A voice from the crowd (around AD 30) instructs Jesus to order the man’s brother to do something. Just like me asking a Judge in Court to make an Order to benefit me. That was not what Jesus was “appointed” to do. But what he was indeed appointed to do was to teach people about the mega problem inside each one of them. “Guard against all gain!”
What was – and is – that problem within us? Do we really think that our “life” is – exists - from our “belongings”? Are those our "life"?
But he said to them a parallel, stating, “The region of a certain rich man produced good things and he reasoned in himself, stating, ‘What may I do, in that I do not have where I will gather together my fruits.’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will bring down my barns and I will house-build larger ones, and there I will gather together all the wheat and my good things. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things lying for many years: Relax! Eat! Drink! Celebrate!” But God said to him, ‘Foolish one. This very night your soul is asked back from you. But you prepared these things. To whom will it be?’ Thus: the one treasuring to himself and not rich toward God.”
What are we to make of this “parallel” spoken to all? This “rich man” was convinced that his “soul” (himself as a living human being) was all about his “good things … gathered together … for many years.” Not so. His "soul” – his whole being - was, “that very night … asked back from” him.
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And he said to his disciples, “Through these I am stating to you: Do not be anxious for the soul, what you may eat! And not for the body, with what you may be clothed! For the soul is more than the food, and the body than clothing. Observe the ravens in this! They neither sow nor reap. These are not a storeroom nor a barn, and yet God is nurturing them. How much more you yourselves are worth than the birds.”
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Jesus gave “his disciples” a separate, but related, message – above and below. “The soul” – the complete living being – needs to "eat” but “the soul” is “more than the food.” “God is nurturing … the ravens” which “are not a storeroom nor a barn.” Nor are we.
“But which of you, being anxious, is able to add a forearm’s length upon his stature? If then you are not able in a very little thing, why are you anxious about other things? Observe the lilies, how they grow! They neither toil nor spin, but I state to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. But if God so adorns the grass, being in a field today, and tomorrow thrown into an oven, how much more you, O little faith ones. And do not seek what you yourselves may eat and what you may drink, and do not be worried! For all the nations of the world diligently seek these but your Father knows that you need these. Instead, seek his kingdom! And these will be added to you.”
His disciples, Jesus says, are able to live without anxiety about too early a death. And without anxiety about being clothed. They will be clothed – just as God clothes “the lilies.” What then is the problem for them? “Little faith”? I guess so. Then Jesus gave the answer to that: “Seek … the kingdom … of your Father! And these will be added to you.”
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“Fear not, little flock, in this! That your Father is well pleased to give to you the kingdom. Sell your belongings! And give mercy! Make for yourselves non-decaying moneybags that do not grow old! An unfailing treasury in the heavens, where no thief draws near and no moth destroys. For where your treasury is, there also your heart will be.”
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| To the “disciples” of Jesus, Jesus said that their (their own - in the heavens) “Father is well pleased to give to you the kingdom.” So much so that Jesus instructs them to be ultra generous in order to fill their “unfailing treasury in the heavens.” Why do that? Because that’s where they, as complete living breathing souls - at heart - belong… |
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