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“Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them "Watch out against all kinds of greed, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'" ~Luke 12:13-15
Here we have the case of two brothers who were obviously lost in a quarrel. The older brother had seized the entire family inheritance for himself as was his right according to custom. The first born possessed everything. The younger brother demanded a share of the inheritance. But he had no case except to appeal to the grace or generosity of his older brother. And that didn't seem to be going well.
Greed - the drive to increase one's bank account and to defend it at all costs is among the most destructive of spiritual forces. It regularly creates conditions of contentiousness, incivility and alienation. It flows from the darkest part of our beings that believes that we never have enough, that money is a solution to all problems, and that wealth is the key to our personal value. “Watch out. Be on your guard,” Jesus says, speaking as to a soldier who must be on the highest state of alert. Jesus warns us of the true nature of greed. It is a highly destructive force that eats away at the heart. No matter how mature we grow or how powerful we become as followers of Christ we are only one step away from falling into the gravitational pull of greed.
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