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Text: Luke 12:13-21
Liturgical Date: Pentecost 8 Proper 13 C
Calendar Date: August 3, 2025
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson
Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County
Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Sturgeon Bay and other locations around Door County.
The following transcript was produced with the assistance of AI.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Back, when I was five years old, I made my dad so proud. My dad is, also an ordained minister, and, uh, he asked me, “Chris, what did Jesus do for you?” And I said, “Jesus died on the cross to take away my sins.” And, oh, I think my mom had to sew a few buttons back on his shirt ‘cause it swelled up so big, his chest did. He was so proud that his five-year-old could give that answer. And then I just quickly pricked a hole in that swelling chest when I said, “Jesus should give them back.”
Introduction to Covetousness
Jesus said, “Beware of all covetousness,” or in some translations, “Beware against every form of covetousness.” And that’s our theme for today. We’re gonna be talking about three forms of covetousness. We could probably talk about many more, but we’re gonna talk about three forms of covetousness. First of all, jealousy. Second of all, misuse of earthly wealth, and then finally, hanging on to our sins.
The Parable and Jealousy
Christ preaches this parable today in response to a man who said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Now, that might seem a little confusing to us. Aren’t inheritances normally divided? But this wasn’t the case in the time and place of Christ. It seems to be the idea that they wanted to preserve farms and industries in whole. In other words, they didn’t wanna divide up one farm into smaller farms and therefore compromise the entire operation. Or they didn’t wanna divide up one cattle operation or one sheep operation into multiple flocks or herds because that would weaken the whole. And so the idea was to keep these sorts of assets together in order to keep the whole operation strong. And we still see that, by the way, in various places around the world.
So inheritance was different than what we might expect. Essentially, what they would do is they would pass on the bulk of the inheritance to the eldest son. And it seems to be the case that one of the younger siblings of this eldest son wasn’t particularly happy with this, and so he sought relief from Jesus: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” I actually wonder if the brother was sitting there glaring at his own brother at that time. I think it’s very much possible. But Jesus refuses to get into the middle of this argument. And really, why? Because this was a form of covetousness that this brother was showing.
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.” With these words, God instructed us not to have undue desire for the possessions of somebody else, but rather to be content with the possessions and the material abundance the Lord has given us. And this is the first form of covetousness that Jesus summons us against. God calls us to rejoice with those who rejoice. And so, if the Lord has blessed somebody else in a way that He has not blessed us, that’s not a reason for weeping and gnashing our teeth and being jealous and angry and bitter. Rather, that’s a cause for us Christians to rejoice. I praise the Lord that the Lord has blessed you in this way.
This is part of God’s wisdom. He created this world with differences baked into it. It’s not just some formless blob where everything is the same. And who would wanna live in a world like that? But the Lord has blessed us each in our own way. To some, He has given business acumen; to another, He has given artistic skill. Uh, to one, He’s given the ability to speak and the ability to teach; to another, He’s granted the ability to work with the hands. And even as the Lord has gifted us differently in all these ways, also the Lord gives us different gifts materially, and that’s a cause to rejoice.
Certainly, we are also called to weep with those who weep, and so therefore we show sympathy with those who have less than us. We’re gonna get to that in the next point. But as Christians, we’re called to rejoice in the blessings the Lord has granted others, whether that’s material or relationally, which gets to the Tenth Commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or maidservant, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Back when I served in the suburbs in Lexington, Kentucky, that part about your ox or donkey was metaphorical here. That’s literal with a point. No matter what, it’s the same. The Lord grants us different relationships as well. He has granted some to have families, others to be single. He has granted some to have many friends, some to have a select group of friends. Well, the list could go on and on and on.
But once again, we’re called not to sorrow over the fact that the Lord has blessed others differently than us. But instead, we are called to rejoice and thank the Lord for the way that He has blessed others. The Lord has blessed each of us differently, and the Lord calls each of us to steward well the gifts that He has given us, including the material gifts the Lord has given us. And this gets to the next part of what we read in our gospel lesson today.
The Misuse of Earthly Wealth
He said to them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I’ll do this: I’ll tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I’ll store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you.’”
Now, I wanna make something clear about this passage. Jesus is not condemning this man in this parable for being successful in his farming endeavor. He’s not condemning him for that. Rather, He’s saying the man is foolish for what he’s doing with the fruits of that farming operation. And I’m struck as I read this account of the Rich Fool, the difference between this and the account in the Proverbs of the wise wife, because it’s a good foil against what we see here, to see how the Lord does intend for us to use the material blessing that He gives us.
In the book of Proverbs, we have an account of wisdom throughout the entire book, and it’s almost personified. Everything that Solomon talks about in the book of Proverbs is almost personified in, uh, Proverbs 31, the woman who fears the Lord. It’s as if wisdom takes shape and form there. And yes, it is, I think, in a beautiful picture of God-pleasing womanhood. But it’s also something that all of us can consider when it comes to wealth and when it comes to material blessing.
Let’s take a look at this. “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” I’m gonna skip a few verses. Actually, I don’t know. “The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he’ll have no lack of gain.” Why? That’s because she’s a very industrious woman. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. So she’s going out and purchasing good raw materials. And with those raw materials, she is applying her skills. And then she is like the ships of the merchant: she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. So it looks like partly what’s going on here is that she’s working with wool and flax, and she’s making good textiles, and she’s going out and trading with them. And because of this, she’s able to provide good food for her family.
But not only this, she has more than enough through the efforts of her hands to buy food. But there’s an additional increase over that. What does she do with that? Does she just tuck it away under her bed? Does she dig a hole and bury it in the ground? Does she build bigger barns? No. She considers a field and buys it. She uses these assets that she’s accrued through her skill, through her ability at trading. And she goes and buys another asset to compound all of this. And just as she improved the raw materials of that wool and flax through her skills, she also improves the raw materials of that field with the fruit of her hands. Did you get that? With the fruit of her hands, the things that she’s making with wool and flax, she plants a vineyard. She goes out and purchases vines and hires workers to improve that field.
And what happens eventually? Verse 18: she perceives that her merchandise—the things that she has made with her hands, the articles of clothing with wool and flax, the wine that she has produced out of this vineyard—she perceives that it is profitable. And then, out of that profit, finally, what does she do? It’s as if she has so much that she can’t keep growing her business fast enough. And out of that abundance, verse 20, she opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.
The picture we get is this: the Lord is pleased and considers it wisdom to use the material blessings that He has given us in such things as good, honest commerce and industry. The Lord takes pleasure through those sorts of business affairs. What happens? Well, she was employing people, quite obviously, helping others have what they need to provide for their families. She was, as well, providing additional commerce for the community, mutually lifting up the community through her commercial activity. And then, once again, out of that overabundance, she’s generous to the poor. And whether it’s through commerce or through her generosity, others are blessed. And that’s what the Lord desires for us to do with our assets: not to just simply hoard them away, but instead to employ them for the mutual uplift of others through such things as honest commerce.
And we mentioned earlier, we weep with those who weep, also through giving to the poor and through generosity. The greatest form of generosity, the greatest need that we have, by the way, is our spiritual need. And as you are generous to God’s people here at St. Peter’s, your gifts, your tithes, your offerings, you too are generous to the need, ‘cause we all have spirits.
Clinging to Our Sins
That brings us to our third and final point, that Jesus warns against us of the covetousness of hanging onto our sins. He warns against the covetousness of this rich fool who clings to his earthly blessings instead of using them to improve his business affairs or to give to the poor. So also, Jesus warns us against hanging on to our sins. He says, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Well, how is it that we are rich towards God? Jesus answers this question in some of the verses that come after our gospel reading today. He says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” How can we be rich towards One who has everything? How can we be generous to Him who is the source of our blessing? We’re generous to Him when we give Him our debts, the debt of our sin. What God desires of us above all is repentance. As the Psalms say, the sacrifices of God are not burnt offerings and such as these, but rather the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit.
When I said to my dad, “Jesus should give my sins back,” I didn’t exactly know what I was saying, mind you. But that’s being covetous, clinging to what we consider our earthly goods. How many people treasure and value and cling to their earthly sins, hoarding up that earthly wealth so that our hands are closed to God, who wants to pour into them heavenly wealth? This giving of the kingdom has been accomplished for us by Christ. Christ was not covetous, even though He was by nature the Son of God. He did not consider equality with God something to be clung to, but rather He made Himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant and humbling Himself, even to the point of death on the cross.
Christ’s Sacrifice and Our Response
Jesus used His heavenly treasure as the Son of God unto our redemption. And not only this heavenly treasure that was His divine right as the Son of God, but also even His earthly blessings He gave up for our sakes. He gave up the comfortable life in His hometown. He gave up His work as a carpenter. You know, the foxes have holes in the ground, and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. He went about preaching, teaching, and healing for a while. He enjoyed fame and repute, but the voices which called out to Him at one time, “Lord, save us,” eventually would cry out, “Crucify Him!” And the good reputation He had went to the wayside as He was accounted among criminals upon the cross. So little did He cling to His earthly goods that even the shirt on His own back He gave up for our sakes.
And finally, as well, He gave up His life. He was not covetous; rather, He freely gave so that we might have forgiveness when we repent, righteousness when we trust in Him, eternal life when He is the subject of our hopes. He has given us everything, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we have such great treasures awaiting us in heaven, therefore He empowers us to avoid covetousness in this world. He empowers us to leave aside the sin in which we once lived. He empowers us to use the blessings that He has given us in service to others. And He empowers us to be joyful in the blessing the Lord gives others. And by that, He helps us to be agents of that generosity as well. To Jesus Christ be all power, honor, and glory. Amen.