Do You Possess Things or Do Things Possess You?

In Luke 12 Jesus is teaching some pretty heavy things. In the beginning of the chapter Jesus teaches against hypocrisy. Then He says that we need not fear the one who can kill the body but we should fear the One who can also kill the soul. Then Jesus says that if a man does not confess Jesus before other men, Jesus will deny that man before the angels of God. He goes on with a couple of other important things and then a man cries out, apparently from the crowd, with what appears to me to be a very unrelated question. The man cries out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”….what? Does this guy think that Jesus is an accountant or something? This appears to have nothing to do with what Jesus is saying…it’s like the guy isn’t even listening??

But maybe that’s part of the problem…maybe he isn’t listening. Perhaps he is so preoccupied with his financial question that he’s not hearing anything else. Jesus says to the man, ““Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Perhaps this man was so consumed by his possessions that he wasn’t paying attention to the words of Jesus. I thought this would be an interesting thing to consider two days after the day in which so many possessions are obtained, Christmas day. Does my life and does your life consist in the abundance of things we possess? I can truly say that as a young adult that sentence would have been true of me but not today.

We are to possess things but things are not to possess us. We are graciously given things by God but the possession and acquisition of those things should never become a priority in our lives. Or, like this man, we will miss so much of what is important.

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