THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

15Notice that Jesus warns not just against greed, but against "all kinds of greed." Greed takes allsorts of forms, and is easily hidden. Since greed is defined by excessiveness, how much is enough? Howmuch is too much?The temptation to greed requires vigilance, hence Jesus' warning words, "Watch out!" and "Be onyour guard" (phulasso means "watch, guard . . . guard against, look out for, avoid"). Greed is firstidentified clearly as the Tenth Commandment,"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor'swife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything thatbelongs to your neighbor" (Ex 20:17).Covetousness is the desire for something that one doesn't have a legitimate right to, something thatwhich belongs to someone else.LIFE IS NOT MEASURED BY ONE’S ABUNDANCE OF POSSESSIONS (12:15)After warning his disciples against greed, Jesus gives the reason for this warning, "because aman's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (v. 15). This is one of Jesus' themes. "Mandoes not live by bread alone" (Lk 4:4; Dt 8:3).When you think about it, Jesus' word to his First Century disciples is a radical statement even inthe Twenty-First Century: "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." This runscontrary to they way our society thinks and values and lives.Rich people are more successful than poor people.Wealthy people are more important than poor people.Well-to-do people are more sought after to serve on civic boards and commissions, since theybring status, money, and presumably have wisdom.Well-off people are more believable in court than the poor. Success in our culture is calibratedlargely in terms of quantity—quantity of degrees, wealth, salary, perks, possessions, publications. We areambitious, we are trained by our society to want more, to strive for more.But Jesus says, "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (v. 15). Andthat means we must choose to change, or choose to cover our base covetousness with piety in order toconvince others, and hopefully ourselves, that we aren't really covetous. Not us!