August 3, 2025
“Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge – a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”
Charles Dickens’ brilliant writing in A Christmas Carol gives us the extraordinary character of Ebenezer Scrooge – the cold-hearted miser who grasps at wealth and despises not just Christmas, but those who walk the earth with him.
In many ways, Dickens’ description of Scrooge, with his narrow-minded focus on wealth and possessions, fills some gaps in Jesus’ story of the Rich Man – and makes him come even more alive for us. But I wonder if Scrooge and the man who asks Jesus the question at the very beginning of our Gospel reading are also similar. Because I think making the connection between the questioner and the parable is key to understanding what Jesus saying to us today.
And what is Jesus saying? That it is generosity – and not possessions or wealth – that gives purpose and meaning to our lives. It is generosity – not possessions or wealth – that gives purpose and meaning to our lives.
Jesus’ questioner comes with an ordinary request. People often called on rabbis to settle legal disputes. We don’t know the details about this situation, but two things seem apparent. One: this man thinks his older brother isn’t distributing the wealth fairly. And Two: no matter how large or small the amount of wealth here is, it clearly matters to those involved in the situation.
Jesus, though, in his frustratingly maddening way, doesn’t give the man what he wants. He refuses to judge the situation. Instead, he responds with a story about a fabulously wealthy landowner. A Top 1%-type person.
And the Rich Man has a problem. His fields have produced an enormous harvest – he has more grain than he could eat in 100 lifetimes. But the problem isn’t really about the size of the harvest. The problem is his insistence on storing this surplus - probably so that he can sell it later, when there’s less grain available and the price goes up.
Then a solution comes to him in the middle of his daydream. He will tear down his barns and build bigger ones, where he can securely store his grain and his goods. “Lucky man”, Jesus tells us the man says to himself, “with the wealth this harvest will create, you can eat, drink, and be merry for many years to come.”
Amid this plan for completely legal but totally greedy behavior, the thought of giving to anyone in need never crosses the Rich Man’s mind. Like Scrooge with his grasping and scraping and clutching, the Rich Man thinks of no one but himself. Look no further than his continual use of the possessive pronoun. My crops. My barns. My grain. My goods. The Rich Man’s world extends no farther than the edge of his own wants and desires.
We don’t know what has motivated Jesus’ questioner to come to him. Is he destitute, and his brother’s greed is keeping him from living a life of dignity? Is he greedy, and simply wants more of the pie? Is it something else altogether?
In the end, it doesn’t matter. Jesus rejects the man’s request to judge his family dispute because Jesus will not participate in satisfying the Scrooge-ish greed that is at the heart of the problem. Jesus will not reinforce the messages the world is giving. Instead of helping the man to get his inheritance, Jesus points him to a different understanding of life. An understanding of where life is not valued or measured in terms of wealth or possessions. Instead, Jesus’s story draws on teachings from Genesis and Deuteronomy to demonstrate that life is valued by our capacity to emulate God, the ultimate giver.
The Old Testament strongly emphasizes generosity as a core spiritual virtue. Humans, Genesis tells us, are created in God’s own image. And that means far more than whether or not our physical beings happen to look like God. It means that we’ve been created with unique qualities that reflect God’s very nature. So if we are created in the image of the Giver of All Good Gifts, then we are called to be – we are, in fact, created to be – generous in our actions and our attitudes.
The Law of Jesus’ day called ancient Israel’s attention to the poor, the marginalized, and the struggling. Several Old Testament passages – Scripture with which Jesus was intimately familiar – highlight the importance of giving to those in need. Deuteronomy chapter 15, for example, states in verse 4 that there should be no poor among the Israelites, and commands the Israelites in verses 7-8 to be open-handed toward those in need. Jesus’ advice is to follow these laws – to give freely to the poor. Give generously, Jesus says, because it shows that your values line up with God’s.
Think back once more to Jesus’ story. “There was a Rich Man who had land which bore good crops”, Jesus says. Jesus never criticizes the Rich Man for being rich. The wealth itself isn’t the problem. But where, Jesus’ story asks us to consider, has this wealth come from? The land has produced good crops. Where has the rain come from? The seeds? The seasonable weather? The land itself? It has all come from God, the Giver of All Good Things. But the Rich Man is so blind to that – so focused on himself – that he fails to appreciate what he has been given, and then fails to turn around and do the same thing himself – to share the bounty he’s been given with those around him.
At the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge takes the message of this parable to heart. Generosity takes the place of greed, and relationships take precedence over selfishness. Jesus calls us today to a similar transformation. His parable doesn’t condemn wealth or insist that we give it all away. But it does call us to change our hearts and minds – to turn our back on the idea that life is valued by possessions and wealth.
This story calls us to shape our lives by adopting an attitude of generosity. Maybe that generosity is financial. Giving to those in need. Breaking the hold wealth has over us is vitally important for our spiritual health. But just as importantly, we’re all called to a generosity of spirit. A giving of ourselves as we listen with understanding to someone’s story. A giving of ourselves as we widen the circle of those we love. Jesus calls us to live lives authentic generosity rooted in the compassion and empathy and love that God has shown to us. That is what it means to be “rich in God’s sight.”
What matters, my friends – what gives our lives purpose and meaning – is accepting the freedom a life in Christ offers from our squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous selves – so that we can savor the generous life that God has created each of us to live. Amen.