From the May 29 sermon, "Jesus on Idolatry, Money, and Comedy," preached out of Luke 18:18–30: When a rich ruler comes to Jesus to ask how he can earn eternal life, Jesus calls him out on his sin of idolatry and pride. Idolatry is often a good thing that becomes a god thing and one of the surest ways to find your idol is to follow your money. Jesus, a master of word play, irony, and satire, uses humor to speak truth to the rich ruler by showing him two ways to find idols: follow the money and figure out what’s not funny to you.

Today, all we evaluate people based upon is their outward moral behavior. And if they're not behaving rightly, we want to change their behavior. And the issue here is Jesus isn't trying to change the man's behavior, he's trying to change the man's God. So it's far deeper. Yeah, the man doesn't have addictions and proclivities, but he worships the wrong god, which is a bigger problem. … You could look at someone and say, "We want to modify your behavior. So we're going to give you principles of anger management, which could be helpful." But then all we might do for you is change your idol. So, "Oh good, you don't worship anger anymore, now you worship control. And because you now worship control, you don't lose your anger. Oh, this is so good. We've exchanged idols, but at least now we found an idol that the rest of us prefer." This is where John Calvin says rightly that the human heart is an idol factory. We'll give up one idol to get another idol or we'll pick one idol to control our other idol. But at the end of the day, it's not about behavior modification. It's about worship alteration, that's what it's about.

One of the surest ways to find your idol is to follow your money. Because where you put your money, Jesus says elsewhere, that's where your heart is. So you can't say, "I love the Lord, I just don't give to him. I love my family, but I don't feed them," right? "I love single mothers and I really feel for them. But you know, I've got to have a bass boat and I've got to have a golf game and I got to have tools in my garage and I got to have a flat screen TV, so I mean, I love them. I just, you know, I don't have any extra. I just can't, you know, show it. But don't judge me. You don't know my heart." No, I do know your heart because I followed your wallet. Your wallet is an indicator of your heart. So a couple things: if you want to find your idol, follow your money. Number two, everyone thinks that someone else is rich. I've met a lot of people. Every person I've met pretty much thinks when the Bible says rich, it's somebody just above them. And when it says poor, it's them. Okay, so you're like, "Oh, yeah, the rich, yeah. Pfft, totally the rich. Yeah, I watch "Robin Hood," I vote Democrat, I agree with Jesus, stick it to the rich. Yes, I hate the rich. Stick it to the rich." Everyone thinks someone else is rich. And you know what? Somebody thinks you're rich.

The question is, how did Jesus say this? Do you think he said it furrowed brow? "Idolatry, money, sell all your stuff! I know your heart." You think he was angry? You know, furrowed brow, pointed finger, Mr. Burns-kind-of-looking guy? Was he like that? Was this like an IRS audit and he showed up with his shirt and tie, saying, "Hello, I'm from the kingdom of God. I know you tried to hide some of your assets. I happen to see and know all. And I'm here to collect."  … Jesus here is telling a joke. He's telling a joke, he just is. He's making a funny. In that day, they would have understood it. We've got our own cultural colloquialisms, and humor tends to be very culturally contingent. So sometimes because of the difference between our culture and that culture we don't get the irony, the sarcasm, the wittiness, tanned he cleverness. Jesus wasn't making fun of the guy, but he was inviting the guy to take himself less seriously. I see them like some of you. You're like, "You're talking about my money." I could see it. You look like someone shot your dog and all of a sudden you got both your hands on your wallet 'cause you know we're gonna take an offering in a moment. You're like, "There is no way. There is no way—it's not gonna happen. I'm not even standing up for worship in case they take it out of my pocket. I'm gonna sit down for all the singing." Jesus here is making a little joke. He's like, "Come on, man. Laugh a little. It's just your junk. It's all gonna burn, you know? I'm just checking your heart. You've got a serious idol problem. I love you. Let's deal with this. Let's have a little fun. Lighten up. Laugh a little."