Distracted? No Delivered.

The rich fool is distracted by his wealth. Now, in 1627, when Rembrandt painted the “Parable of the Rich Fool,” material wealth looked quite a bit different than it does today. There were no Wal-Marts, smart phones, tablets, fancy cars or club soccer teams.

In the early 17th century, a stack of books were one sign of great wealth. They were also used as a sign of vanity. The rich fool in Rembrandt’s painting is happily surrounded by his treasures of books and furniture and coins. He is greedily studying one of his golden coins, totally unaware of the darkness surrounding him. He is distracted. His candle is about to be snuffed out – quite literally – and he doesn’t know it.

Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool to a crowd of thousands: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:13-20)

What kinds of distractions are in your life? These might be good things; healthy things; even godly things. But are they are getting in the way of time with God, your faith in God, your worship of God?

Perhaps a distraction is work. Work is a good thing. You need a job to provide for your family. But when you are so exhausted from your work that you need to sleep in on Sunday mornings, then work is a distraction that can have eternal consequences.

Perhaps a distraction is your children’s athletic activities. You want your child to be active and healthy. But when your week is filled with a myriad of practices and your weekend is covered by the divide-and-conquer method of two parents going to separate activities, that isn’t healthy. Athletic activities become your god instead of the true God of heaven and earth. Then athletic activities can have eternal consequences.

Perhaps a distraction is your retirement fund. You know how expensive health insurance is. You must save for rising health care costs. You know there might come a time when you will be in assisted living, which is not cheap. Knowing all this, it is difficult for you to increase your gifts to the Lord’s ministries at your church and beyond. You feel like your first duty is to yourself and your family. Your church, school, and synod come later. Then even something as godly as saving money for retirement can have eternal consequences – if not for you, then for others.

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In the parable, God called the man foolish for several reasons. He forgot where his riches came from. He took credit for the crops and barns and growth, which were all gifts from God.

But the fool’s worst distraction was that he let all the blessings of this life disconnect him from the very God who made life possible for him, now and forever. These were good, healthy, godly blessings, but he allowed them to become a deadly distraction to his eternal soul. Jesus summarizes how deadly this is by saying, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

Does this sound familiar? How often do you feel frustrated because you can’t give attention to what is truly important? You don’t have time for your kids. Time for conversation and friendships seem to be overtaken by your busy schedule. You can never get around to exercising or eating well. You don’t have time for rest, for prayer, for meditating on God’s Word. For just being quiet. You’re busy! Your calendar is full. But are you busy with what is really important?

Or are you busy with distractions?

Don’t allow the devil to distract you with money, possessions, work, vacations, retirement accounts, or athletic activities. Those things can be good, healthy, and even godly. But they are all earthly. They don’t have any lasting effects. That’s why Jesus warns, “What good it is for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul” (Mark 8:36)?

Now, we might try to cut back, work less, have our kids involved in fewer things. But then we so often end up filling our time with other distractions.

To overcome our deadly distractions, we need real deliverance, not just our best attempts at a solution. That deliverance comes only through Jesus. Jesus isn’t just trying to streamline your life or clear your calendar or hone your attention skills. He wants to direct you to His grace, to an undistracted life that comes from His cross and open tomb. There is only one thing that is necessary in this life – and that is salvation in Jesus Christ alone. Anything, anywhere, anywhere that gets in way of that truth in your life is a distraction that needs to be discarded and repented of. Then you can know a truly delivered, undistracted life of faith in Jesus.

Nothing distracted Jesus from accomplishing our salvation through His life, death, and resurrection. Satan tried to tempt Him away from redeeming us. His hometown friends sneered at Him. His own family thought He was crazy. But in the face of all those distractions, St. Luke tells us, “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Jesus would not be distracted. He would not be confused by anybody else’s plan. He would not be seduced by the promise of material gain. He would not be disoriented by the criticism of others. He would not be overpowered by the pain of torture and death on a cross. He led a completely undistracted life that was focused on only one thing – your salvation.

Now Jesus wants you to focus on this salvation that He has won for you. Remember your baptism when Jesus clothed you with His righteousness and promises. As you are filled with Christ’s righteousness, you won’t feel the need to fill up your life with so much other stuff. Read and hear His Word so that you can be renewed in both mind and soul. As you are renewed with the things of God, then you won’t want to waste your time with the things of this world. Receive Christ’s body and blood at the Lord’s Table so that you can taste God’s grace on your lips. As you taste and see that the Lord is good, you won’t want to taste all those other things that are merely OK. Hear Christ’s words of absolution which forgive you of all your distractions. As you are refreshed by this forgiveness, you won’t want to go back to those deadly distractions. Instead, you will want to go towards Christ, His Words, and His Sacraments.

When you are delivered from all these distractions, then you will want to empty your life of busy schedules, past failures, and present worries. Then you will want to fill up your life with the one thing needful – faith in Jesus Christ and the reception of His salvation. Then you will be rich towards God.