Jesus speak quite plainly in today’s Gospel: Take care to guard against all greed” (Luke 13:15).

The original word is,  “pleonexia.” That is, Jesus says warns we are to take care to guard against all pleonexia.

As is often the case, the biblical language is more expressive than our English rendering. The warning Jesus sounds to guard against all pleonexia more clearly denotes a desire to have more than one is due. Yes, we will all do well to guard against greed, but even more descriptively we might say we are to beware against material pursuits that are insatiable, unquenchable, ravenous, voracious.

Jesus is saying, beware of all pleonexia – beware of being captivated by an insatiable desire for material possessions.

• Jesus is not diminishing the value of hard work.
• Jesus is not criticizing the well-earned fruits of our hard work.

His warning to us is sounded out of His love for us; namely, our lives are not made secure by what we own.

“Take care to guard against all pleonexia.”

There is an old adage that rings true this morning: you cannot take it with you.

Our lives are not made secure by what we own.

Assuredly, Jesus’ clarifying Gospel instruction, is not to be set against our God given responsibility to care devotedly, to work hard, and to make sure we do all we are able for those whom we love.

The problem arises when we think our lives are made secure by what we own.

The problem arises when we fail to guard against pleonexia and are swept away by an insatiable, unquenchable, ravenous desire for more and more and more.