We live our lives collecting things. Cataloging things. Desiring things. Protecting things. Hoarding things. Coveting things. It is as if we believed that things provide pleasure. And security.
Possibly the only thing that we don't believe is that things will provide meaning for our lives. At least, I have never heard anyone claim that things give us significance. But doesn't what we pursue, indicate what we believe about our lives? In other words, doesn't what we build our lives around indicate what we think provides meaning and significance?
Jesus tells a story that has as its punch line: "The who dies with the most toys, still dies" (Luke 12:13-21). In his story the rich man does not understand that his life is something other than the pursuit of and the enjoyment of the things he has collected, and he does not really understand the significance of the fact that those things cannot provide him security against the greatest enemy, death. What is tragic about this story is not that the man dies. This is everyone's tragedy. What is tragic about the story is that the rich man never learned what life is all about, what life consists of.
Someone might argue that according to the story the man is "only" hoarding up food. Food is necessary to our survival, right? To have ample food means to secure ourselves, right?
Jesus' point is that the physical life that food promises is momentary at best. And his greater point is that storing of this treasure for oneself is not being rich toward God. In keeping with Jesus' other teachings, Jesus is calling for sharing crops with the poor not giving more money to the temple and priest as a religious act. What awaits the rich man at the end is not an angry God but the lostness of an man who has wasted his life.
"Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
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