Luke 12:13-21
Picture the scene: Jesus is teaching a large crowd. If you look back in Luke’s gospel Jesus has taught his disciples the Lord’s prayer, he’s denounced the Pharisees for laying heavy burdens on their followers; he’s told people that if your eye offends you, pluck it out, because entering the kingdom of heaven with one eye is better than having two eyes in Gehenna. :Profound stuff. And in the midst of this, a man asks him to tell his brother to give him his share of the estate. I wonder if Jesus got the idea for the parable of the prodigal son from this encounter? Now the issue of who inherited the estate of one’s father was not very clear in the Old Testament - some verses implied that it was always the oldest son. Other passages suggest that younger sons had rights as well, and Pharisees had figured out exactly what percentage went to the other sons. . The reasoning for the older son receiving everything was that he was obligated to assume his father’s position in caring for the family, and in a time when land meant wealth, breaking up the estate was a sure way to make your descendants poor. So you could argue either way and the man in the crowd was seeking Jesus’ opinion -- nothing unusual there, just seemed an inappropriate time to ask the question.
Jesus' answer is surprising. Our reading has Jesus call the man "Friend" but the actual word Jesus used was more like “Sir” or “Mister”. Jesus called his mother “woman”” once, as you may remember. Using such words was a way of saying “I want no part of what you are asking of me.” Then he turns to the crowd and tells them to guard against all greed, because life is more than possessions.
This is the introduction to the parable of the rich fool. He’s been blessed with a bountiful harvest. A farmer with a surplus would normally sell off what he didn’t need, but our rich man is thinking ahead. If he can hold on to his newfound wealth, he might be able to sell it for more in the future, so he sets out on a building project -- tear down the old barns, build new ones, bigger ones, and he looks at his wealth - everything, not just the crops, and feels a sense of great satisfaction; he’s got a great nest egg; he can finally retire and live the kind of life he’s dreamed about. I think Jesus emphasizes the inner selfishness of the man, who speaks to himself. There is no mention of relatives, of poor people, of things that might be done with some of his surplus, it’s all “me, me, me”. And as our rich fool sits back in satisfaction, he dies, and someone else will have all that he worked for. And he has nothing; he is not rich in what mattress to God.
You and I probably don’t know anyone like this caricature Jesus paints. We know rich people, of course, and some of us are rich in material goods. And that’s fine. Even some of Jesus' friends were rich in material goods. Joseph of Arimathea, who lent Jesus his tomb comes to mind. Lydia, the dealer in purple dye whose home was one of the first Christian churches according to the Acts of the Apostles. Some people are blessed with riches and some of them use their wealth for good. Being rich is not a bad thing. But what is it that matters to God? The Bible seems to focus on four things.
The first is faith. According to Saint Paul, our relationship with God must be based on faith rather than rules, but faith that manifests itself in acts of love toward others. Faith is a verb; faith is the way a Christian lives.
The second is trust. For us Catholics we trust that the Church Jesus founded, our Church, knows best. Because ultimately trust in the Church means trust in the teachings of Christ, because the whole purpose of the Church is to convey those teachings down through the ages.
The third is compassion. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that what we do for the least of our brothers we do for him. How we deal with our fellow man, especially those who are on the margins of society, reflects how we love Jesus.
The fourth is repentance -- not sorrow for sin as such, but the awareness that everything about our lives matters to God and should matter to us as well. The slogan “What would Jesus do?” seems almost silly, but it is something we need to ask when we make decisions about even little things. Again, we need to have the mind of Christ.
When I was little one of the first prayers I was taught went like this: “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take” It’s a good reminder to ourselves not to be like the rich fool Jesus talks about today. A
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