The Bible doesn't say, "Money is the root of all evil." It says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." (1 Timothy 6:10). And there's a big difference. It's no sin to be rich. It's not wealth that's our downfall, but greed. And this is precisely the direction the parable is taking us.
We don't know what life will bring. There are people here this morning facing Alzheimer's or cancer, blindness. Some may have the opportunity to eat, drink and be merry. For others, life will not be that way. But we will all be asked whether we were rich to God--and whether we allowed God to be rich to us.
Which will you emulate: the Pharisee or the tax collector? Which path will you take: the one that leads us into a hard shell, or the way that leads us out into the land of the living?
“Teacher,” a man blurts out to Jesus, “tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Notice he doesn’t use the magic word, please. Obviously, this man is one of the younger sons in the family. If he had been the oldest, he would be the one receiving the inheritance.
But this widow was a tough old bird. I imagine her as an older Bette Midler with the same compact, fast-talking attitude. That's how the judge saw her. An angry little bantam hen peck, peck, pecking, day after day, until he was black and blue from harassment.
You have heard that whenever anyone says, "It's not the money...", it's the money. But, in this case, it really is NOT the money. Rather the problem is the seemingly insatiable demand in our culture for more and more and more.
C.S. Lewis recalled a nagging feeling that he should get a haircut. "In the end I could stand it no longer. I went. The moment I opened his shop door the barber said, ‘Oh, I was praying that you might come today'. And in fact if I had come a day or so later, I should have been no use to him."
Clarence Jordan's translation of this verse brings out its original earthiness: "You all be careful and stay on your guard against all kinds of greediness. For a person's life is not for the piling up of possessions." In these few words, Jesus rejects much of what keeps our society humming.
I just love it when the underdog wins, don't you? Except when the Razorbacks are playing. Obviously, I always pull for them. Or when Notre Dame is involved. I always root for them to lose. It's not a Catholic thing on my part. I've just always thought they got more respect than they deserved.
But you know what? There’s another side of the story of the Good Samaritan. The story is really not as simple as it might at first seem. We need to be careful that we don’t too quickly place ourselves in a position of judging the actions of the Priest or the Levite.