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Concerning the Deceitfulness of Riches


And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
(Mark 4:9)
And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 
(Mark 4:18-19)

Our Lord has warned us that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. In the parable of the sower, he tells us that the deceitfulness of riches makes barren the Word in our lives. Watching the sunrise this morning, I was struck with the truth of these words afresh. 
The sunrise is magnificent. Its glory, however, was obscured this morning by the monotonous apartment buildings, the rows of cars, and the omnipresent power lines which seem to cage and frame all heavenly beauty. In the wealth of our nation, we have built many convenient things. But how have they hidden Beauty! How rich we are—and yet, so poor. Indeed it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The thorns and vines of our technology choke out the beauty of a sunrise. How much more the beauty of the Word, our Lord! And what does this choking do? It prevents the bringing forth of fruit. It makes the plant of our soul stagnant, barren, and ugly. Lord have mercy on me, for I am rich. May my spirit at least be poor, for blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 7, 2018 at 5:51 AM


    I have had the same sort of thought recently. I think I was listening to the radio on my way somewhere and for a while just sat there watching the road ahead of me. But the music was annoying enough that I sort of woke up to my awareness again and turned off the radio. I told my sister that it was all just an intoxicating lie; thinly veiled propaganda and often poorly composed and pitiful lyrics set to catchy tunes can easily worm their way into your brain. They could make you believe them, which wouldn’t be good, or you could simply listen to fill the silence to distract you, which could be worse. We must sometimes sit in silece, consider ourselves, and worship God, whether in music or in mind or action.

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