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Faith

Things Jesus doesn’t care about

“Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” That is how Jesus responded when a man came to him seeking justice, as reported in Luke chapter 12. The man just wanted to get his fair share of the family inheritance. Some people might try to explain Jesus’s words away by inferring that the man’s cause was somehow unjust, but the Bible does not say that. The bare text simply indicates that Jesus did not care who ended up with the family inheritance.

Jesus follows up his astounding comment by saying, “Beware! Avoid greed, because your life doesn’t consist of the things which you own.” The general principle behind what he is saying is that it is wrong for us to waste our efforts on trying to get money which rightly belongs to us. Jesus cares about – and by extension we should care about – love and mercy and truth and grace, but he just does not care about fairness or looking after your own interests.

It seems heretical to say that Jesus does not care about fairness. After all, fairness is one of the most treasured human values. As small children, we get taught the importance of sharing things equally. Fairness seems so noble, such an important part of harmonious human relationships, that it comes as a great shock to discover that it is not in fact a Christian value. God relates to everyone with love and mercy, but he does not treat everyone equally or fairly.