I’ve been reading a wonderful book called “Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes” by Kenneth Bailey. In it Bailey peels off the layers of western interpretation of the gospels and gives a look at how Jesus original audience might have understood him. It has helped so many things make much more sense for me. Many of the things I will talk about come from this book.
As you read the text, I invite you to imagine yourself in the scene. Where would you be? What opinions would you have about what is going on? Who would you identify with? What would stand out to you?
Luke 12: 13-21
13 Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator (divider) over you?” 15 Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” 16 And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. 17 And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ 21 So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
First, let’s look at the setting. A man has come to Jesus asking Jesus to make his brother give him his share of the inheritance. Apparently if a father died without a will, his property was to be divided between his sons, but the oldest son had to agree to the division. So probably we have the younger son coming to Jesus after his older brother refused to divvy up.
According to Bailey, people often brought cases like this to Rabbis, it was part of the profession, and we know from many other stories that Jesus is very interested in justice and the cause of the downtrodden. So why does he refuse the role of judge or divider and tell the parable to the apparently wronged younger brother? Why does he not say “bring your brother to me” and then tell a parable to the older brother to make him change his mind?
Bailey's book is one of my all-time favorites.
Posted by: Kenton | March 09, 2015 at 10:04 AM