Jesus said, “Woe to you who are rich…” Luke 6:24
Do you think of yourself as rich?
I don’t. I look back over my life, and I’m certainly grateful that I have never known great need. But rich? No, not really.
But as soon as I say that, I know I need to be careful.
Deciding whether or not you are rich depends on where you are looking. If I look at Bill Gates, or some footballer who is paid hundreds of thousands of pounds every week, or some business multi-millionaire, then, no I’m certainly not rich.
But if I look at the millions of people all around the world who are starving to death, who have nowhere to live and no prospect of ever having a proper home – people who certainly have no such things as phones, computers, televisions – well, it’s rather different. I am rich indeed!
Perhaps you feel like me. In which case, Jesus’ words here in Luke 6 – “Woe to you who are rich” – need to be taken seriously.
Material wealth is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing if we use it wisely, generously, for the glory of God and the good of others; a curse if we let it rule our lives and use it only for our own pleasure.
In the “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke’s counterpart to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”), Jesus speaks very crisply and briefly. So “woe to you who are rich” comes across as pretty uncompromising. It’s certainly a warning; but it needs to be seen in the context of the Bible as a whole.
There are many passages we could turn to. But Luke seems to have a particular interest in this theme, and just a few passages in his two books – his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles – provide plenty of food for thought.
Let’s highlight five passages which help us flesh out this subject.
First, two which bear out Jesus’ blunt warning.
In Luke 12:16-21 we are given the story of the rich fool. Here’s your archetypal tycoon. By virtue, perhaps, of genuine hard work, he ends up with more than he knows what to do with. So he decides to store it all up and “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
But God has other ideas: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
Death is coming. Only a fool, says God, puts all his or her wealth in an earthly basket.
Even more thought-provoking is the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Its special power comes from the fact that, here, the rich man is contrasted with the beggar lying at his gate, where “even the dogs came and licked his sores”.
Jesus describes the different fates of the two men – the beggar is carried by angels to “Abraham’s side”, while the rich man ends up crying out from “Hades”, the dwelling place of the dead.
While we may not have beggars lying today at our front doors, don’t we see them every night on the television news? Could we be in the same situation as that callous rich man?
The other three passages help us to see how rich people are both blessed by God and also a blessing to others.
Take Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:50-54). He is the man who felt moved to beg Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate and lay it in a new tomb in his own grounds. You can’t do a thing like that unless you are pretty well off – and also deeply compassionate and generous-spirited.
Then there is that lovely man Barnabas (Acts 4:36-37). In the early, heady days of the infant church he “sold a field he owned and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet”. I imagine that must have been a serious sacrifice: was that field in effect his pension pot?
There are several female figures I could have gone for: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50, say, or the poor widow of Luke 21:1-4. Strictly speaking, though, neither of them was in fact “rich” in the sense we have been thinking of – all the more challenging and wonderful, then, that they should be so extravagantly generous.
But let’s finish with Lydia (Acts 16:13-15). She was a businesswoman, “a dealer in purple cloth”. Having come to Jesus by the river in Philippi, she opens her home to Paul and Barnabas, the wandering missionaries. Did her house become the first meeting-place of that church, to which Paul later wrote his letter to the Philippians?
So… two passages of strong warning; three passages of great example.
What are we going to do about them?
Lord God, thank you for the treasures in heaven to which I can look forward. Please help me to use in a Christlike way the treasures I have here on earth. Amen.
Do you think of yourself as rich?
I don’t. I look back over my life, and I’m certainly grateful that I have never known great need. But rich? No, not really.
But as soon as I say that, I know I need to be careful.
Deciding whether or not you are rich depends on where you are looking. If I look at Bill Gates, or some footballer who is paid hundreds of thousands of pounds every week, or some business multi-millionaire, then, no I’m certainly not rich.
But if I look at the millions of people all around the world who are starving to death, who have nowhere to live and no prospect of ever having a proper home – people who certainly have no such things as phones, computers, televisions – well, it’s rather different. I am rich indeed!
Perhaps you feel like me. In which case, Jesus’ words here in Luke 6 – “Woe to you who are rich” – need to be taken seriously.
Material wealth is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing if we use it wisely, generously, for the glory of God and the good of others; a curse if we let it rule our lives and use it only for our own pleasure.
In the “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke’s counterpart to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”), Jesus speaks very crisply and briefly. So “woe to you who are rich” comes across as pretty uncompromising. It’s certainly a warning; but it needs to be seen in the context of the Bible as a whole.
There are many passages we could turn to. But Luke seems to have a particular interest in this theme, and just a few passages in his two books – his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles – provide plenty of food for thought.
Let’s highlight five passages which help us flesh out this subject.
First, two which bear out Jesus’ blunt warning.
In Luke 12:16-21 we are given the story of the rich fool. Here’s your archetypal tycoon. By virtue, perhaps, of genuine hard work, he ends up with more than he knows what to do with. So he decides to store it all up and “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
But God has other ideas: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
Death is coming. Only a fool, says God, puts all his or her wealth in an earthly basket.
Even more thought-provoking is the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Its special power comes from the fact that, here, the rich man is contrasted with the beggar lying at his gate, where “even the dogs came and licked his sores”.
Jesus describes the different fates of the two men – the beggar is carried by angels to “Abraham’s side”, while the rich man ends up crying out from “Hades”, the dwelling place of the dead.
While we may not have beggars lying today at our front doors, don’t we see them every night on the television news? Could we be in the same situation as that callous rich man?
The other three passages help us to see how rich people are both blessed by God and also a blessing to others.
Take Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:50-54). He is the man who felt moved to beg Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate and lay it in a new tomb in his own grounds. You can’t do a thing like that unless you are pretty well off – and also deeply compassionate and generous-spirited.
Then there is that lovely man Barnabas (Acts 4:36-37). In the early, heady days of the infant church he “sold a field he owned and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet”. I imagine that must have been a serious sacrifice: was that field in effect his pension pot?
There are several female figures I could have gone for: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50, say, or the poor widow of Luke 21:1-4. Strictly speaking, though, neither of them was in fact “rich” in the sense we have been thinking of – all the more challenging and wonderful, then, that they should be so extravagantly generous.
But let’s finish with Lydia (Acts 16:13-15). She was a businesswoman, “a dealer in purple cloth”. Having come to Jesus by the river in Philippi, she opens her home to Paul and Barnabas, the wandering missionaries. Did her house become the first meeting-place of that church, to which Paul later wrote his letter to the Philippians?
So… two passages of strong warning; three passages of great example.
What are we going to do about them?
Lord God, thank you for the treasures in heaven to which I can look forward. Please help me to use in a Christlike way the treasures I have here on earth. Amen.
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