give you eternal life with Him. He has made you a child of God in Holy
Baptism, so that now you are an heir of the kingdom of heaven.
You
still have the specter of death hanging around, but you also have hope in
Christ. Where you worry about what you do not have, you consider the lilies of
the field and the sparrows of the air, knowing how much the Lord cares for
them: because you know that Jesus didn’t become a lily to redeem lilies or a
sparrow to redeem sparrows. He became man to redeem you: and if He redeemed you
at the cost of His own blood, He will not fail to give you forgiveness and
life.
Your
life isn’t the sum total of your possessions. The Lord is your life and your
salvation. Eternal life is yours because Jesus pours out abundantly on you the
riches of His grace, so that you are forgiven for all of your sins. Thanks be
to God for such bounty! In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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