Gospel Meditation: Luke 12:13–21

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Recite the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         This parable of the rich fool comes at a time when huge crowds are surrounding Jesus. Someone then, who was standing close to Jesus, asked Him to arbitrate in a dispute between the man and his brother regarding the amount of an inheritance each would receive. Apparently, the father had recently died

2.         Though commonly Rabbis did adjudicate is such instances, Jesus declines to do so.

3.         Jesus begins then to speak truth to this man who He determines is acting out of covetousness. Jesus says to “take care” or carefully think about what is really going on. The inner motive of the man Jesus sees to be based on covetousness, the desire for wealth and thus power.

4.         Jesus then tells a parable about a rich man who did very well as a farmer, in fact did so well at raising crops that he needed to tear down his present barns and build bigger ones in order to store the produce.

5.         The farmer boasts that he will now be able to live fabulously, as an “epicurean” whose motto was, “relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”

6.         However, he does not know that he will not live another day, and then, who will enjoy the wealth. Obviously, it would be the brother whom he was looking to cheat.

7.         Jesus says it is better to be rich “toward God.”