Caspar, my great grandfather, was a successful farmer in southwestern Missouri. When he died in 1941, officials closed school the day he was buried. People owed him money. In addition, he had given a farm to each of his boys, money to each of his girls, and still had enough for his widow to buy a house in town. Yet now, when we drive through that area, very little still belongs to him or his relatives. Caspar laid up treasure on earth. We are not sure how much he laid up in heaven.

In Luke 12:13–34, Jesus identifies two enemies of laying up treasure in heaven, one in the story of the rich fool and the second in the warning against worry that follows. A careful reading of these two paragraphs shows they belong together: repeated references to life/soul (vv. 15, 20, 22–23), possessions (vv. 14, 33), being rich toward God/treasure (vv. 21, 33–34), and the therefore that connects the two (v. 22). Jesus’ point? Don’t let these two enemies keep you from laying up treasure in your Father’s kingdom.

Covetousness

The rich fool (God’s term for him), whose prosperity has led him to think of his own earthly enjoyment and pleasure for years to come, pictures the enemy of covetousness. He has forgotten a fundamental reality about life. His life does not consist in possessions, even though he has an abundance of them (v. 15), and his life (“your soul,” v. 20) will someday be required of him by God. Then Jesus asks, whose will be the things he has prepared? Rather than being rich for himself, he should have used his wealth to lay up riches toward God, the One who would ask back the life He had given him.

When I think of the rich fool, I think of the explosion of storage units across America. By one estimate, the number of self-storage unit buildings grew from 6,600 to 50,000 during the years 1984–2022. An estimated 90% of these are at capacity, but some 155,000 abandoned units are auctioned off every year. Do we really need all the stuff we own—the stuff that does not fit in our houses and the stuff we even forget that we own? What if we were to use our wealth to lay up unfailing treasure in our Father’s kingdom?

Worry

Jesus identified the second enemy as worry. We tend to think of worry as the opposite of covetousness. Jesus asserts that they both have the same disastrous effect: they keep us from investing in His Father’s kingdom. I have often thought that Luke 12:31 (also Matthew 6:33) is the best deal on the planet: Make God’s kingdom your worry, and He will make your needs His. Can you think of a better deal anywhere? Now, that’s financial peace! Like the covetous fool above, those who worry have a distorted view of life: they have failed to realize that life is more than the pursuit of what one needs (v. 23).

So, how does Jesus suggest that we avoid these two enemies and lay up treasure in our Father’s kingdom? He tells us in verse 33: sell your possessions (what the rich man thought life consisted of) and give them away charitably. We shy away immediately from a command like that: Jesus does not say sell all! And isn’t it wise to save up for the future? And we would be right. But at the same time, we need to make sure that our rationalizations are not cover-ups for covetousness and worry. Do we not have possessions that we could sell or give away? Are there not people with physical needs around us? These needs range from a homeless person who haunts your intersection to a missionary who is trying to get to the field where God has called him or her.

Take your riches and put them where no thief can reach them and where no moth can destroy them. Put them somewhere where you will find them again. As Jesus said, you will then find your heart increasingly drawn toward your Father’s kingdom.

Roll those words around in your mind like you would a peppermint in your mouth: Your Father’s kingdom. Jesus calls God “your Father” in verse 30 and refers to “His kingdom” in verse 31. This kingdom is your Father’s. Jesus is offering you and me the opportunity to lay up treasure in it! In a place where nothing can take it away: no Second Law of Thermodynamics, no entropy, no thieves, and no moths!

Your Father’s kingdom is a worthy recipient of your heart’s affections. Incline your heart to it by laying up treasure in it. Do what meditation on this passage prompted me to do: think through what I own to see what I could sell or give away!