Being Rich Toward God

Jesus quite often speaks against the wealthy people. To be fair to the rich, Jesus’ indictment is not against their person or wealth, but directed towards their lack of generosity. In our Gospel Reading today, Jesus mentions the judgement of the rich person, “the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). However, being generous is just half of the story. The other half and more important part is being “rich toward God” or being in a state of spiritual wealth with the God of the universe. If we look back at this “Parable of the Rich Fool,” the parable came about because Jesus is addressing the selfishness of the person asking the question. Read again Luke 12:13-21, and one can see that the person’s view of inheritance is on the human level. He forgot to see that family inheritance comes from a covenant with the Lord. God is in control of our family affairs, and so we set our minds on God—submitting to the Almighty Creator-Savior.

An apt reminder comes from our New Testament Lectionary Reading from Colossians 3:1-11. It says: “Keep your minds fixed on God; think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2 GNB, NLT).