Sunday 3 August 2025

Psalm 49:1-12

Background
In a Jewish family the eldest son received a double share of his father’s inheritance. We should probably assume the situation here is two brothers where the younger wants to cash in and use his one-third share of the value of the estate but his brother wants him to continue to invest it in the family business/property rather than breaking it up.

Such disputes were taken to Jewish rabbis to judge the case. Although Jesus was often courteously addressed as 'rabbi' because of his teaching ministry, verse 14 is essentially an affirmation that he has not been officially recognised in such a role. It perhaps indicates further than Jesus is not interested in such issues and would rather focus on the more important spiritual issue that underlies such disagreement between people, in this case the brothers.

Jesus was gifted in perceiving what was going on in people’s hearts and minds (see John 2:25) and in this case he recognises that the apparently reasonable gripe the man has with his older brother is due to greed, an altogether wrong principle to live by because a person’s worth is not measured by their wealth.

The parable Jesus tells does not concern itself with such details as whether a grain crop would retain its value if stored for many years. Nor does it truly raise the question of whether taking life easy, enjoying eating and drinking and partying (v. 19) is morally good or bad. The point concerns the facts that no-one knows when their life will end and that when it does material wealth has no value whatsoever to its owner. And the lesson Jesus draws is that we should seek to be “rich towards God” rather than materially rich. Both later in this chapter (vs 33-34), and in Luke 18:22, being rich towards God is stated as having "treasure in heaven”.

To Ponder:

• Given that we live in a materialistic society, what strategies can we individually adopt to ensure we avoid greed and become rich towards God instead?
• It could be argued that the man in the parable is merely establishing a sufficient pension pot as our government advises us all to do, in order to have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement in due course. To what extent is such a strategy good practice for a Christian?

Prayer
Lord, whatever we possess in material terms, help us to escape the temptation to think we need more, and teach us the ways of living that will make us rich in your eyes. Amen.

Bible notes author: The Revd Dr Stephen Mosedale
Stephen is a retired Methodist minister living near Exeter. He served in West Africa and Scotland and was a New Testament tutor at Cliff College.