I am struck and convicted by the narrowness of my scriptural knowledge. The parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 is very familiar and an example that I use in my walk, but my familiarity is only with the actual parable, not the lead in or the walk away. A man comes to Jesus to have his brother judged as guilty for not sharing, but Jesus will have none of that... knowing the other side of the story too. Perhaps this man had sold his portion of the estate to his brother as Esau did, whatever the case Jesus' response must have caught the accuser off guard. He asks the man "who made me judge over you?" but doesn't leave it there. Instead, Jesus addresses the bigger issue of greed on both sides of the argument, thus introducing the parable of the rich fool, whose life would be required of him that very night. But Jesus' lesson is NOT that it is improper to merely possess wealth. Rather, his ending line is this... “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
If you quit the story too early, you miss the whole point, for wealth is not sin, although greed is. And greed is sin in that it steals your heart from what your true love should be... a rich relationship with God. Not just a friend relationship, or a bride relationship, but a relationship like the love that Elizabeth Barrett Browning spoke of...
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
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