Giving to God in the Gospel of Luke

Our Bible study recently finished studying the Gospel of Luke. Going in to the study I knew Luke’s reputation as the Gospel for the gentiles and the outcasts. And sure enough in our readings I saw how so many of its heroes – in the narrative in Jesus’ parables -- are women, Samaritans, cripples and others on the fringes of Israelite society.

I also had in mind that Luke is the dreaded (for those of us with wealth) “Give Up Your Money Gospel.” It is. Not only does Luke contain the parable of the rich young ruler (“sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor”) and the encounter with Zacchaues (“half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor”), it also has this blanket mandate: “None of you can become my disciples if you do not give up all your possessions” (14:33).

One twist I discovered in our reading of the Give Up Your Money Gospel was in a parable at its midpoint. Jesus is pulled into an inheritance dispute and responds with what my Bible calls the parable of the rich fool. “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,” Jesus begins; “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Then comes the brief story of a rich man whose harvest produced more crops than he could store. Instead of giving away the excess he built more storehouses only to have God tell him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.” Next, Jesus delivers the punch line: “So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

What does it mean to be “rich toward God?” This is the question we considered for an evening in our study, and it is the one that sticks with me still.

I’m sure the answer is inexhaustible but where I’d begin is with a kind of holy giving. Zachariah and Elizabeth, to their astonishment, are given John. Jesus is given to Mary and Joseph, and “for all the people,” as the angels tell the shepherds. The marks of Jesus’ ministry – healings, exorcisms and miracles – can be considered gifts. His sermon on the plain could be seen as a list of gifts for those who seem not to get many.

More fundamentally, Jesus’ whole life is as a gift given back to his father into whose hands he commends his spirit. Then after his resurrection, Jesus promises the giving of the Spirit.

The economy of love among the Trinity, overflowing to the church, is its own inexhaustible mystery. My touching upon it is only to show a connection I made in reading Luke these past months with brothers and sisters. The “Give Up Your Money” messages found so frequently in Luke – e.g., the widows mite and Lazarus and the rich man, in addition to those mentioned above -- is woven in with the rest of Jesus’ life and ministry. Giving to the poor is not an isolated obligation. It is an essential part of giving one's life to God as Jesus showed to do. It is a way of being rich toward God.