Lectionary Reflection for Proper 13C on Luke 12:13-21

WHAT DETERMINES YOUR LIFE?

I have always been a little confused by money, especially as it relates to spirituality. Growing up, I was taught that the Bible tells us that money is the root of all evil. (It took me years to realise that this was a misquote of 1 Timothy 6:10a: “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”.¹) But I was also taught that money is important, that we can’t live without it, and that money can do a lot of good. Later, as I explored different expressions of Christianity, I encountered the prosperity Gospel, which informed me that God wanted me to prosper and that if I gave generously to the church, and had enough faith, God would give back a “good portion—packed down, firmly shaken, and overflowing” (Luke 6:38).

Being who I am, I decided to put all this to the test—after all, I was told, giving is the one thing in the Bible where we are invited to test God (Malachi 3:10). I was determined to live by faith, because I had been taught that this was what God required. But then, after making significant life decisions based on these teachings, God didn’t provide. My wife and I lost the home we owned, and had to take our children to live with my parents while we rebuilt our lives. I have since discovered that there is very little in the Bible that is absolutely clear—and this is especially true when it comes to questions of money, God’s provision, and faith.

The Lectionary reading from Luke’s Gospel for Proper 13C addresses these questions, but in ways that may not be what we expect. As I’ve explored what some commentators have written about this passage, I have been surprised that much of what they’ve written echoes what I was taught as a young Christian: don’t trust in money, trust in God, and God will take care of you. But the more I have reflected and researched Jesus’ teaching about money, possessions, and faith, the more I have come to believe that we have missed the heart of Jesus’ message. What Jesus says in Luke 12:13-21 can perhaps be summarised by verse 15: “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.” But this begs the question: What, then, does determine our lives? The answer is a little more complicated than we may imagine.

TWO FOOLS

Chapter 12 of Luke’s Gospel begins with Jesus warning a huge crowd to watch out for the religious leaders. There was a “mismatch between their hearts and lives” (Luke 12:1). What they taught did not line up with how they acted. They were hypocrites (NRSV) who presented themselves as one thing, but who lived as something completely different. Because of this, they were not to be feared. Following Jesus required integrity, courage, and discernment between good and evil. The implication was that Jesus’ followers would be called on to confront the injustice and corruption of the religious leaders, and would need to trust God’s Spirit to guide them.

Just then, Jesus was interrupted by someone in the crowd asking for his help in dealing with a family inheritance dispute. It was not unusual for people to ask rabbis for advice or legal rulings in this way.² What was surprising was the way Jesus, who had just shown himself to be committed to justice, responded to this person who, it seemed, was being cheated out of their rightful inheritance by a sibling. After refusing to make a judgment, Jesus warned this person, and the listening crowd, against greed. Once again, as he usually did, Jesus saw right through to the heart of the problem, and responded to that. And the heart of the problem was a problem of the heart.

Jesus’ response shows that, while the laws of inheritance in Deuteronomy³ should have resolved the family dispute, the foolish greed of the younger sibling was breaking the family apart. As Niveen Sarras writes:

As a wealthy farmer and landholder, this younger brother wants to obtain more wealth and a more advanced status within his community at the expense of his older brother.⁴

Judging by his response and the parable that followed, Jesus discerned the motivation behind this person’s request. This younger sibling was an example of the “mismatch” Jesus had spoken about before in relation to the religious leaders, and so Jesus confronted the greed and injustice disguised in this family dispute. He also used the opportunity to warn his hearers against this greed, reminding them that their lives were not determined by what they owned.

To drive the point home, Jesus then told the story that has come to be known as the parable of the rich fool. As Meda Stamper puts it, “The parable of the rich fool (or ‘barn guy,’ as I always think of him) at the heart of this week’s text illustrates simply and memorably the futility of choices made in isolation from the love of God and neighbor.”⁵ It’s an amazingly familiar story, in spite of the cultural and historical distance. A wealthy man discovers that his wealth has grown beyond his ability to store it. He clearly has more than enough for himself and his dependents. But, instead of solving his problem by sharing his wealth with others, the man decides to increase his own capacity to hoard.