I am still going through the gospels and looking at instances where people came to Jesus with a question or a request, and the answer they got was not what they were expecting.

A man in the crowd (Luke 12:13ff)

The request: Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.

The answer: (a) Man, who made me a judge or arbiter among you? (b) Be on your guard against all forms of greed… because Life is not made up of the abundance of our possessions. (And then Jesus relates the parable of the rich fool.)

At the beginning, when we hear this man raise his voice in the crowd, we can imagine that some people may have sympathized with him. For, surely, this was not an uncommon problem… I mean, he felt confident enough to throw it out there.

But let’s dig deeper: The Old Testament rule was that the firstborn son got twice as much as the other brothers. So, it would have been two thirds versus one third in this case. In principle, that doesn’t sound that bad. At least he was getting something. And if that was the Law, why would there be a dispute? Why ask Jesus to intervene?

That forces us to read between the lines and wonder: Was this brother perhaps not a full brother? Was he the son of an illegitimate relationship, maybe a concubine? Maybe the result of adultery… In that case we can see that if he wasn’t really considered part of the family, the older brother, the legitimate heir, could possibly have legal means to keep everything for himself.

The bottom line is that the man calling out surely thought he deserved something of that inheritance, and he turns to Jesus. Why? Because: look at the size of that crowd! Everybody is talking about this Rabbi from Nazareth, everybody respects him. Maybe the man’s brother was there somewhere in the crowd. Surely, if Jesus had a word with him, He would prevail.

The man thinks he is right, and he thinks he knows what he deserves.

And all that may be true to some degree…

But has he been listening at all?

If we go back to the beginning of this chapter 12 in Luke, we see that Jesus’ teachings here are aimed at His disciples, at those that understand they are being called to make a choice between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God.

Luke 12:1-3 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; but there is nothing covered up which shall not be revealed, nor secret that shall not be known; therefore whatever ye have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light, and what ye have spoken in the ear in chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

Jesus is calling His disciples to “authentic” living: Living, fully understanding that they are at all times in the presence of God.

Luke 12:4-7 But I say to you, my friends, Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear *him*. Are not five sparrows sold for two assaria? and one of them is not forgotten before God. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are better than many sparrows.

So, Jesus goes on: If you indeed are living for God, then there is nothing to fear from this world, because God is in control. And God knows and cares for each one of us.

And, especially, if we are living for God, if we have chosen to serve Him and do His work, then in the face of any and every opposition He is the One that will give us the strength to carry out that mission: 

Luke 12:8-12 But I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, the Son of man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he that shall have denied me before men shall be denied before the angels of God; and whoever shall say a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him; but to him that speaks injuriously against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven.  But when they bring you before the synagogues and rulers and the authorities, be not careful how or what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say; for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the hour itself what should be said.

In other words, this is serious business, Heaven business… God Himself will be right there with you in that witness stand in court because the stakes are far beyond life and death; they are about eternal life and eternal death.

Now, if you had been in that crowd, listening to these words, and taking them to heart, and then you heard this man interrupt and ask for help with his earthly inheritance, wouldn’t that jar you? Nothing in Jesus’ words has been about what we deserve or not deserve in this world. In fact, throughout, He is warning us that we are entering a life where this world is our enemy.

This man may have had a claim, but he was missing the point. And Jesus’ answer back is just as jarring as his request.

“Who made me an arbiter or a judge among you?”

That question is loaded…

We can safely assume that John chapter 5 took place before this episode in Luke. There Jesus talks about Judgment…

John 5:21-22, 27 For even as the Father raises the dead and quickens [them], thus the Son also quickens whom he will: for neither does the Father judge any one, but has given all judgment to the Son… and has given him authority to execute judgment [also], because he is Son of man.

And He speaks similarly in other passages of John. The point is that when Jesus talks about Judgment, He is talking about the ultimate Judgment, not about earthly things but about eternal consequences.

So, in a sense, Jesus is replying here in the same way he replied to the rich young ruler by saying: “Why do you call me good?” Jesus is telling this man… “Do you really want Me to be your Judge? Are you sure? Are you ready for the consequences?”

And before the man answers, Jesus lets him know that He knows what is in his heart: Be on your guard against all forms of greed.

Here you are accusing your brother of being greedy because he won’t share the inheritance with you…

and yet there are a bunch of other kinds of greed of which you are guilty.

Have you ever heard Jesus say something like this to you before? I am sure this happens a lot more than we are willing to admit. After all, Jesus never spoke idly. He knew the heart of man:

Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye may not be judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you. But why lookest thou on the mote that is in the eye of thy brother, but observest not the beam that is in thine eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Allow [me], I will cast out the mote from thine eye; and behold, the beam is in thine eye? Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine eye, and then thou wilt see clearly to cast out the mote out of the eye of thy brother.

We know that passage also happened before this episode in Luke because even if Jesus repeated His teachings several time, the Sermon on the Mount was one of His first full blown discourses. It was one of the reasons huge crowds started to follow Him.

Has this man been listening at all?

Have I been listening at all?

Jesus then brings this man’s interruption back into the thread of His teaching: Greed, worldly greed, is only one of the many traps the enemy and the world lay before us in order to get us to fall and never serve the Kingdom of God.

The parable of the rich fool, depicts the slippery slope of worldly greed: The protagonist is a person who – different from the man asking the question – has gotten everything he wants in life… which means, he represents there the kind of person that the man asking the question wishes he could be in his wildest fantasy: independently wealthy, able to shrug off whatever his brother does or does not do, maybe able to tell his brother where he can shove his inheritance.

But that worldly wealth and power is almost never a neutral thing in our lives. It always comes with strings attached to our heart.

Because it gives us power and security, we want more and more of it. Jesus knows this. This is all over the Sermon on the Mount, from the very beginning: Blessed are you, the poor and destitute, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven… Because you know from experience, painful experience, that this world is not your friend. Therefore, you know where to keep your eyes.

The rich fool of the parable only had eyes for his wealth and ended up wasting his life, even to losing his eternal life.

I know that many times we go to God in prayer because we are desperate, overwhelmed with our worldly needs. Jesus understands that. But He also knows we always put ourselves in danger when our eyes focus too much on those worldly needs.

This is why in the Sermon, he prefaces the model Prayer by saying this:

Matthew 6:7-8 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as those who are of the nations: for they think they shall be heard through their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like them, for your Father knows of what things ye have need before ye beg [anything] of him.

We need to know that and believe it first. Then and only then is it fine to pray: give us to-day our needed bread, followed soon thereafter with our acknowledgement of the dangers we often get ourselves in because of our own desires: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.