THE RICH FOOL
In an incident recorded by Luke, Jesus illustrated the folly of being rich.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”(Luke 13)
To begin with, we might argue that the person who complained to Jesus was the wronged party. In today’s world, he surely would have managed to get many sympathizers who would have marched down the streets raising flags and voices in support of the oppressed man, whose brother was probably refusing to give away his share of property. Instead Jesus directs him towards the truth by pointing out his own greed. And this should not be taken as Jesus excusing the absent brother, but rather as Him helping the one brother who cared to listen to Jesus to move closer to the truth.
Jesus raises an interesting question, “Who appointed me a judge or arbiter between you?”No person would have been more qualified to be a judge between men than Jesus, because he is the author of all of creation including all people who owe their very existence to him. He also wields the power to influence and force the creation to submit to his will as is evident in the Bible. Yet, he refuses to get involved in the dispute. At times, when people wonder of God’s inaction in spite of persistent prayer, it would help to remember that, perhaps the real change needs to happen from within us rather than from God.
The admonishment to watch out against all kinds of greed is applicable to all men. There is a constant pressure for our eyes to be lured toward that which we do not possess. When we do gain possession of that which we seek, our eyes are strangely not satisfied and turn to something else. And the entire life passes by with man moving from one thing to another, increasing his possessions and never being satisfied. This applies to both the poor and rich, and is something that is deeply rooted within our inner psyche. At the end of our lives, we look back at all that we accumulated and see that the abundance of our possessions did not make for one good life.
We saw, we conquered, we accumulated and it was all in vain.
