Generosity builds kingdom equity
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Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' But he said to him, 'Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?' 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.' And he told them a parable, saying, 'The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?" 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. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'" But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Luke 12:13-21 (ESV)
I’ll start by saying that Jesus' response still makes no sense to me. On it’s own, yes, but to a request for financial justice, no. Jesus' response seems to indicate that, to be on guard against all covetousness means, at least in part, that we don’t press for what is rightfully ours by law. God does call us to mercy and not to exacting the law, but he doesn’t call us to lawlessness.
When I read the parable, it makes sense. There is a rich man who has more than enough. Instead of finding ways to spend his surplus in heavenly gain, he hoards it away. Nothing in the parable says he was wrong to be a rich man - the emphasis is on investment. If he thought beyond today, the rich man would realize that his storehouses bursting with grain were being stored for whomever comes after him, or whoever gets it first if he has no descendants. To use accounting language, he doesn’t realize that, while he has many assets, his liabilities equal his assets and therefore he has no equity. To build equity in the kingdom, one must invest one’s assets towards God.