What would Jesus do with his estate?
When people prepare their estate plan, they face an all-important (and delicate) question: how to divvy up the inheritance they leave. In thinking through end-of-life plans, people want to position their heirs for the best financial future they can. Correspondingly, they tend to name their children as the main –or even the sole – beneficiaries of their wills.
by Daniel Notman
Let’s evaluate this prevailing approach to estate planning in light of Jesus’ numerous teachings on money and possessions. What might Jesus have written in his last will and testament?
Unsurprisingly, Jesus left no concrete plans for how he might steward his estate. After all, he had no estate to plan for – not even a place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He also seldom spoke of inheritance in terms of money or property.
Far more frequently, Jesus talked about our spiritual inheritance. This theme permeates the gospels, from Jesus’ admonition to store up treasures in heaven, to his promise of a heavenly estate prepared for his children (Matthew 6:19-21, John 14:2). In one parable, Jesus explicitly says the believer’s inheritance is “the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
The supremacy of spiritual inheritance isn’t a subtle theme in the rest of the New Testament either. Paul declares that believers are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). Compared to knowing Christ in his fullness, Paul considers any earthly gains to be a loss (Philippians 3:7-8). And James and Peter emphasize that earthly riches are short-lived in the scope of eternity (James 4:14, 1 Peter 1:24-25).
In comparison, the Bible only records one instance of Jesus speaking about a material, familial inheritance. It’s in the Parable of the Rich Fool in the Gospel of Luke. A man asks Jesus to implore his brother to divide an earthly inheritance with him. Jesus recuses himself from the dispute and rebukes the man’s greed instead (Luke 12:14-15).
Notice that Jesus deflected the man’s original question. In the one documented instance of Jesus’ life that he was asked about estate planning, Jesus changed the subject. Why?
Because material inheritance is secondary to spiritual inheritance. Addressing the condition of the man’s heart was the more pressing concern. His riches would eventually fade. His soul would not.
This is not to say that Jesus didn’t care about physical inheritance. He did. In fact, Jesus speaks of his followers in their meekness inheriting the whole earth (Matthew 5:5)! But he also speaks of his followers willingly losing everything to inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29).
The language of inheritance revealed to Jesus’ followers their identity as dear children in the family of God. All of the privileges of being a child of God belonged to them. What a glorious legacy!
Modern-Day
Jesus used the concept of inheritance to signal to believers their inherent value as beloved children of God. How might we do the same for our children?
One way is to consider the ramifications of leaving money to our children. NCF’s David Wills encourages parents planning an estate to ask this question: “Could this financial inheritance become a tool that Satan uses to bring calamity?”
In his book Managing God’s Money, Randy Alcorn recommends that those leaving money to their children ask questions like:
If the answer to question #1 is “yes” or if the answer to question #2, #3, or #4 is “no,” Alcorn recommends reevaluating your inheritance plan. It’s hard to imagine Jesus setting up his children for lives of excess or sloth. And judging by the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Rich Fool, he wasn’t keen on entrusting resources to those who would steward them poorly either. (See Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 12:13-21). Even an immaculate estate plan can’t fix covetousness.
Many prominent businesspeople have sought to safeguard their children from the dangers of hastily gained wealth (Proverbs 13:11). Take Alan and Katherine Barnhart of Memphis, Tennessee. Alan’s company, Barnhart Crane & Rigging, has grown an average of 19 percent per year for 33 years and earns hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually. You might expect the Barnharts to roost in luxury and for their children to live as if money grows on trees.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Since 1986, Alan and Katherine have lived by the belief that God owns their business. Each year, they take a modest salary and use the company’s proceeds to fund strategic missions.
When their company earnings increased sharply in the mid-2000s, the Barnharts went a step further in their generosity. Between 2007 and 2012, the Barnharts put 100 percent of their company’s equity into charitable trusts with the National Christian Foundation. The Barnharts don’t own a dime of their fortune.
And this mindset doesn’t end with this generation of Barnharts. Alan and Katherine’s distinct attitude towards money and inheritance has trickled down to their children. Their son, Nathan, sharesopens in a new tab how he appreciates the financial and spiritual inheritance he has received from his parents. He even praises his parents for paying for half of his college education. “That’s […] a huge gift that they gave me,” he said.
Though Nathan left home with a modest financial inheritance, he had received a rich spiritual inheritance of gratitude. What a glorious legacy!
Conclusion
When we are generous to others, we model generosity for our children. We build faith in the true inheritance that Jesus promises us. When we help them learn to make hard choices about denying some of their desires, we teach our children to anchor their hope in God’s character rather than their nest egg. We invite them to be abundantly satisfied in God’s provision and intimate companionship.
Each of us has a glorious legacy to share with our offspring. Whether our savings holds two small copper coins or the cattle on a thousand hills, we will all pass down something more important than our finances: our attitudes toward money and our willingness—or unwillingness—to trust God with it. That is an inheritance of far greater value.
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