And in the story from Luke, the man came to Jesus wanting him to decide a dispute between him and his brother. The man had made money more important than his relationship with his brother. Scripture is not naive about money. These readings are small examples of how clear God is about all the things that people put up as barriers to relationship. And money is one of the biggest indicators of a persons spiritual health.
Faith is all about trust and risk.
And there is a direct correlation between a persons willingness to give and their relationship with God. In our culture money is our biggest idol. Bigger than sex, bigger than fame, bigger than power. That's why it is such an indicator of spiritual health because often it is the last thing to be touched by our conversion to Christ. We will give God our time, we will pray and worship we may even serve the poor and visit the sick, but the last part of our lives to experience conversion is our pocket book.