The incident stirring up this text is the request of someone in the crowd who asked Jesus to judge between on older brother and himself regarding an inheritance. The real problem isn't the request which Jesus refused, but the greed lying beneath the surface of the request which Jesus addressed with a parable about a rich fool who went to hell.

In Jesus' day, the oldest brother got the inheritance when his father died. He was then expected to take care of the rest of the family. This procedure protected the family farm from being divided into such small portions that it wouldn't do anyone any good. Apparently, the man who approached Jesus was dissatisfied with this arrangement and wanted Jesus to tell his older brother to give him his half of the inheritance. Jesus looked deeply into the h…