Throughout the Bible, the Lord emphasizes His desire for relationships over everything else. We see this in Genesis 1 when He made Adam, the crowning creation of all that He had made. When He created Eve, He spoke of the relationship between the man and the woman as being so close, they become one flesh. The effect of sin in Genesis 3 affected both the relationship of Adam and Eve with God as well as with each other. In Genesis 4, we read about God’s anger toward Cain when he, who should have loved his brother, became his brother’s murderer and ended that relationship out of anger and jealousy. We continue reading about God’s relationships with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and ultimately the children of Israel.
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus spoke of peacemakers: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Peacemakers “shall be called sons of God” because they are making peace between God and man by teaching people about the kingdom, where their relationship with God is restored upon entering. In His prayer recorded in John 17.3, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When we come to know Jesus and the Father, we begin a relationship that will continue throughout eternity.
What gets in the way of our relationship with God? What causes relationships with our brethren to break down? In multiple scriptures, Jesus suggests that physical possessions can become a barrier between ourselves, others, and God. In Luke 12, Luke records an interaction between Jesus and an unnamed man who seemed to have a grievance with his brother. Relationships are the focus of this parable as well, but we may miss it if we’re not careful.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: 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 ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The fact that this man is appealing to Jesus to tell his brother to divide the inheritance gives us some context. If this man’s brother had the authority to divide the inheritance and this man didn’t, that indicates that this man was the younger of the siblings and the older brother hadn’t divided the estate. This suggests the younger brother may have had a valid argument: if the older brother refused to divide the inheritance, then he controlled all the wealth, and indeed, the younger brother was not getting the share of their father’s estate to which he was entitled. The man is crying out to Jesus for justice. But the justice he is asking for indicates an issue with covetousness and an indifference toward his brother. He doesn’t ask for Jesus to help heal the division between them; instead, he asks for Jesus to use His authority to make his brother give him his stuff.
However, Jesus refuses to answer this man’s request. If He had simply used His authority to force the older brother to divide the inheritance, He would have contributed to finalizing the brokenness of their relationship. As the literal Son of God, He came as the ultimate peacemaker, not someone who contributes to division based on the things of this world.
The Lord is concerned with our spiritual needs, not our physical prosperity. When Jesus heard a misguided cry for justice, He understood it to be a symptom of a sickness. Rather than granting the man’s request, He addressed the condition that produced it in hopes of healing the man’s heart.
In Matthew 22, Jesus reduces the entirety of God’s revealed will to two commands:
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love is the basis for a relationship with God and it is the basis for our relationship with others, whether it is our brothers or our neighbors. Satan uses the things of this world to try to break down those relationships, but a heart that is seeking God is not going to be sidetracked by covetousness.
