<p>12:13 <i>And one out of the crowd said to him: Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me</i>- The Lord replies by asking the man to think again about <i>who</i> had given Jesus authority- for if indeed God really had given Jesus authority, then the man ought <i>himself</i> to fear the judgment of Jesus- for as the Lord goes on to show in the parable of the rich fool, He has the power to reject those who are materialistic, exactly because He has such authority from God. The Lord is pushing the man to look at himself and think of himself at the end of his life and before the final day of judgment; and to cease paying a mere lip service respect to the authority of Jesus, but to take this for real, realizing what it means for his own personal responsibility.</p><p>The Lord&rsquo;s response was to tell the parable of the rich fool- a parable which ought to be seriously worrying for every one of us, rich or poor. He put the immediate argument between the brothers in the perspective of eternity; the eternity we may miss because we got too distracted with the immediate argument of the moment. And the Lord&rsquo;s basic message in this case was: &ldquo;Be rich toward God. Give Him whatever you have&rdquo;. This cut right across the issues of life&rsquo;s unfairness, missing out on wealth, not getting our share of respect... to the essential question which should have made both brothers feel uncomfortable. Had they, have we, given all they had to the Lord&rsquo;s cause? We may lack the quick thinking or penetrating analysis required to make this kind of fast response when confronted by others&rsquo; conflicts. But we can surely analyse our own conflicts, at our own pace, in the light of eternity; and regain perspective, even if our opponent fails to do this. We need to cut to the essence of why we are feeling as we are; pray for God to help you in this, for accurate self-examination is so hard. If we don&rsquo;t connect and engage with the core issues, then even if the immediate problem e.g. the argument about the inheritance is resolved, then other issues will still then arise.&nbsp; It will only be a matter of time. The more we focus on resolving just one conflict, the more we will realize that in fact we are dealing with a tangled web of multiple conflicts. We cannot change others, but we can come to understand ourselves, and to define and engage with the essential issues which we personally face in the whole conflict.</p>