“who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
In the beginning of the Gospel reading, a man asked Jesus to pass judgment on an inheritance. Jesus responds, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”[i]
Why does Jesus say He is not a judge? Jesus says He is not a judge in the matters that deal with worldly things. This passage harkens to another scripture verse where Jesus says, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”[ii] Jesus did not come to be a judge on material things, but the ultimate judge of our souls. “He had come to bring eternal life, not to occupy himself with temporal goods, which can offer no stability to our existence.”[iii]
In the gospel reading, “This man is only interested in his own problems; he sees in Jesus only a teacher with authority and prestige who can help sort out his case (cf. Deut 21:17). He is a good example of those who approach religious authorities not to seek advice on the way they should go in their spiritual life – but rather to get them to solve their material problems. Jesus vigorously rejects the man’s request – not because he is insensitive to the injustice which may have been committed in this family, but because it is not part of his redemptive mission to intervene in matters of this kind. By his word and example the Master shows us that his work of salvation is not aimed at solving the many social and family problems that arise in human society; he has come to give us the principles and moral standards which should inspire our actions in temporal affairs, but not to give us precise, technical solutions to problems which arise: to that end he has endowed us with intelligence and freedom.”[iv]
What is the connection between the following two scripture verses? “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me,”[v] and “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”[vi] In both scriptures a demand is made of Jesus, “tell my brother to share”, “tell my sister to help”. In both cases the people “telling Jesus what to do” are occupied with the temporal, not the spiritual, with the body, not the soul. What demands do we make of Jesus? Are these demands physical or spiritual in nature?
Is it ok to ask Jesus for physical things? Yes. We use the Our Father as a template of the way we should pray. When we pray “give us this day our daily bread” we are praying for both physical and spiritual. We should always ask for both. Many times however we ask only for the physical, paying little to no attention to our spiritual poverty (blessed our the poor in spirit). Many times the obsession with the physical, as is the case of the man in this Gospel and Saint Martha, blinds us to our spiritual needs.
Why does Jesus speak on greed? Jesus understood that the man who spoke up wanted was money. Jesus was not going to worry Himself over the material problems, but the root of the problem, greed. Finally, the Catechism drives the point home when it says, “Jesus…nevertheless did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God’s sons and causes all forms of human bondage.”[vii] Jesus wanted to go to the root of the man’s problem, which was his greed, one of the seven deadly sins.
How was Jesus appointed as judge over heaven and earth? Jesus was appointed when He freely gave up His life on the cross. “He ‘acquired’ this right by his cross. The Father has given ‘all judgment to the Son.’”[viii] It was there where Jesus conquered Satan. It was at the cross where He conquered death and sin. We proclaim this in the Nicene Creed, “…He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”
Why is Jesus the supreme judge? He is judge because God the appointed Him as such. It is also because, “Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world.”[ix]
Did Jesus come to this earth to judge? No. He clearly states this in today’s Gospel reading. “Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself.”[x] When we reject God’s grace in our lives we are already judging ourselves, and can even condemn ourselves when we reject the Spirit of love.[xi]
In almost all cases things and people are judged according to a rule or standard. Temperature for example is judged according to the “rule” of a thermometer. Speed is judged according to the “rule” of the odometer. Each person is judged according to the “rule” of the Gospel. There is only one “rule” when it comes to the judgment of our soul and that “rule” is the Jesus Christ, whose life and teachings are found in the Gospel. How blessed is the man that has this “rule”. This is why Saint Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!”[xii] and “…woe to me if I do not preach it [Gospel]!”[xiii].
What about those who do not know the “rule” of the Gospel? If a person to no fault of their own does not know the Gospel and thus has not rejected the Gospel they will be judged according to the good and true they do seek, follow, and live. The Church says that all things good and true come from the Gospel and are indeed preparation for the Gospel. “Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.”[xiv]
How will Jesus judge us? He will be a just judge. Jesus will not be vindictive or harsh. However, He will judge according the Eternal Law, which He fulfilled. He will judge us on what we did with the grace that we were given and by our faith and merits. People end up in hell, not because Jesus wanted them there; it is because they had not cooperated with God’s grace, and rejected Jesus, either directly if they knew Him, or failed to know Him, or indirectly if they did not know Him but rejected the goodness and truth they did know. What will be amazing and terrifying is Jesus will show us what our judgments and actions have done not only to us personally, but how it affected the entire world. He will not hide a single thing from us.
We must let go of our vices and sins that we cling to. We must be detached from greed, gluttony, and have a spirit of joy and happiness even in the face of trial, temptation, and suffering. Our lives go by so quickly. The daytime TV court shows and legal battles in general in our modern culture are similar to today’s Gospel. We worry about who gets what and in the end it only creates bitterness and hatred towards people. We become obsessed over things and property so much so that we begin to hate people, and fail to follow Jesus’ commandments. We are concerned with having more rather than being more. We are concerned about what someone has rather than who a person is. Saint John of the Cross summarizes it beautifully when he said, “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”
[i] Lk. 12:14
[ii] Lk. 20:25
[iii] Fr. Gabriel, Divine Intimacy vol. III, pg. 176
[iv] Navarre Bible: Gospel Luke pgs. 153-154
[v] Luke 12:13-21
[vi] Luke 10:40
[vii] CCC 549
[viii] CCC 679
[ix] CCC 679
[x] CCC 679
[xi] cf. CCC 679
[xii] Romans 10:15
[xiii] 1 Corinthians 9:16
[xiv] See Mountain Chart