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. 

Our text is connected with the verses that follow by the sense of possessions (desiring more than what is needed) and by the word psyche (v. 19 twice, v. 20, v. 22, v. 23). This word is translated as “soul” or “life” in these verses. Psyche is that mysterious thing that makes me “me” or you “you.” It is everything that makes a pile of organic materials come to life as an individual — life force, soul, spirit, breath, personality, etc. In modern parlance we use the word “self”.

Related to this, our text is an illustration of what Jesus had said at the beginning of this entire section: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.  Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.” (12:2-3). Most of our parable is “hearing” the inner thoughts of the rich man — what is in his psyche — what is his true “self”.

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¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” ¹⁵ Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.  ¹⁷ He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods ¹⁹ and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ ²¹ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”  (Luke 12:13-21)

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