The Son of Man’s Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27)

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and His sufferings and death, He picked up the pace in talking about the dark side of the gospel. Those who rejected Jesus as King along with the gospel of Christ were facing some frightening consequences. The true disciples were going to be called upon to stand firm, and those who rejected Christ were to be warned of the consequences. This increased intensity is a starkly different tone from that of the earlier chapters of Luke as Jesus prepared for His coming journey to the cross.

The Attitude of a Disciple in the Light of the Coming Judgment (12:1-13:9)

The Leaven of the Pharisees (1-3)

Crowds gathered around Jesus in a mob fashion, trampling on each other, thinking only of themselves, trying only to be the first and closest. Watching the whole selfish mess, Jesus told His disciples to ever beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and then defined their leaven as hypocrisy. By hypocrisy, Jesus meant they wanted to make a good external show to get ahead of others. Jesus was further trying to tell His disciples that the way the Pharisees lived and taught the gospel influenced people to act one way outwardly and be another kind of person inwardly.

The gospel and God's Kingdom were going to have a powerful effect on people's lives (1). Jesus warned of the impending powerful change. A time was coming when the true nature of what was whispered in the hidden place of the heart would become visible, as though it were proclaimed on the housetops. What was in the heart would always be proclaimed loudly in life (2-3). 

The Fearlessness of Followers (4-7)

Because all would come to light, Jesus told His followers not to fear those able to kill the body but to fear the One with authority to cast one into Hell. Certainly, as what was in the heart of the religious leaders came to the light of day, it would mean harm was going to come to their adversaries, those who followed Jesus (4-5). Jesus told His followers, whom He referred to as friends, that they did not need to fear the motives of the Pharisees coming to light, for His friends’ value was greater than sparrows and hair—God values both sparrow and hair but His friends even more (6-7). 

The Confession of Followers (8-12) 

Instead of His disciples being fearful when the secrets of the Pharisees' hearts became visible, they were to continue acknowledging Jesus as the Son of Man before men. As they confessed Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus would acknowledge them before all of Heaven (8). The reverse was to be true also—those who denied Jesus as the Son of Man would be publicly denied before Heaven. 

To be acknowledged would be to hear Jesus say, “I know her.” And, “He is my friend.” To deny would be to say, “I don't know who that is” (9). Here is that difficult verse. Jesus was seeking to explain how the Pharisees were getting their souls into deep spiritual trouble. Anyone could be forgiven for attributing evil to any of Jesus’ works; people could not be forgiven, however, for attributing evil to the good, loving, healing, liberating, and compassionate works the Holy Spirit was doing through Jesus. It was one thing to get hung up on a flesh-and-blood Jesus, doing certain God-things; it was another to say the Holy Spirit behind Jesus' works was evil. At the very least, the Pharisees should have been able to say, “We don't get Jesus, and we’re not sure about Jesus, but we cannot deny that what He does comes from the Holy Spirit.” To be so blinded by selfishness that one could not admit and see the Holy Spirit behind the good works being done was an unforgivable state of being (10). 

Jesus then moved on and told His disciples that when those Pharisees who had so blasphemed the Holy Spirit brought them before their ruling bodies to judge and condemn them, they were not to fear what they were going to say. They were to take courage, for the Holy Spirit, whom the Pharisees had rejected, was the same One who would put their defense in their mouth the very moment they needed it (11-12). 

The Parable of the Rich Fool (13-21)

Jesus moved on from His warnings about the Pharisees and took a question from the audience. It seems there was a brother who was the executor of his father's estate and was unwilling to properly divide his father's property with his brother (13-14). Jesus refused to get involved in disputes over boundaries and property lines, which were under the jurisdiction of rabbis and lawyers. Jesus did, however, want to comment on the deeper issue, the issue behind the question: covetousness. 

Covetousness, in Jesus' teaching, was simply the desire to have more than one had presently, or worse, wanting possessions more than God. Jesus warned His audience to be on their guard against covetousness consuming their hearts. He warned them that just because this was the easiest sin to fall prey to and try to rationalize, it was not possible to justify the sin. Jesus then declared that having a fulfilled life did not consist of an abundance of possessions (15).

To bring the point home, Jesus told a parable about a rich man who made a ton of money (16), so much so that he had no room to store it all. So, he decided to change his whole life and build his existence around having so much money that he would not only have too much to store but would also never need to worry about money again. He could afford to make the center of his existence relaxing, eating, drinking, and having fun (17-19). His entire life was built around providing so amply for himself that he would be able to consume everything he wanted all of his life. 

Jesus next inserted a problem into the parable: the man had spent his whole life focused upon money, and the security money could add to his life, so he spent no time storing up a healthy relationship with God. At the end of his life, Jesus pictured him on his deathbed being called a “fool.” A “fool” is someone who lived his life as if no supreme and ultimate God existed (Psalm 14:1). On the night his soul was required, the stuff he had accumulated and stored up and provided for his own relaxing, eating, drinking, and having fun was found worthless. He was a fool to think it a good idea to promote his own covetousness and not set his relationship with God as the ultimate priority of his life (20-21).

The entire purpose of this parable was to show how subtle covetousness and pursuing riches can be. Jesus was hinting that it is possible to be covetous and not know it because God blesses so immensely that one cannot always recognize his move from pursuing a relationship with Christ as his highest priority to pursuing the blessings of Christ. 

Jesus on Worry and Treasures (22-34)

With all of that teaching on covetousness as a backdrop, Jesus then began to talk to His disciples personally. He defined the motive for covetousness as anxiety. To be anxious about life would mean someone assumed eating and clothing were matters not important to God (22). Jesus' point was the opposite: life was so much more than things (23). Jesus first explained how God cared for birds. Without planting or harvesting, God fed them. Jesus then asked His disciples to measure their worth against ravens. The ravens’ value to God was not even close (24). 

Jesus then asked them to consider the value of worry: did anxiety ever extend a person’s life? If not, Jesus wondered why they even employed anxiety (25-26).

Jesus moved from eating to clothing, using flowers as an example, as they did not make their own clothing but were better dressed than Solomon with all of his excessive opulence (27). Jesus reminded them that grass was here one day and withered the next and yet was clothed better than kings. Thus, God would care more for even those of little faith than grass, which had no soul at all (28). 

Jesus then made His main point: don’t ever seek, as your ultimate quest, things you can consume, but seek the Kingdom of Yahweh. Jesus challenged His disciples to observe Yahweh’s care of their lives without the worry of greed; He would provide all they needed (29-31).

It wasn't things the Father took pleasure in giving Jesus’ followers; it was His Kingdom, which was of so much greater value than stuff. Jesus then told His disciples how to escape the greed so much a part of the human condition. They were to sell things important to them and care for the needy. To give to the needy would help His disciples not to focus on enterprising their pleasures, but to care for what God cared for. Secondly, they were to provide money bags that did not grow old, fail, or get destroyed by giving a portion of their money to God. Here, Jesus taught the principle that wherever they invested their money, their affection and love would soon follow. Jesus’ point was that those who gave money to God would have an affection and desire for Him (32-34).