Our understanding of what is “right” is situational. Some stuff endures. Like being honest or generous. Other stuff is dependent on the scenario. Most often, we measure the situational by personal responsibility.

Of course, there is no true measure of responsibility. It is the amorphous concept connecting human agency with appropriate expectations. In short, how hard did we work to make things work?

Responsibility is like X in an algebra equation. It ends up being whatever we need to solve for. And we use it to condemn people for their poverty and justify others for their personal accumulation of wealth.

When Jesus reminds us that accumulating wealth for individual gain is wrong and that generosity is right, we confront just how much of our thinking is guided by a sense of fairness that isn’t actually fair or right.