THE CURRENCY OF WORRY

Jesus said a lot about money. Some commentators have pointed out that money was the second most common topic in His teaching, after the kingdom of God.

It seems that Jesus knew that money could get hold of us, mess with us, and would even be a rival to the way of life He was offering. “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Luke 16:13). Money—and the stuff it represents—is the currency of worry. Whether getting it, keeping it, accumulating it, managing it, not having it, or losing it, we are tempted to rely on money as our key to the present and our surety for the future. Jesus’ warning in Luke 12 is the introductory statement to his parable of the rich fool, a story that shows money’s creeping trap. There is no evidence that the landowner in the story had done anything wrong or exploitative in gaining his wealth. Instead, the land had produced a larger-than-expected crop, something that might have been regarded as a blessing.

His foolishness was his accumulation, keeping for himself beyond what he needed, taking on the extra work and worry of building still larger barns, and expecting that this would be his ticket to “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” for many years to come (Luke 12:19). It might not seem like a great evil, but Jesus taught that this man—and many of us like him—was putting his faith and his hope in the wrong things. He was choosing wealth and worry over generosity and trust. This story was the launching pad for Luke’s version of Jesus’ “Do not worry” sermon (see Luke 12:22–34). “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34).