You Can't Take It With You

Today's Gospel was the parable about the rich farmer who had an excess amount of grain and didn't share it.  Instead he planned to build bigger storage.  He died that night.  Luke 12: 13-21.  I had always thought that parable was directed to the selfish, rich people in Jesus' audience.  

A few Sundays ago, we read the Gospel Matthew 21: 28-32, where a man asked his sons for help.  The one that said no, did eventually help.  When I read that particular Gospel, I associated that son, with Jesus' response to His mother, in John 2: 4-5, known as the marriage feast at Cana.  Both had to do with responses that were the opposite of the final actions.

Well, this is what I had in the back of my mind, when I heard today's Gospel Luke 12: 13-21.
                                       Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher,
                                       tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
                                       He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me
                                       as your judge and arbitrator?"
The parable that follows, I always took as Jesus doing what the man asked.  Jesus, in effect, was telling the man's brother to share the inheritance, through this parable.  Just as the actions were the opposite of the responses to Matthew 21: 28-32 and John 2: 4-5.

However, this morning I realized that this parable also could be applied to the man who asked Jesus to tell his brother to share.  Jesus was telling him to not be anxious about money.

Think deeper.  The parable applies to both brothers, equally.  The rich one and the other.  Neither one should be overly concerned about the future and who inherits what.  You can't take anything with you when you die.