THE
PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL[1]
LUKE
12:13-21
Someone
in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family
inheritance with me." But He said to him, "Man, who appointed Me a
judge or arbitrator over you?" Then He said to them, "Beware and be
on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an
abundance does his life consist of his possessions."
And He told them a parable, saying,
"The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to
himself, saying, "What shall I do, since I have no place to store my
crops?" Then he said, "This is what I will do; I will tear down my
barns and build large ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many
years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."
But God said to him, "You fool! This
very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have
prepared?" "So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is
not rich toward God" (NASB).
INTRODUCTION
A little girl accompanied her mother to the
country store where after the mother had made a purchase, the clerk invited the
child to help herself to a handful of candy. The youngster held back.
"What's the matter? Don't you like candy?" ask the clerk. The child
nodded, and the clerk smilingly put his hand into the jar and dropped a
generous portion into the little girl's handbag.
Afterward the mother asked the daughter why
she had not taken the candy when the clerk first offered some to her.
"Because his hand was bigger than mine," replied the little girl.
Luke, in chapter twelve of his
Gospel, reports that myriads of people were trampling over one another in an
effort to hear what Jesus was teaching. However, Jesus’ teaching was directed
at His disciples. Jesus was teaching the disciples some profound truths, but in
the course of His teaching someone interrupted Him by saying, “Teacher, tell
my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (Lk. 12:13). This person’s words are
revealing. He does not ask Jesus to make a judgment, but to side with him to
provide ammunition against his brother. “Like many since his time, he wants to
use Jesus to meet his monetary desires” (Gary Inrig, The Parables: Understanding What Jesus Meant, 96).
Jesus,
however, refused to be involved and serve as a judge and arbiter. “He refused
to be used by someone who acted out of selfish motives” ((Simon J. Kistemaker, (The Parables: Understanding the Stories
Jesus Told, 152). Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or
arbitrator over you?” Some people
look at Jesus as a great problem solver rather than as Lord and owner of all.
Jesus wanted the man to recognize that He is not some sort of divine referee.
Jesus wanted the man to focus on the root cause of his problem rather than the
symptom. Jesus always deals with causes, not symptoms.
To
teach a universal truth, Jesus turns from the man to the multitudes and says,
“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when
one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Jesus’ warning
zeroes in on the root problem: greed. Jesus saw that there was a deeper issue
involved, and greater danger than being cheated out of one’s inheritance. The
man’s real problem was not a relationship problem with his brother but a
vicious greed problem in his heart. Greed is idolatry (Col 3:5).
It
is the worship of the creature in the stead of the Creator. According to Simon
J. Kistemaker, “He uncovered the source of the error that caused the man to ask
Jesus to be his lawyer.” (Ibid.). What is “greed?” Greed is the consuming
desire to have more; it has the nuance of grasping for more, a lust to acquire.
It is the very opposite of the contentment that accompanies true godliness (1
Tim. 6:6).
In
the 1950s, wrestling was almost as popular as it is at present (and about as
authentic). The European champion was Yussif the Turk, who came to America to
fight Strangler Lewis for the “world championship” and $5,000.00. Yussif won
and insisted that the $5,000.00 be paid in gold, which he stuffed into his
champion belt. The money mattered so much that he refused to remove the belt
until he had reached home safely.
Boarding
the first available ship to Europe, he headed home. However, halfway across the
Atlantic Ocean, the ship foundered in a storm and began to sink. In a panic,
Yussif jumped for a lifeboat, missed, and went straight to the bottom. His
golden belt had become a golden anchor, a vivid illustration of the Lord’s
words (Michael P Green, Illustrations for
Biblical Preaching, 329).
After
sounding a timeless spiritual truth warning about greed, Jesus proceeds to tell
the parable of the rich fool (Lk 12:16-21). The “rich fool” reveals that life
in the truest sense of the word does not depend on earthly riches. The issue at
stake in this parable is not wealth. “Rather, it is one’s attitude to obtaining
wealth.” (Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The NIV
Application Commentary, 344).
The
man in this parable is hard working and happens to have a bumper harvest. Jesus
does not criticize the man because of his wealth. What is decisive in this
parable is what the rich man chooses to do with his fruitful harvest. Even
then, it is not his action as much as his assumptions that are crucial. There
is nothing wrong in building bigger barns to store his crops against the lean
season. What is at stake is his values; his attitude toward his affluence.
The first thing that is evident
is selfishness. The rich man uses
the first personal singular pronoun, “I” six times. He is completely
preoccupied with himself. This reminds me of a story: A little boy and his
younger sister were riding a hobbyhorse together. The boy said, “If one of us
would just get off this hobbyhorse, there would be more room for me.” ( Inrig, The Parables, 99). Like the boy, the
rich man in Jesus’ parable thinks that the purpose of having is
self-indulgence. He asked the right question but he drew the worst possible
conclusion. He saw the bountiful harvest as something to benefit himself
exclusively.
The second thing that defines
this man is materialism. The purpose
of having barns is to get bigger barns, and the good life comes from having
good things.[i] This
farmer in the parable could no longer be content with medium-sized barns. He
begins to soliloquy, and by using the words “I” and “my” repeatedly he reveals
his utter selfishness (Lk. 12:16-21).
Third,
the rich man in Jesus’ parable is characterized by hedonism. “I will say to myself,” take life easy; “eat, drink, and
be merry.” To this rich man the bumper harvest is not to be shared, and not to
be used for any purpose other than his own pleasure. In exuberance and
self-indulgence, he promised himself a long extravagant life filled with
eating, drinking, and making merry. The problem with this rich man is that he
has eliminated God and his neighbors from the equation. However, God has
promised to fill man’s barns with plenty if man would honor Him with the first
fruit of all the produce (Pro.3:10; Deut. 28:8).
For
the greedy man there was no trust in and dependence on God. Moreover, helping
the poor never crossed his mind. He showed complete disregard to the basic
summary of God’s Law: “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. And love
your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18; Lk. 10:27). This man’s life was not
characterized by the sin of commission but the sin of omission. (Kistemaker, The Parables, 153). He failed to
demonstrate his appreciation to God for riches he had received, and he
neglected to care for his needy neighbor.
Jesus
called this rich man a “fool,” rather than a success. The term “fool’ in biblical language is not a
description of mental ability but of spiritual discernment. In the OT language
of Psalms and Proverbs, a fool is an individual who makes choices as if God
does not exist and who lives as if God has not spoken. Without doubt, in the eyes of the community
where he lived he was the man to be envied.
In
God’s eyes, however, he was a fool to be pitied. He was a fool because he had
fallen into the trap of prideful arrogance. He was self-centered, and he
thought that he was the owner of the riches, when in fact they were on loan to
him from God. He thought that the fruitful harvest was something he deserved,
failing to see that it resulted from factors completely in God’s control, not his
own. At every turn, he took God’s place and denied His authority. He was more
concerned about “hoarding” than lordship.
This
man did not live to enjoy what he had labored so hard to acquire, because that
very night death paid him a visit. Jesus tells this parable not only to the man
and the multitudes but also to all of us. The parable is a warning to all
people, because greed can be subtle and it is hardly detected by the individual
who is trapped in it. At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus reveals the rich
man’s sin of omission, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself,
and is not rich toward God” (Lk. 12:21).
Richness
toward God comes through seeing everything as a gift from His hand. “All resources, whether monetary or material,
are the result of God’s favor and blessing, not one’s personal achievements” (Kirk
Nowery, The Stewardship of Life: Making
the Most of All that You have and All that You Are, 119). Richness toward
God comes through seeking God’s direction before making decisions (Sutherland
and Nowery, Laws of Stewardship, 20).
This is the purpose for Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, in which He stated that we
are to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, desiring above all
else to do His will (Matt. 6:33). Richness toward God comes through giving than
receiving. The rich man looked only to self, but did not look up to God and he
did not look around to the needs of others. Preoccupation with self and
personal aggrandizement has robbed many people of an attitude of gratitude.
