“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:21 (NIV)
Jesus is interested in the shape of our living. He wants God-shaped words, attitudes, and actions.
Jesus’ famous story about the rich fool, who builds bigger barns just so that he can “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry,” depicts the opposite of the God-shaped life. His is the life of one, namely himself. Priorities include self-preservation and self-gratification. That’s it. There’s nothing else and nobody else beyond himself. It’s the self-centered life.
Jesus’ agenda is radical because it orients us to God in the first place so that our living is shaped by God’s priorities, instead of our own. Words, attitudes, and actions that are “rich toward God” reveal the heart of a God who remembers “the other” above all else. The truth is that there’s nothing wrong with the bigger barns that the rich fool built. Instead, it’s that he forgot to include others as he made plans for his abundance. He stored up things for himself but as it turns out, only for himself.
Through Christ our Lord, our living is found to be rich toward God as we share generously with others from our abundance. This is the shape of both this life and the one that is yet to come.
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