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Luke 16:19-31
A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Here we go again . . . more texts about money and possessions, or at least, so it seems at first glance.
First, there is Amos 6:4-7 about the rich: “Woe to those who stretch out on their couches . . . who sing idle songs . . . who anoint themselves with the finest oils.”
Then there’s the lesson from 1 Timothy with its famous line: “The love of money is the root of all evils” (I Timothy 6:10). Note: It doesn’t say: “The love of money is the root of many evils.” Rather, it says: “The love of money is the root of all evils.” That’s big.
Finally, we have the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). At first it, too, seems to be about riches. And we know that throughout the Gospel of Luke, there is an emphasis on riches, as well as the poor, women, lepers, and the weak.
Last week we lifted up a half a dozen Bible stories about riches and possessions, very much like the texts we have today. We won’t do that again today.
But we will look at coveting, the innate human desire for what other people have. Wanting my neighbor’s wealth and possessions. It’s been a problem since the beginning of time. Note that both the Ninth and Tenth Commandments say: Do not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, animals, and other stuff. In modern terms, just stop with the “poor me” routine.
On the one hand, there is something about money that grabs us. On the other hand, when we pass the collection plate, should we put in the deeds to all our property, our stocks and bonds, and all the rest?
This is not what the Bible is trying to tell us. It’s wrong for two reasons.
First, it’s wrong because of what it says about creation. It says in the first chapter of Genesis that creation is good. God created it, it’s good, and it’s to be used for his purpose.
Earlier in 1 Timothy there is a warning to watch out for deceitful spirits:
“. . . who forbid marriages and enjoin abstinences from food which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:3-5).
We can fall for the misguided idea that the material world is evil; we should detach from it, and what we need is the “spiritual” world and to be “more spiritual.” That’s eternal and that’s good.
In ancient times there were people who withdrew from society and the world. They were called ascetics. They wanted a simple life.
In the Nineteenth Century there were all kinds of experiments in simple, communal living. And all these experiments worked for a while and then collapsed. A good example is renown Russian author Tolstoy, who in the last years of his life spent his fortune trying to live according to the Sermon on the Mount. It started fine but then became a disaster and collapsed due to laziness by some, greed by others.
Secondly, the idea that we should give up all our possessions is wrong because it is an incorrect use of the Bible. For example, the text about the rich man and Lazarus is not about the rich and the poor. It’s a parable, and as we always remind ourselves: Parables have one point, which most often comes at the end of the parable.
In this parable that end point, the main thing comes in verse 31: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
The love of money grabs people so intensely that not even a miracle, like someone rising from the dead, will convince them to think again. What do we make of all this?
In 1 Timothy 6:6-19 the first four verses are about the love of money as the root of all evils. Those four verses are followed by six verses about the Lordship of Christ.
Then comes three verses which say something quite different about the rich:
“As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed” (I Timothy 6:17-19).
Furthermore, if one says that the love of money is the root of all evils, what does that do to the First Commandment? It says the root of all evil is idolatry, and that’s bigger than the love of money. One can make an idol of one’s family, work, or any number of things.
How do we sort this out?
I Timothy 6:19 talks about “a good foundation.” In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul talks about laying a good foundation: “No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).
This is what the gospel does for us. It takes us outside of ourselves and places us on a new foundation, one so stable that we can depend upon it.
Luther says the Gospel “commands us to look not at our good deeds or perfection but at God himself as he promises, and at Christ himself, the Mediator.” In faith we are “snatched away” from ourselves . . . [and] “placed outside ourselves, so that we depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is, on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive” (LW 26:387).
The logo for Prudential Life Insurance features the Rock of Gibraltar. That’s understood to be that which you can depend on. The Rock of Gibraltar is a formation from the early Jurassic age, 200 million years old. Before that there was no Rock of Gibraltar. It’s not eternal. It reminds us of the famous parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:24-27 about the one who built his house on the rock and the one who built his house on the sand. Which is it going to be?
First, we look at faith and life in a practical perspective. Luke 12:34: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And 2 Corinthians 1:20: “All the promises of God find their Yes in him.”
Second, what is it to be rich? A young American college student traveled to Botswana in Africa. She wrote back to her parents: “You have no idea how bad it is here.” We in the West have many serious problems, but there’s a huge difference between First World and Third World problems.
Third, we have the illusion that we can live the simple life, that we can manage to get away from the temptations of this world. But the simple life is not so simple.
Amish kids only go to school through the eighth grade, and they only use simple tools. But they use our modern roads. And when needed, they use modern medicine. Even their “simple life” takes advantage of the live-saving technology of the modern world.
How about us? How are we to live? We know that the Lord builds his kingdom by himself, without our help.
Rather, as Luther said: Because Christ has filled our needs, we are free to help our neighbor “in his wants and for his betterment” (Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, 78-81).
“For his betterment.” That’s other than kingdom building. To be sure, Luther called for certain practical reforms for society in his day, but he didn’t present his points for reform as a theocrat, or as a preacher who used the Bible to legislate for the world.
Rather, his ideas for reform were, as he said, no more than the suggestions of a theologian who recognizes the problems of his time without having a clear view of all the practical aspects and without having a set of blueprints for all times and places.
Jesus means freedom, “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). That freedom includes the freedom to use our heads in the battles of life, knowing we live by forgiveness.
This brings us back once again to Luther’s point that we are called to live now with a Gospel sense of who is Lord and what it’s all about. As Luther writes in the Small Catechism:
“I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, delivered me and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with silver and gold but with his holy and precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death, in order that I may be his, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.”
Amen