The Upwardly-Mobile Fool

The rich farmer did well in so many ways. He worked hard, he played by the rules, he spent his money wisely, he found good land, he worked it in the hot sun, he planted and he irrigated and when the harvest came in, he was rewarded far beyond his expectations. He planned to build more barns because he had so much that he couldn’t care for all of it. Let me repeat what I said in the beginning. I find it very hard to criticize this man. He did what any of us would have done.

In fact, this is exactly the sort of man we want in our churches. When we find a man like this, we cultivate him, we build a relationship, we invite him to a special dinner, we make he gets the red carpet treatment. A man like that could do a ministry a lot of good. We might make him the chairman of the elder board because he is such a good businessman.

The lesson of this parable will be lost on us if we think that Jesus is criticizing him for being rich. That's not his problem. His problem isn't his wealth or his plans to expand his buildings. That was all quite commendable.

Jesus condemned this man because he forgot one fact. He forgot that he was going to die someday. And what then? Someone else will have all that he owns. An old Italian proverbs says, "The last robe has no pockets." Billy Graham likes to say that he has never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse. There is no point is asking how much a man left because the answer is always, "He left all of it."

Naked we come into the world,
Naked we will leave the world.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Harry Bollback told me recently that he had been collecting some memorabilia about the life of Jack Wyrtzen — important papers, crucial correspondence, that sort of thing. Harry said that the stack ended up being several feet tall. He said that he had done the same thing when one of his aunts died. Her stack was very thin, only an inch or two. "But they're both gone," he said. That's exactly the point.

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.
Death plays no favorites.
 
Watchman Nee

Let me draw one simple application from all this and I will be done. I can state it this way. Hold lightly what you value greatly because it isn't yours anyway. In one of his books Watchman Nee said that we approach God like little children with open hands, begging for gifts. Because he is a good God, he fills our hands with good things — life, health, friends, money, success, recognition, challenge, marriage, children, a nice home, a good job, all the things that we count at Thanksgiving when we count our blessings. And so like children, we rejoice in what we have received and run around comparing what we have with each other. When our hands are finally full, God says, “My child, I long to have fellowship with you. Reach out your hand and take my hand. But we can’t do it because our hands are full. “God, we can’t,” we cry. “Put those things aside and take my hand,” he replied. “No, we can’t. It’s too hard to put them down.” “But I am the one who gave them to you in the first place.” “O God, what you have asked for is too hard. Please don’t ask us to put these things aside.” And God answers quietly, “You must.”

I learned this truth the hard way twenty years ago. It happened in another time and another place when I thought I was on top of the world. Everything looked so good to me. One day a friend dropped by to see me. “Do you have a few minutes to talk, Pastor Ray?” “Of course,” I replied, “Come in.” After a few minutes of conversation, she came to her point. “Pastor Ray, you have to let go. You’re holding on too tightly.”

How a Good Thing Becomes an Idol

It was one of those moments where from the first word of that sentence I knew exactly what she was going to say. And I knew she was right. Deep in my heart, I had known it for a long time but didn’t want to face the truth. I was holding on to something so tightly that it had become an idol to me, something dearer than life itself. Before you ask, let me say simply that the thing was not evil or bad. In fact, it was a good thing that had become an idol that I dared not give up (an idol is anything good that becomes too important in your life).