Monday in the 29th Week of Ordinary Time, October 19, 2026

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?” 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.”  Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ 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 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!”’ 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?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”

“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” A man, a property owner, has died. According to Deuteronomy 21:17, the eldest son received a double share — twice the amount of any other individual son — of the property. He also becomes head of the family. Supposing the brother who comes to Jesus is the only other brother, he would receive a third of the property as his inheritance. Here we see him petitioning Jesus for justice, leading to the conclusion that the elder brother has taken all of the property for himself. We should not assume that he is wronged, for if he was known in his family as unreliable or unstable, the older brother could have been protecting him from himself. Whatever the case, he comes to Jesus. Now, perhaps the local judge had ruled in his brother’s favor or the younger brother had not asked him for a judgment, and he thinks that an emotional appeal to Jesus would work in his favor. But the Lord refuses to be drawn into a dispute of this kind. His reply to the brother, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” seems to point him back to the duly established officials. (The Greek word translated here as “friend” actually means “man”: Man, who appointed me, etc.)

The Lord Jesus seizes this opportunity to teach about greed, that relentless destroyer of families and individual souls: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”  The Lord teaches us to be on the watch so as to “guard” ourselves from “every kind” of greed. That is to say, to be vigilant, for our human condition practically invites an insecurity to take its seat within us, driving us on to covet anything that appears to strengthen or fulfill us. The devil sees how useful this covetousness is and drives it on so that it absorbs and finally ruins the person who does not fight against it.

We fight against greed with gratitude to God for granting us the necessities of life. We make a careful survey of what he have and realize that it all comes from God and that without unmerited grace we would have nothing. Psalm 127, 2: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watches in vain who guards it.” Out of love for us the Lord shares his bounty with us. We must keep this in mind and not think that we deserve anything, with a mind contrary to that of the rich landowner in the parable.

“The things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” All things belong to God and that which he shares with us is to be put to good use. The landowner fails because he does not plan to use his overabundant harvest in God’s service. Let us keep in mind, then, the Lord’s warning in Luke 12, 48: “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required.”