Are you aware of the dangers of wealth?

THE DANGERS OF WEALTH

Lk. 12:13-21

What many rich men and women fail to realise is that shrouds have no pockets.  In other words when you die you can’t take your wealth with you.  If only the rich could realise what good they could do with their wealth while they are still alive.  With their wealth the needy could benefit and they would be storing up treasure for themselves in Heaven.

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells about a man whose life was ruined by riches.  It is a warning to us of how we could ruin our lives if we do not have the correct approach to our possessions. 

Through our possessions we can be puffed up with pride and lose all sense of gratitude.  This is what happened to the man in our story.  He saw his abundance not as a gift from God but as a personal achievement.  He spoke of ‘my crops’, ‘my grain’ and ‘my goods’.  In one sense they were his.  He owned the land, and was the legal owner of the crops it produced.  But there was more to be considered than that.  That farm had been there long before he was born and would be there long after he was dead and gone.  He was not responsible for the fertility of the soil, the sun that shone or the rain that fell.  All these things were provided by a loving Father, and yet he acted as if all of it were the product of his astuteness and hard work.  For thinking like this Jesus called him a fool.

He had not only forgotten about God’s contribution; he had also overlooked those of other people.  It is reasonable to assume that he never personally ploughed the fields, gathered in the crops or built the barns.  There was a labour force involved.  Others had poured their sweat and toil into producing the harvest.  Without them there would have been no harvest.  When he had acquired such an abundant harvest, he should have had a profound sense of gratitude to God and to his work force for this result.  Sadly, his only thought was to pat himself on the back.  This is one of the dangers of behaviour when we prosper.

Another danger in prosperity is that we sometimes lose compassion for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  This is what happened to the man in the story.  When his land had produced a bumper crop he said, ‘What am I to do?  I have not enough room to store my crops.”  So, he decided to pull down his barns and build larger ones.  That’s how greedy people behave.  They have no thought for those who are less well off than they are.  Was there any thought of sharing his abundant harvest with others?  Did he think of paying his workers a little more for their efforts?  Did he think of helping out another farmer who may have had a poor harvest?  Those thoughts never entered his mind.  He thought only of himself and so it blinded him to the needs of others.  You can describe him as a poor little rich man.  Jesus has a better name for him, he was a fool.

From this parable of Jesus let us learn that prosperity can be dangerous for it causes us to lose the real meaning of life.  Jesus called this man a fool, not because he was materially rich, but because he was spiritually poor.  In his eagerness to amass wealth and live comfortably, he had lost sight of the true riches.  His barns may have been full, but his heart was empty.  That is what Jesus lamented.

We all need the things that money can provide.  It is food on our tables; clothes on our back; a roof over our head; it is educational opportunities for our children and security in old age. But for all its benefits, money has its limitations.  It cannot buy friendship.  It cannot buy wisdom.  It cannot buy happiness.  The real meaning in life lies not in what we own but in who we are.

Lord Jesus, let us examine ourselves about our possessions.  We must own our wealth but not let it own us.  We must always think of those who are less well off than ourselves and we must learn to share our good fortune with others.  We should never forget that all the good things we have are gifts from our loving Father in Heaven Who provides for us.  Finally, as one wise person said, in our prosperity we should take the time occasionally to smell the roses along the way, meaning there is more to life than all work and the accumulation of possessions.   We should take time off to enjoy life.

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