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9781573122511

Jesus the Storyteller : Relating His Stories to My Story

by
  • ISBN13:

    9781573122511

  • ISBN10:

    1573122513

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1999-03-01
  • Publisher: Smyth & Helwys Pub

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Summary

Brian Harbour applies the stories of Jesus, which are eternally relevant, in fresh ways for Christians in the twentieth century who want to live by the truths Jesus presented in the first century. Through stories and commentary the author examines sixteen of Jesus' stories and focuses on the central truths of the parables and their application to Christian living today. The author also provides preaching resources on some of the richest sections of the Gospels for those who have been called to instruct and inspire contemporary Christians.

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Excerpts


Chapter One

Why Winning the Lottery

Won't Make You Happy

Luke 12:13-21

At the age of 41, Bud should have been the happiest man alive, for he had won the first $2 million Georgia State Lottery. After telling the local media he would not change his lifestyle in any way, he went on a spending spree that included buying a new Corvette, a new house, and a whale-shaped swimming pool, and ordering 23 new credit cards with a total credit limit of $210,000. When he opened the envelope containing his first lottery check, he found a check for only $70,000. Only then did he realize what the limits of his new cash flow would be. Instead of happiness, he went into what psychonomists call 'fiscal funk."

Conversations are often punctuated with, "When I win the lottery, I'll ..."--as if winning the lottery will instantaneously solve all our problems. Experience has taught us that winning the lottery often creates as many problems as it solves.

    In an editorial he wrote about the lottery, Jerry Benson suggested that this warning be added to lottery tickets: "Accepting the proceeds from this wager can be harmful or fatal." He confessed in the article that he had often bought lottery tickets for all his enemies! He knew that winning the lottery would wreck their lives.

    Why do we seek so diligently for more money only to discover, when we get it, that money is not the answer? Jesus provided some insight on this dilemma in one of his most famous stories, the story of the fortunate but foolish farmer.

    Farming is a risky occupation, the success of it determined by a number of factors. Some years everything comes together in just the right way, and a bountiful crop is produced. The farmer in Jesus' story had that kind of year. In fact, the crop was so plentiful, he had no place to store it. He needed new barns. Unfortunately, the farmer attributed to his vocational success more value than it actually had. He was convinced his future was secure. "Take life easy," he said to himself. "Eat, drink, and be merry." Or, in the words of Clarence Jordan, he said to himself: "Recline, dine, wine, and shine!" But he didn't have a long life of leisure ahead of him. Instead, his life was over that night. He thought he had it made, but God called him a fool! What lessons can we learn from this remarkable story?

Money Can't Provide Fulfillment

Sister Priscilla of the Pristine Chapel was driving through central Texas. Just outside the town of Temple, on US 190 to Cameron, she ran out of gas. She walked back to a service station to buy some gas. The attendant at the station did not have a can to loan, so he took a 2-liter Dr. Pepper out of the refrigerator, poured out the Dr. Pepper, and filled the bottle with gas. When Sister Priscilla walked back to the car, she poured the gas into the tank out of the bottle. A passing motorist observed the scene, slowed down, rolled down his window, and said to the nun, "I admire your faith, Sister, but I don't think it's going to work!"

Just as the automobile was not made to operate on Dr. Pepper, we humans were not made to operate on money. This does not mean that money has no value; it does. It simply means that money is the wrong kind of currency for doing business in the spiritual dimension of life.

    Suppose, for example, a businesswoman from Mexico City visits Dallas. She goes to the Galleria Mall to browse. In one of the stores she finds a beautiful vase. She decides to buy it. She takes the vase to the salesperson and hands him 2,000 pesos. He says to her, "I'm sorry, but those pesos are not good here." In Mexico, the pesos are worth something, but they are not the right currency for doing business in American stores. Likewise, money is not the right currency for buying fulfillment in life. Money can buy food, but not an appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; some days of joy, but not happiness.

    Money, which is material, cannot satisfy our deep life needs, which are spiritual. Happiness comes only when we have peace with God, when we are at peace with ourselves, and when we live in peace with other people. Money simply cannot provide those things. That's why Jesus said in the introduction to his story, "For one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions" (v. 15). Multiplying money to infinity changes the quantity of the money but not its quality. Five million dollars cannot bring fulfillment to human life any more than five dollars. Money simply does not have the capacity to provide fulfillment.

    If we win the lottery, we may be rich, famous, and powerful, but we will not necessarily be happy. Happiness comes from a sense of fulfillment in life, and fulfillment is something money cannot provide.

The Desire for Money Controls Our Lives

Jethro, a wealthy silversmith and his wife Josephine needed to journey at once to the city of Pulaski, about fifteen miles away. Because of snowfall the night before, the only available train was indefinitely delayed. Jethro approached a man named Theodore who had a coach and asked him to drive him and his wife to Pulaski. "The roads are covered with ice," Theodore protested. "In some places the snow is banked in ten-foot drifts. It is bitter cold. My horses may slip and fall. I will not do it."

Jethro countered this list of protests with another offer: "Take me to Pulaski. If I utter one sound during the entire trip, I'll pay twice the fare. But if I remain absolutely silent, then I owe you nothing."

Theodore considered the offer and decided to accept. "By the time I get him there," Theodore whispered to himself, "He'll not only make a sound. He'll be hollering at the top of his lungs."

Theodore set out with his two passengers. He pushed the horses to full speed, reining them from one side of the road to the other, causing the coach to careen wildly. They hit every rock and bounced over every rut and hole, but not a sound came from Jethro. Finally, in desperation, Theodore raced the horses at the very edge of the road where the slightest mishap would send them plunging down the embankment. Jethro never broke his silence.

When they arrived at Pulaski, Theodore said, "You never made a sound. You win."

Jethro responded, "Just between you and me, I want to confess something. Back there at the last wild turn when the carriage nearly turned over, you almost won your bet. That's where my wife fell out!"

We can easily come to the place where Jethro was, caring so much about money that we don't care about anything else. We think we have money, but in reality, the money has us. That's the way it was for the fortunate but foolish farmer. Money controlled his thoughts. "What shall I do with all my abundance?" he asked himself. Money governed his plans. "I'll build bigger barns," he gloated. Money dominated his future. "I'll enjoy my abundance," he suggested to himself. The farmer thought he had all these material possessions, but in reality, they had him.

    We, too, are often controlled by our possessions. We buy a boat and eventually go out every weekend on the lake and neglect our involvement in the life of the church. We think we have the boat, but in reality, it has us. We purchase a lake house, just to get away from some of the pressures in our lives. Soon we are going to the lake house every weekend and missing the weekly experiences of worship with God's people. We think we have a lake house, but in reality, it has us.

    We often speak of money as a neutral force. It isn't. Richard Foster correctly concludes, "Money is not just a neutral medium of exchange but a `power' with a life of its own. And very often it is a `power' that is demonic in character." That's why Jesus said, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed" (v. 15). Money does not bring satisfaction; rather, it creates dissatisfaction. It produces an insatiable appetite, a desire for more, which eventually takes control of our lives.

Money Is Not Eternal

In 1886, some of the East Coast's most prominent millionaires--including Goodyear, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Macy, and Astor--purchased a coastal island near Georgia for a winter family retreat. By the early 1900s, those men had informally linked together to form a powerful and influential confederacy. Members of the exclusive Jekyll Island Club controlled 1/6 of the world's wealth. Today the Jekyll Island is history. Those powerbrokers are all dead. When they died, without exception, they left their money behind.

This real-life story is a parable that highlights the most dangerous aspect of money. Money and the things money can buy seem to offer security and permanency when, in reality, material things are temporary and transient. This truth is beautifully exposed in Jesus' story. Notice the sharp contrast between the farmer's illusion of "many years" (v. 19) and the reality of "this very night your life is being demanded of you" (v. 20). Centuries later, money still is limited by its temporary quality.

    As family and friends gathered at the cemetery for the burial of the town's wealthiest citizen, one of the mourners said, "I wonder how much money he left." Another of the mourners responded, "All of it!" Of course, the dead man left all of it, and so do we. We all leave all of it, because the power of material things is only operative within the parentheses of the womb and the tomb. Money belongs to the realm of the temporary and transient.

Conclusion

The farmer sought money without recognizing its obvious shortcomings. Money cannot provide fulfillment, produce satisfaction, or procure permanence. That's why Jesus called the farmer a fool. He let go of the one thing he could keep, and he kept the one thing he should have let go.

    People of our day share a kindred spirit with the farmer in Jesus' story. Sociologist Juliet B. Schor confirms that throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most middle-class Americans were acquiring at a greater rate than any previous generation. During that period the average American's spending increased 30 percent. Is it possible that the intensification of our consumption is driven by the same motive Jesus discovered in the farmer, the illusion that the possession of things will allay our insecurities and affirm our worth? A popular bumper sticker puts it like this: "The one who dies with the most toys wins!" Jesus' story needs to make the rounds again today.

    I once heard Dale Evans make a statement that provides a clearer focus than the distorted view of the fortunate but foolish farmer and the conspicuous consumers of our day. She said, "All my life I searched for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and I found it at the foot of the cross." We, too, can find a pot of gold, not in the lottery, but in the "boundless riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8).

Copyright © 1999 Smyth & Helwys Publishing. All rights reserved.

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