To read the texts click on the texts: Rom 4:20-25; Lk 12:13-21
The text begins with someone in the
crowd asking Jesus to serve as judge in the division of an inheritance. While
Jesus will not accept this role, he points the man and the crowd to a different
understanding of the meaning of wealth and life. This different understanding
is explicated through a parable, which is found exclusively in Luke. It is
about a rich man who had more than he required and soon became possessed by his
riches. This possession leads him to focus on making provision to store his
great wealth so that he can use it exclusively for himself in future. It is
self-centeredness at its worst. The only ones in the parable are the rich man
and his wealth. In the midst of all his planning and calculations, God speaks
to him addressing him as “fool”. There is a sharp contrast between the rich
man’s planning for “many years” and the “this very night” of God. It is clear
that first of all when God calls, he will have to go and second that when he
goes he can take nothing of what he has stored with him. There is the very real
danger of forgetting God if one allows oneself to be possessed by one’s riches.
The manner in which some of us
accumulate things seems to indicate on the one hand that we think we are going
to live forever and on the other hand that even if we have to die that we can
take all of which we have accumulated. The parable of today calls us to realise
first that we can be called at any time and hence must live in such a manner
that we will have no regrets no matter when that might be and second that
whenever we are called we can take nothing of what we have gathered together
but will have to leave it all behind. Thus while planning for the future may be
necessary, obsession with the future is uncalled for.
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