Rich Toward God

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Luke 12:13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull 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, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

I love it when I’m looking closely at a familiar scripture and something new jumps out. It’s really exciting. That’s what happened to me with this passage in Luke. 

In the very last verse, Jesus talks about those who are not “rich toward God.” 

Rich toward God. What does that even mean? The Greek preposition used here for toward, eis, usually indicates movement, or motion. So typically we would use it with an action verb, like “looking toward” or “going toward.” But how can we be rich towardGod?

We’ll look at an answer to that question in a moment, but first let’s consider the rest of the passage. In this case Jesus showed no concern for the unfairness of the man’s brother; he was focused on the man’s attitude. Here was still another guy who just wanted to use Jesus, who wanted to turn that special authority to his personal advantage. I wonder if Jesus was disappointed at what people asked for—then, and now?

Our Lord told the crowd a parable about a rich man. There is nothing wrong with being rich; the problem illustrated in the story was this rich man’s twisted values and misplaced confidence. 

I think many in the crowd were surprised at Jesus’ parable. They would have seen the rich man as savvy, talented – even blessed, because people often mistakenly saw material success as proof of God's favor. 

But Jesus said this rich man was an idiot! A fool! Jesus wanted the people to understand the truth of what really matters, what real security is. In the parable, there’s no mention of any of this man’s relationships, no family or friends.  He had just one stated concern – to be sure his bountiful crops were safely stored – and then he was confident that he could relax. He was secure. Nothing bad would happen. 

That poor rich man, because he died the same night. All of his possessions became meaningless to him. He was truly poor.

What does it mean to be rich? In some ways that’s a subjective definition. People can make a lot of money but if they have more outgo than income, they are not rich. 

We live in a consumerist society. Other people seek to enrich themselves by convincing us that we need more, bigger, better, newer. When we look around and compare ourselves to our friends – this can be a huge temptation, with Instagram posts flying around all day and night – it’s easy to feel poor.

Some of us here may live comfortably externally, but inside we are deeply unsatisfied and feel that our hearts are poor, that our lives lack value. Others of us here may be struggling financially, not sure how the next month’s bills will be paid. I know that’s a hard place to be.  

And some of us here have lived through childhood trauma, like I have. That leaves deep wounds which do not heal on their own. I want to interject here that childhood trauma is never, ever the fault of the child; it is never God’s desire for innocent ones to suffer; and God is eager to deliver us from the effects of all evil. Please feel free to email me confidentially any time if you have questions or thoughts about this. 

At any rate one of the effects of childhood trauma can be a persistent feeling of poverty, lack, or insufficiency; survivors often feel poor, no matter how much money we have. Sometimes we feel like we have to do more, we have to be perfect, we have to “earn our spot.” 

But all of us here can be rich toward God. Every person here has the capability to give generously and faithfully to God. I’m not talking about giving offerings to your church, or supporting good causes, or helping people you see. All of that is important but I’m talking about what we, as humans, can give directly to God, as Divine. We have the amazing capacity to bestow gifts lavishly on our Creator; every single one of us can be rich toward God.

Please notice that I did not say we ought to be rich toward God. What kind of a relationship is it if I only give gifts to someone because I’m expected to? Because I ought to? 

Think back to a time when someone gave you a gift that you didn’t need but that made you very happy. Now think how delighted you would be to give a gift to someone famous and highly respected. For me, it would be such an honor to give a gift to Elton John, my favorite musician. Sunglasses? A feather boa? Just about anything.

And now, consider your richness. You have the capability, every day, every minute, to lavish gifts on God, our Creator, our Source, our Light and our Salvation. When you give God a gift, that’s being rich toward God. That’s moving in God’s direction. That’s forward progress, to use a football phrase. And there is no one else in the whole wide world who can give the gifts that you can, because there is no one else like you. 

It’s a matter of love. It’s not to prove our worth. It’s not trying to get on God’s good side, not seeking to use Divine power to our advantage. It’s a desire to enjoy fellowship with our Creator, who loves us eternally and is constantly looking out for us. It’s focusing our attention, our priorities, and our choices on the Lord. 

This focus does not exclude people. When we are rich toward God, it becomes easier to be rich toward people—including ourselves—because there will eventually be a natural overflow of love and affection.

In the wondrous economy of heaven, the more we give away to God the more we’ll have to give. No scarcity – only abundance. Here is an extraordinary thing: As we move toward God in richness we see more ahead to move toward, more knowledge and understanding and beauty, more joy and confidence. It’s not that God is teasing us by moving farther away; we are seeing more of the wonder that awaits.

Every single one of us here can be rich toward God, repeatedly, every day.

We can give God praise, which means to acknowledge the Lord. “I praise you, God, for your power and your loving presence.”

We can give God thanks for specific prayers that have been answered, even while there are some prayers not yet answered.

We can glorify and magnify God, which means taking increasingly closer looks at who God is and appreciating what we see.

We can give God our faith, which means choosing to believe that God’s word is true. Faith is not a feeling but an act.

We can give God honesty and truth, which means saying to the Lord how we really feel and not hiding our emotions from God.

We can give God obedience, choosing to walk in God’s path instead of our own.

We can give God repentance, because we all sin and fall short. But we can all immediately repent as soon as we realize our wrongdoing, ask for forgiveness, do what we can to make it right, and move on. 

We can give God our thoughts – what we contemplate, what we spend time thinking about – and seek to glorify God even in the meditations of our hearts.

We can give God our painful memories – Sometimes there are decades-old memories that keep coming to our minds. Let’s acknowledge that pain and then give that memory to God as a gift. Repeatedly, until the pain subsides.

We can give God our love. Our tenderness and affection. (If you want to experience this affection for God, but you don’t feel it, ask for it and wait.) We can eventually get to the point where this one relationship, this friendship with the Divine, is the most important part of our lives.

In this way, we can be rich toward God, every day of our lives. And finally, when the hour of death comes – as it did for the poor rich man in the story, as it will for all of us – we will have nothing to fear. That moment of transition will simply be a continuation of our movement, our richness toward God, who waits to embrace us all and to welcome us home.