Vigils Reading – St Luke

The Right Use of Material Posessions,

commentary by Joseph A Fitzmyer,SJ[1]

No other New Testament writer, save perhaps the author of the Epistle of James, speaks so forthrightly as does Luke about the use of material possessions by Christian disciples.  More than the other evangelists Luke either preserves sayings of Jesus about this topic or puts on his lips statements that concern wealth, money, and material goods in general.  In Acts Luke further sketches an idyllic picture of the early Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem with is common ownership of property and the sharing of wealth and possessions as a model for the community of his own day.  Luke was clearly not happy about what he had seen of the use of wealth and possessions by Christian disciples.

So he portrays Jesus speaking about this matter both in sayings that he has taken over from Mark and “Q” and also in a number of sayings that he has composed himself or derived from his own source “L.”  For instance, in Mark Jesus tells a rich young man to sell what he possesses, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow him, whereas in Luke Jesus tells “the magistrate”: “Sell all that you have”.  Again in Mark, the first disciples called leave their nets to follow Jesus, but in Luke they leave “everything” to do so.

The contrast between the rich and the poor surfaces often in the Lucan story, in Mary’s Magnificat, in the instruction of John the Baptist to the poor, in Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah 61:1-2 in his Nazareth synagogue sermon, in the first beatitude and first woe, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and in Jesus’ advice to “invite the poor” to dinner instead of rich neighbors who might reciprocate.

In the special Lucan material, in particular, one detects a twofold attitude toward material possessions’: (1) a moderate attitude, in which the Lucan Jesus advocates a prudent use of such posessions to give assistance to human beings who are less fortunate: “Give to everyone who begs from you”, as well as in the story of the dishonest manager a radical attitude, which recommends the absolute renunciation of all wealth: “Everyone of you who does not say goodbye to all he has cannot be a disciple of mine”; or “No servant can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and mammon”.  For Luke all of this is not merely a question of haves and have-nots, since there is an eschatological dimension to the topic, which the first beatitude and the first woe make clear, as well as does Mary’s Magnificat.  Having and not having material possessions ultimately symbolize an important aspect of the disciple’s inner response to the call of God and to his visitation of his people in and through the ministry of Jesus.  Material possessions are liable to stand in the way of the proper response, and Luke is concerned that they do not.

    [1]Luke the Theologian, Joseph A Fitzmyer,SJ, Paulist Press, 1989, p.137-138