Wednesday, September 2, 2026

For the heart tempted to measure life by what it owns.

One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.” He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:13–21

Jesus is interrupted by an inheritance dispute, but he does not begin by deciding who deserves the property. He exposes the deeper danger: covetousness, the desire to make possessions carry the weight of life. His warning places abundance and the soul on a scale, then declares that the soul cannot be measured by what a person possesses.

The rich man’s ground produces abundantly, and his thoughts turn inward: What will I do? He enlarges his barns, counts his goods, and speaks peace to his soul because he has years stored up. Yet the account reaches “tonight,” when his soul is required and his prepared things cannot answer whose they will be. I confess that I have sometimes treated increased security as though it could give the soul a settled life. A full barn cannot answer an empty soul. The problem is not that the man has grain, but that he has made grain his answer to mortality, belonging, and rest. He is rich for himself, yet poor toward God.

Christ meets this poverty at the cross. He bears the judgment deserved by covetous hearts that turn gifts into gods, and his resurrection establishes a life no barn can preserve and no inheritance can secure. To be rich toward God is first to receive the riches of Christ: forgiveness, reconciliation, and a living hope joined to the risen Lord. Possessions may be entrusted to us, but life is given in him.

Lord Jesus, keep us from covetousness, and teach us to remember that life does not consist in the abundance of the things which we possess. Make us rich toward God through your cross and resurrection, until our soul rests in your grace.

A full barn cannot answer an empty soul.
Prayer

Lord Jesus, keep us from covetousness, and teach us to remember that life does not consist in the abundance of the things which we possess. Make us rich toward God through your cross and resurrection, until our soul rests in your grace.