Luke 12:13–21

Gospel:

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." ¹⁴But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" ¹⁵And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." ¹⁶And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, ¹⁷and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' ¹⁸And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."' ²⁰But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' ²¹So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

The crowds were enormous! At the beginning of Luke, chapter 12, it says that "so many thousands of people had gathered that they were trampling on one another." Jesus' popularity was high and growing among the common people, while among the religious leaders he was hated more and more.

From among the crowd a certain man called out to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." The first thing we notice is the greeting: teacher. In the Bible, people who believed in Jesus as the Son of God, addressed him as Lord. Those who just considered him a great teacher or preacher or miracle worker, but not God, are the ones who address him as "teacher." Right here we have a clue that this was not one of Jesus' faithful followers who believed in him as the Son of God, the promised savior.

"Tell my brother to divide the inheritance..." We have a family fight going on here. We can all relate to this. Family arguments are one of the most common types of problems we experience today whether between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, it is a rare family that has not experienced some sort of division and arguing. This particular dispute was over an inheritance. That, too, is common today. I've seen families literally torn apart, brothers and sisters who will not talk to each other after years of fighting over an inheritance.

A family fight over money is the specific situation of our text, however, the general principals apply to any kind of quarreling and fighting among people; whether friends, co-workers, students and teachers, or even church members. Perhaps we can all learn something from this text that will help us in similar situations.

The first thing we notice, is that this man went to Jesus to solve his problem. He wanted Jesus to be the arbitrator. In fact, he wanted Jesus to take his side in the dispute. We do the same thing. Sometimes even going to the pastor, wanting him to talk to that person for us and tell him how he is not doing right by us. We try to enlist the pastor to be on our side. This especially happens during marital conflicts. In essence, we want God to take our side. We try to use God to get our way for us. Our prayers usually go something like this: "Lord, change that person. Show him how wrong he is. Show him that he is being unfair and selfish. Perhaps even punish him in some way to make him feel sorry for how he is treating me. Thank you Lord, Jesus." Sound familiar?

But Jesus absolutely refused. Notice in verse 14: "Man, who set me up as a judge or divider over you?" Jesus uses a wonderful play on words here. The man asked him to tell his brother to divide the inheritance. Jesus responds with the same word in Greek, "divider". He literally says, "who made me a divider over you," referring to the request to divide the inheritance. But this also hints at something much deeper; if Jesus did what the man asked, it would not settle their problem, it would only divide these brothers even more, driving a even deeper wedge between them. Jesus is not about division, getting our own way, greed, or selfishness, rather he is about love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace among men. He refuses to take sides and become a divider of men. He doesn't listen to our prayers to fix the other person.

Why? Because we are the one who needs to be fixed. He responds, "Watch out! Guard yourself from all covetousness or greed!" These imperatives are in the plural. Here he is talking to both brothers. Instead of taking sides in the dispute, he goes to the core issue—the cause—sin. Both parties in a dispute have sin filled hearts. Their real problem is that they are sinners, and their hearts are filled with greed, covetousness, the desire to have in excess. Greed is the desire to accumulate things and wealth over and above what is necessary to meet one's needs. The literal meaning of the word translated "covetousness" is: "the desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need." God tells us in Colossians 3:5 that covetousness is idolatry which is sin against the first commandment as well as the ninth and tenth commandments which say, "Thou shalt not covet...."

Yet the sin of covetousness is one of our most common everyday sins. We always want more: we want to have what others have, we want to get our way. Our fighting and hurt feelings are because we are greedy and selfish. Jesus gets right to the point and drives the nail straight into the heart of the matter. His rebuke applies to all of us. We are all condemned!

"Watch out! Guard yourselves against covetousness and greed!" But what does it mean to guard yourselves? The Greek word here has three basic meanings for the word guard: 1) to protect or defend, as the shepherds guarding their flocks by night. 2) to keep a law or follow a policy, as Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments," 3) to guard a prisoner and keep him in custody and under your control, as those who guarded the demoniac and chained his hands and feet. Here in this verse 15, we might think of this latter use: to subdue the sinful beast within you. Don't let sin get a foothold in you. We might not think it too significant if we get a jealous twinge when our neighbor pulls up in a new car. We might emote a swear word at a driver who cuts us off, but we don't think that's too big a deal. But Jesus says, "Beware of even those little thoughts or desires that slowly creep into our mind." At first we think they are just small, not really important. One little thought will not hurt. After that I will stop doing it. It's like taking that one little drink. But that one leads to another, then another, and before we know it, we are unconscious on the floor. Those little, tiny sins we think we can stop, soon take over our lives. We think we can contain those little sins, but remember, the demoniac burst open the chains and escaped from the guards. Those sinful thoughts, words, lusts, desires, greed have the power to take over our lives completely.

To make his point more vivid, Jesus tells a parable about a man whose fields produced an extraordinarily abundant crop. In fact here Jesus uses another play on words. The word for produced abundantly is "euphoria." You can picture the man jumping up and down, clapping his hands and singing for joy. He sings to his soul, "What shall I do with all this stuff? I have more than enough for many, many years. I can just retire, eat, drink and make merry." The word "euphoria" is used for making merry. "I will live in euphoria forever and ever."

But there is one thing missing: he didn't say anything about tithing. He was required by Old Testament law to give 10% of the crop to the Lord. He didn't mention anything about the poor and needy in his neighborhood. He apparently didn't even leave the gleanings in the field for the poor and the foreigners and travelers, as required by God. All he thought of was himself, and getting more than he could ever need or use during the rest of his life. That is greed. That is idolatry. And we today are just the same.

So God took it all away from him in one night. After all our toil and labor, it is God who gives and God who takes away. In the end we can do nothing about it. We lust and desire and want, but it is God who gives and God who takes away. As King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of vanities! What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled..."

Fool! God calls him a fool who stores away earthly treasures for himself. Fool! That is God's verdict on all who love the things and treasures of this world. Whether rich or poor; That's all of us! We are the fools. No matter how wise in the eyes of the world. No matter how intelligent or how well educated. No matter how much talent or ability we have. No matter how much money or treasures. We are all fools, because we all love and desire more. More money, more possessions, more pleasure, more happiness, more lusts, more getting our own way.

And selfish greed is the root of our quarrels and disagreements. "The love of money is the root of all evil." God asks, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." James 4:1-2. "Watch out! Guard against all covetousness," says Jesus. "Seek the things that are above. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth...Put to death what is earthly in you," says St. Paul. Col 3.

But how? If chains could not subdue the demons in the demoniac of the Gadarenes, who can subdue his own sinful desires? Perhaps bigger chains? No. It's not a matter of strength or power. It's not a matter of trying harder, nor is it a matter of working at it more. Sin is our nature. Greed and covetousness are built into the very stuff we are made of. Therefore, no matter what we do, it is contaminated by sin. Like water from a contaminated well, just using a clean bucket to draw it out won't make it clean.

We need someone who can save us from our own sinful nature. We need someone who can slay us, put us to death so we can be born again. We need a fresh start as different people. We need a Savior. That Savior is Jesus Christ. He had no greed or covetousness, in fact he gave all he had for us. He emptied himself of all riches, treasure, glory, and power. He sold all he had to give to the poor, to us poor sinners. He humbled himself to be a servant. He gave himself over to death for us. He did not come into the world to cause divisions between people. He did not come to take your side in arguments. He did not come to fix the other guy. He came to fix you. He came to save you from your sin! To break the hold that sin has over you. To set you free from the sin that lives in your heart, from the greed, from the desire to get more, from the need to get your own way all the time.

We have a Savior who set us free from our sin. A Savior who took our sin into his own flesh and was crucified on a cross and suffered God's wrath and punishment in our place. A Savior makes us new people by slaying us in Baptism so that we die with him and are hidden with him in God; A Savior who joins us to his resurrection so that we might be alive unto God. We need a Savior who from the time of our Baptism is renewing us in the image of God through Holy Communion, making us new, setting us free from greed and covetousness so that we can forgive one another and restore friendships and be at peace with one another.

Thanks be to God we have such a Savior, Christ Jesus, our Lord. He who delivers us from all greed and envy and lust and sinful desire that we might set our minds on things that are above. To him be all glory, and praise, and honor forever and ever. Amen.