This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  “Take care to guard against all greed” The text uses two verbs (horate & phylassesthe) in the present tense imperatives, i.e., continual action, in other words “continually take care” and “continually guard yourself from.”  Perhaps this is a Lucan warning that the human condition is akin to alcoholics and their desire for alcohol, we are never cured of our greediness. We are always in recovery; always in need to watch out for and to guard ourselves from this evil power in our lives.

The word phylassesthe is rooted in the word pleonexias (definitions from Lowe & Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon)

1. “A strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or to possess more things than other people have, all irrespective of need.” The word is usually translated with greed, avarice, or covetousness.
2. “taking advantage of someone, usually as the result of a motivation of greed.” The word is usually translated with exploitation.
3. When pleonexia is used in the Septuagint it is always for the Hebrew word betsac which carries the idea of “unjust, illegal, dishonest or evil gain”. It is similar to the “plunder” one gains through violence.

This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time. One of Jesus’ hearers was having trouble with his brother about the proper division of an inheritance. Jewish laws of succession covered most cases (cf. Deut. 21:17), but there was sometimes room for doubt and in this case the man who spoke up felt that an injustice was being done. His brother was clearly in possession and he wanted Jesus to persuade him to quit his claims. He does not ask Jesus to decide on the merits of two claims: he asks for a decision in his own favor. He seems to be acting unilaterally for nothing indicates that the brother had agreed to have Jesus try the case. The man is taking Jesus as a typical rabbi, for the rabbis customarily gave decisions on disputed points of law. 

Jesus is interrupted in his instruction of the disciples. Besides being rude, the interruption betrays an insensitivity to what Jesus has just said about matters of essential importance. Jesus sees behind the question the very greed he warned the Pharisees about (11:39–42). 

Jesus’ admonition in 12:15, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions,” provides a commentary on the previously narrated request for arbitration, warning against the danger of the possession of material wealth, even when it is inherited. Life is defined not by objects, but by relationships, especially to God and his will. Several OT passages state the same perspective: Job 31:24–25; Ps. 49; Eccles. 2:1–11, and Sir. 11:18–19.

Jesus refuses to be recruited as the arbitrator in a dispute over the division of family holdings, addressing instead the dispositions out of which he apparently perceives the man’s dispute to have arisen. He uses the opportunity to tell a parable about the trap of possessions.

Image credit: The Parable of the Rich Fool | Rembrandt, 1627 | Gemäldegalerie, Berlin | PD-US | also known as The Money Changer

The dispute and the parable appears only in Luke among the gospels, situated within the on-going travel narrative as Jesus and the disciples move ever forward towards Jerusalem. Although the inheritance in question (v.13) is not specifically mentioned as land, given the parable’s setting (v.16) one might safely assume land was the issue. 

In the western legal system, inheritance law, the core function of inheritance laws is to provide a legal framework for the transfer of ownership of a deceased person’s assets (real estate, personal property, financial accounts, etc.). The laws prioritize the rights of certain family members, particularly spouses and children, ensuring they receive a share of the estate. In general, the western version of the law does not serve a social function, e.g., helping to manage wealth distribution and prevent excessive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year C when we proclaim the Gospel of Luke. The gospel is from Luke 12 and, in large part, addresses our relationship to the riches of this life and what constitutes real treasure “in what matters to God.”

This text, as well as the Gospels for the two following Sundays, comes in a section of Luke (12:1-13:9) where exhortations and warnings are given by Jesus in preparation for the coming judgment. Culpepper (Luke, New Interpreter’s Bible, 255) writes of the transition from vv. 1-12 to vv. 13-21 with:

Continuing the theme of this larger section, the next verses shift from confession of Jesus to forsaking the security of material possessions. Those who confess Jesus look to God for their security, not to their own ability to accumulate possessions and lay up wealth for the future.