(Audio)
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
The disciples of Jesus would later "testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead" (see Acts 10:42). So, in a sense, this man was correct to go to Jesus about his concern. But his concern appears to have been motivated to some extent by greed. He went to Jesus more for what he insisted on having rather than what Jesus desired to give. He did not truly desire the judgment of Jesus but rather desired Jesus to enforce the judgment he had already made. Hence, the response of Jesus echoed the Hebrews who were dissatisfied with the judgment passed on them by Moses (see Exodus 2:14). The judgment of Jesus would not leave this man from the crowd unscathed while coming down only against his brother since "God shows no partiality" (see Romans 2:11). His judgment would instead cut through every human heart dominated by greed, that is, all of our hearts to some extent.
Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.
Having much is not a problem to the degree that one can remain poor in spirit. But it is not easy to have wealth and remain detached from it, for the very care required to keep it incentivizes us to work to protect it with anxious concern. For those of us in blessed with much, decidedly rich by any ancient definition of the term, guarding against all greed is important. If we do not guard actively and attentively we risk coming to see our lives as consisting in possessions. Considered more broadly, we can consider possessions as everything that is only temporary, including all the temporary pleasures of this life and all of the troubles that we try so hard to avoid which are also only temporary. These are things which, when sought for their own sakes, are "vanity of vanities". Jesus shows us the proper attitude toward such possessions. In his parable he answers the request of the Psalmist to God, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart."
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
The man did not even consider whether he actually needed more, whether the additional work of upkeep on a second silo would actually even provide any noticeable benefit. He did not consider whom he might have helped with his surplus. Other people did not even enter into his calculus. Rather he had succumbed to the temptation to seek grain and other goods for their sakes and no longer in relation to any higher purpose. He had experienced some benefit and comfort from having a little. He wrongly assumed that with more he could protect that experience indefinitely. He sought to insulate himself from the fact that he only had a limited number of days and to try to forget the troubling fact that he had no higher orientation than the merely earthly, the temporary, that which must finally pass away. But all that he achieved was that the end of his life took him by surprise. It did not matter how many silos he had, they could no longer help. He hadn't want to acknowledge that such a moment would come. But in failing to do the only result was that he failed to prepare.
You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?
By contrast, Paul calls us to put to death the parts of us that are earthly now, since we can't keep them anyway. We are to take off the old self that made of greed an idol that sometimes even took the place of God in our lives. We are instead to put on a new self, with a new and spiritual way of thinking that seeks what is above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. This renewed mind isn't seeking heaven so as to escape from earth or the things of the earth. Rather, we seek what is above to correctly orient our lives here below. One consequence of this is that we will have a correct relationships with our possessions, treating them as blessings which are only temporary, and which cannot take the place of God. Then, when our time comes to stand before the judge we won't be taken by surprise. Rather, the hidden life we have already begun to live will be revealed.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
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