In Luke 12:15, Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
The Bible speaks the most about those things in life with the greatest power to bring us to ruin, so not surprisingly it talks often about money. Jesus taught about it constantly. It’s been catalogued that 11 of Jesus’ 39 parables were about financial stewardship. Our spiritual health therefore requires training in managing not only money, but our attitudes about it.
Luke 12:15 are words Jesus said to a person who asked Jesus to mediate a money-conflict he was having with a family member. Rather than sympathize with the person, instead Jesus warned him about the toxin of greed poisoning his heart, then shared one of those 11 money parables with the crowd.
This one verse alone contains at least four lessons about greed.
First, Jesus says “Watch out!” This comes from a strong Greek word which means to “see with the eyes”, but also to “see with the mind”. It’s a word of warning.
When it comes to greed, the first thing we must do is open our eyes to the danger. Jesus is saying: The seed of greed is in what you see.
You don’t wake up in the morning and say, “Oh, I think I’ll be greedy today.” No, you wake up and you shave and you have your coffee and you go about your business, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, your eyes alight on something. It could be quite literally anything. But your eyes see that thing, and something pricks your soul, and you say, “Oh my, look at that. Wouldn’t that be nice to have!”
When television was first invented and mass-produced, like all new technologies, it spun off a cottage industry of writers warning how it would bring ruin to those who consumed. Their warnings were not alarmist or outrageous. In fact, now that binge-watching is a thing, those warnings are even more pertinent. Warnings about how unrestrained TV viewing leads to obesity, depression, passivity, isolation, the loss of critical thinking, and rank consumption (encouraged by the 20% of TV viewing devoted to advertising).
David’s great sin with Bathsheba – which brought his usefulness to God effectively to an end – began when “he saw from the roof a woman bathing” (2 Samuel 11:2). When Achan confessed his sin to Joshua, that sin which brought mischief to Israel and destruction on his family – he said, “When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia…and a wedge of gold, I coveted them.”
Watch out, David! Watch out, Achan! And watch out you! The seed of greed is in what you see.