What makes the rich fool foolish?

He experiences a better than expected harvest, by chance perhaps, or maybe divine Providence. He makes a perfectly reasonable business decision to ensure that his windfall will not go to waste. And he starts to dream about what that extra grain could mean for his life.

None of that really strikes me as foolish.

There’s often this thread running through the interpretation of this parable suggesting that the rich man did something wrong and that his subsequent death was a punishment for greed, or for failing to be properly grateful for his good fortune, or not being sufficiently attentive to spiritual matters or other people while determining what to do with the harvest.

And… Certainly it’s pretty clear that he’s messed something up.

But this time, what I see is not punishment, but a meaningless random death. Just as the rich man’s good harvest was random, telling us nothing about his skill as a farmer, his death is random telling us nothing about what he deserves.

He’s just dead, having wasted his time securing a harvest he doesn’t get to enjoy. This is a trite proverb in story form. You know the one:

No one says on their deathbed “I just wish I had spent more time at the office”

That fits in with the surrounding material too, Jesus frustrated with being asked to arbitrate trivial disputes. After this we get to the piece about not worrying about clothes or food

These passages are often interpreted with a heavy dose of distain for worldly things like money and clothes.

But maybe it’s just “YOLO”.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:13-21

When Jesus disciples ask him to teach them to pray, he suggests this simple prayer that we now know as the Lord’s Prayer. He follows that up with some additional ideas about prayer and all of those ideas are also about food. We tend to have a lot of theological ideas off of the Lord’s Prayer and these subsequent parables but I’m not sure this passage can really support it.

The version of the prayer included in Luke is pretty pared down. Several lines of the version we more often recite collectively in church services are omitted. Those omissions make this version of the prayer sound almost childish to my ear. But the material that comes afterwards make it clear: this teaching on prayer is about asking for stuff. Bread. Forgiveness. A path free of temptations.

Both of the parables that come after the prayer talk about food, but they don’t really talk about necessities. The person waking their neighbour at midnight isn’t starving, they’re just an ill-prepared host. The kid is just asking for snacks.

I almost hear Jesus as sarcastic here. The disciples ask to be taught to pray and he responds:

“Just pray like this, ‘Hey dad. Give me stuff. ‘ don’t worry, people will always give you things if you pester them enough. You know how you love it to give your kids whatever they want to eat even if they refused their super.”

As if it was somehow a stupid question.

I love the Lord’s Prayer. I find it anchoring when I don’t have my own words to pray with (most of the time really.) And I really appreciate the collectiveness of it.

But it’s not that deep.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:1-13

I came across the idea a few years back that Martha of Bethany, the sister of Mary and Lazarus probably didn’t exist. Early manuscripts of the story of Lazarus’s resurrection show some evidence that Martha has been inserted into that story in an edit. That edit was potentially intended to break up the contributions of Mary of Bethany and diminish claims of her leadership in the early Christian movement.

I initially disliked that idea. Named women in Jesus’ story are rare enough that it seemed a shame to lose one. But the idea had stuck in my head and looking at this week’s passage, perhaps understanding that Martha of Bethany never existed actually gives us an additional female follower of Jesus.

In this week’s passage, Jesus comes to the home of a woman named Martha and her sister Mary. If Martha of Bethany exists, then the obvious assumption is that these women are Martha and Mary of Bethany despite some oddities with the timeline and uncertainty about where and when this incident is happening. But if Martha of Bethany doesn’t exist then this Martha is someone else and now all of the sudden there are three women: Mary of Bethany and Martha and Mary living in this unnamed town.

So supposing that these women are not Mary and Martha of Bethany, what do we know about them? Not a lot. Cue baseless speculation!

The passage identifies the home as belonging to Martha. There’s no mention of a husband or a father or anyone else acting as the head of that household. As far as we can tell, it’s just a pair of sisters and Martha is definitely in charge. A widow perhaps?

They have resources though. Hosting Jesus clearly isn’t a matter of just throwing together an extra side dish and laying another plate at supper. He’s already traveling with an entourage. Martha is wealthy enough to have space to host at least a dozen people, possibly a lot more. It’s not really surprising there are a significant number of preparations to make and Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help.

Jesus response feels a little like a privileged dude not really understanding where his supper comes from. However, it looks to me like Martha usually has more power than her sister and this demand that Mary be sent out to help could be an attempt to reinforce that existing power structure. I wonder if we’re witnessing a part of a long standing argument between Martha and her sister. If this is Martha’s home, Martha’s money, Martha’s food, how often does Martha hold Mary’s contribution (or lack of contribution) to the household over her head?

In making her demand, Martha is reminding everyone of how busy she is, how much she’s contributing, how grateful everyone should be for her generosity. And she’s reminding Mary, and everyone else, of Mary’s place in the hierarchy — behind the scenes, away from where the important men are talking, below Martha.

Whether or not he truly understands the labour involved in preparing super for a dozen or more unexpected guests, Jesus isn’t into enforcing the social hierarchy of Martha’s household.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)

As I understand it, “eternal life” was a relatively new concept in Judaism at the time of Jesus. Eternal life, and how that might work, or even if it existed at all was an actively ongoing debate.

So here’s a part of that debate. Who is eternal life for? Is it for the religious leadership, dedicating themselves to the worship of God or the maintenance of the temple? Is it for martyrs who have given up their very lives for the faith?

No.

The answer that Jesus leads his conversation partner to is nothing more or less than to follow the law in it’s most basic form. Love God. Love your neighbour. No more complicated great than that. This vision of eternal life is accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be a priest, or a Levite. Even a Samaritan might inherit eternal life.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:25-37

The seventy two followers that Jesus sends out into the surrounding towns come back having learned precisely the wrong lesson.

They’re there to heal and to announce the Kingdom.

Jesus takes care to send them in a way that sends the right message. They receive detailed instructions that make them vulnerable and dependent on others. They are not too bring anything with them. They are to remain dependent on the hospitality of strangers. They’re there to help people who are sick and hurting.

Despite all of this they return excited mostly about how much power they have.

This is such a recognizable human thing. And such a counterproductive one for creating community.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

…

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20