The man was wealthy. He had money, property, and servants. His dressing smacked affluence and his meals spelt s-u-m-p-t-u-o-u-s. He had a dignified presence in his community. His people loved him, I guess. We tend to love and honour the affluent! The man was super rich by the standards of his day. He was a man of great means.
Wealth is a great defense against adverse situations and circumstances. Wealth procures a good life for the one in possession of it. However, wealth does not prevent the ultimate product of humanity’s mortality. That is our shared humanity – frailty, ill health, and physical death. Everyone living will die someday. It is only a matter of time. One day, that wealthy man died. He may have been catered to by the best physicians available to him at the time. He may have died surrounded (physically or in thoughts or prayers) by enormous people – friends, family, beneficiaries of his magnanimity, admirers, and well-wishers. But he died. Every one of us will die, someday.
More often than not people who are in good health and are relatively young and strong care less about others or about the need to live carefully. Health and strength can be deceiving!
The man died – unprepared. He was wealthy in this life but poor in the things of God. He didn’t have the life of God in him, so when he died, he inherited eternal misery and confusion, and torment. He had only one life to live but he lived that life for only this brief life in the earth. He didn’t prepare for the endless life beyond the grave.
You are meant to live forever. Once born into this world, you will live forever. The first part of your life (the brief part) is lived here on the earth. The second part (the endless one) is lived in one of the two destinations that are available beyond the grave – heaven or hell. What you do with Jesus and your life now will determine where you will spend all of that endless life beyond the grave. Don’t be like the wealthy man that Jesus spoke about. Don’t leave this brief earthly life unprepared. Your wealth cannot keep you from dying and it cannot prepare you for eternity. Be wise. Accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and live by the dictates of His word and Spirit so you can be safe throughout the long eternity.