Luk 12:32-40 - Live In Joyful Anticipation of Your True Wealth.
Learning of an inheritance makes people dream about what they would do with a lot of money if they suddenly had it. The idea is intoxicating. What would you do if you received a large inheritance? What would you do with a million dollars? That’s some pleasant daydreaming for most of us. That’s a part of the obsession that fuels the lottery and casinos.
Some of you might think to take that long cruise you have been wishing for, a trip to the Caribbean or the South Pacific. Others might want to go to the Superbowl, or buy a nice car or a luxurious home or a fast boat. Some of you might think about ways that you could help others with your newfound wealth, or the help the church or synod. Whatever you might think to choose, you would live in joyful anticipation of your wealth.
What if I told you that you do have an inheritance? a great wealth, worth far more than a million dollars? You who are Christians know that you are royalty, sons and daughters of the King of Kings. You know that you stand, one day soon, to inherit all things. You are heirs of eternal life. You are heirs of heaven. You are heirs of all things, because, for the sake of His Son’s sacrifice for you, by grace, God has adopted you into His family, given you His name in Holy Baptism, and prepared a home for you heaven.
When Jesus spoke the words of our sermon text, He was speaking to disciples who were worried about many things. They were fearful of not having enough in this life and fearful of not having enough life to enjoy what they did have. They were like us. We share those same fears, because like them, we simply cannot imagine that the God we have offended with our sins is a God so gracious that He would forgive us all our sins and provide for us the things we need for this life and the next. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Live in joyful anticipation of your true wealth, fellow redeemed. This is the Lord’s message for you this day. Live in joyful anticipation, but remember these three things: Your treasure is not of this world. Your treasure is of the eternal world, and your treasure is in eternity above.
“Sell your possessions and give to the needy.” Jesus says. Now the fanatics who want to read this verse out of context will tell you that you must give, give, give to the poor. They will say you don’t need earthly possessions. But this is not what Jesus says. He does not say, “Sell all your possessions and give to the needy.” He does not give here a new and improved tithing law to be followed. The fanatics think that they will improve their standing with God by swearing off possessions, but what they really do is give away the grace of God in their zeal for their own supposed righteousness. To think this way is sheer folly! If you were to sell all that you had and give it all to the needy, you would then be needy and yet would be no closer to God.
Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fall, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” Your possessions do not keep you from heaven, but neither are they your treasure. What God gives you to use in this world is not your treasure.
What God gives others to use in this world is not your treasure, either. If you had all that they had, whether you took it by force or they gave it to you because you were needy, if you had all that it still would not be your treasure.
Treasure is what we hold dear, what we protect, what we want to have above other things. If we treasure earthly things, then they fall or are stolen or they are destroyed by the lowly moth or by rust or simply by age. If we fill our lives with things that fall apart, then in the end we treasure lifeless dust, and that is plain foolish.
No, we Christians are not to treasure money and material possessions. But it’s not the money or material possessions that we treasure anyway; it’s what we can do with it. At least that is the way we think by nature. What good is money, if you can’t spend it on something you want? But this isn’t even the bottom of it. We do not treasure what we can do with it, so much as we treasure the ability to choose our own destiny. That’s really what we want deep down, and that is where the problem lies, because what we treasure by nature is self above all else, above neighbor and above God, even the God who would provide so graciously for us. And when our treasure is self, then we what we most want is something that is as good as dead.
So what is the moneybag that does not grow old? What is the treasure in the heavens that does not fall? What is it that no thief can take and no moth destroy? The question rules out anything and everything that God gives us to sustain our earthly lives. It rules out wealth, health, food, home, clothing, and all such things. In fact there is only one thing in all the world that cannot and never will change on us. Jesus said that His Word will never fail. Jesus said “Not the smallest letter or least stroke of the pen” shall be taken from His Word. The truth that He really is the Son of God. The truth that He did come from heaven to save us. The truth that He did actually live without sin and then give His life as the ransom for many on the cross. The truth that He did rise from the grove on the third day. That will never change.
But it’s not going to pay the bills. That is the great concern that overcomes so many. The fear that Jesus is addressing dulls minds to the truth, so that even many Christians pay attention to salaries and wages and grocery prices and so on, while paying little attention to God’s Word. Boys nowadays are often discouraged by their parents from the pastoral ministry. Young men and women are encouraged to look at the salary, and not the service. Perhaps they might gain much wealth, and perhaps they might even use it in service, but why are we adults turning away the greater good, diverting them from the treasure that cannot be taken away. Now certainly God will sort out who should serve in His ministry, but why would we test Him?
“But God’s Word does not give me pleasure” is another objection that is often raised. I would rather spend my time at this or that than spend it with God’s Word. Can we hear ourselves? Can we imagine saying this to our Lord, who has died that we might live. Could we be so ungrateful? We can and we often are. Let us repent of this.
God does not want us to have a joyful anticipation that quickly dies away. He wants for us to know a lifelong, joyful anticipation. Our treasure is in eternity above.
Jesus continues with a word picture to describe how joyful anticipation of our true wealth should live within us. “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Stay ready for action, fellow redeemed. You are about to receive your inheritance. It is right there for you. All that God wants for you. Live with that realization. It’s not some carrot that God is dangling before you to get you to do something that you don’t want to do. That’s the way the sinful nature would spin it. That’s why Jesus warns that the time is not known.
But you have that new nature, the image of Christ restored, you were reborn by water and the Spirit. God gave you faith, so you believe and understand why Jesus describes the beginning of eternity at the arrival of the master. Your treasure is in eternity above, kept for you and soon to be yours.
Dear Christians, what will you do with your inheritance? Think about it every day. Live in joyful anticipation of your true wealth. Then you will see all that has been given you in this life in the light of eternity, as gifts to be used in service to the God who loved you and gave His Son for you. Amen.