Surplus
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 12:13-14)
When a man asked Jesus to settle a dispute over the distribution of an inheritance, it was understood that the man was seeking more than his allotted share. Jesus immediately recognized the man's greed and emphasized the point with a parable. In Jesus' story, a rich man had an unexpectedly abundant return on his harvest, and rather than sell some of what he had at a fair price, or even give some away to those in greatest need, the man chose to build bigger storage facilities so he could live the rest of his life in grand style. Seeing the man's greed, God took his life so he'd never get to live on what he'd stored.
This story seems troubling to those of us who value saving for the future, but the final line of the parable makes it clear that saving for the future wasn't really the man's downfall. In verse 21, God says that the treatment this man received will be experienced by anyone who "stores things for themselves, but is not rich toward God". The sin of the man in Jesus' story is that he had no thought or consideration for how he could benefit others with his excess.
This same mindset prevails today when we think that what we have indicates what we deserve, and we deem ourselves more worthy than someone else. We know that life is more than what we possess, yet we continue to assign value to ourselves and others based on material, rather than eternal, qualifications. Beyond personal accountability, this passage also calls us to be mindful of how our systems - which tend to take the best care of those who have the resources to further enrich the system and it's powerful players - care for those with greatest need. That the wealthiest nation in the world can not agree that everyone is deserving of health care and a place to live is indicative of the greed and selfishness we must guard against. May God open our individual and collective eyes to see the surplus we take for granted, and give us the wisdom to realize that
shoring up our most vulnerable strengthens us all.
1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
