The Rich Fool
(based on Luke 12:13-21)
This morning’s passage from Luke is so easy to
ruin in the explanation, kind of like a good joke; talking about it hurts its
impact. Nonetheless, let’s see what we
can uncover from today’s passage.
In today’s parable, we have a son disputing
over who gets what in the family’s inheritance. Obviously, there is a fractured relationship
between the brothers. One of the brothers
does not come to Jesus asking for his opinion on the matter, but rather wants
to use Jesus’ authority to coerce his other brother to give him what he thinks
he deserves.
At first glance, it might seem that this
brother is crying out for justice; like he’s getting the short end of the
stick. “Make my brother do what is right
and share the pie with me, too.” But Jesus
doesn’t give him what he wants, instead he cuts to what is important. Instead of saying “be a good brother and
share.” He does what may be unfair and
tells a story that humiliates the person asking the question. Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a
person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Jesus takes this opportunity to turn to
everyone and teach them a little lesson. He says that a person’s life, does not consist
on how much stuff you can get. Luke goes
through great pains to constantly remind us of this all through his gospel. There is no happiness in possessions, there is
no reward, it all fades away in comparison to what real life is about.
There are two words in the NT used for the word
life, one is bio, from which we get the word biology and it means
our physical lives. But this isn’t the
word that Jesus uses, the word he uses is zōē, and this word
means a life that satisfies, or a rich life. Jesus is saying here to be careful because
greed will screw things up. How much
stuff you have does not give you real zōē.
Greed is sneaky. Having stuff is sneaky. Everything we have we are convinced that we
need, or that it will bring us some sort of happiness. We justify nearly every single purchase we
make. We convince ourselves that it’s
important that we buy or have whatever it is we want. For this reason, Jesus offers us this warning.
Look out, be on your guard, REAL
zōē, real life does not actually happen because of lots of cool stuff.
And the story begins, “The ground of a certain
rich man produced a good crop. He
thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I
have no place to store my crops.’
In the ancient near east, you lived your entire
life in community. You lived with your friends
and family. You all existed together in
some type of village. You lived under
the same roof, you ate together and raised your kids together. The idea that you would make a life decision
all by yourself is a completely foreign concept. It was always assumed that there was this
group of people that you were journeying through life with. So, if you produced a good crop one year, you
would have been dialoguing with your friends about what to do with it.
Kenneth Baily, a famous missionary and pastor, studied
the Middle East. He talks about the city
gate and how the men of the city would go there and discuss everything in life.
They would discuss politics, religion,
farming, education and raising children. There was a joy in this culture of being with
friends, discussing with friends, challenged by friends and seeking advice from
friends. There was this overarching
assumption that you lived in community and you would never ever make a
significant decision without bringing it to the community.
Strangely, in Jesus’ story, this man was alone.
Jesus says that he “thought to himself.”
He did not bring the idea to his family;
he didn’t discuss what he should do at the city gate with his friends. No, this guy is all alone. The word idiot comes from the idea of somebody
who tried to live outside of the village. This guy was an idiot. He was alone. He was completely secluded from his community
and the needs of people outside of himself.
When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the
surrounding area, thousands upon thousands of people were dislocated from their
homes and sought refuge in nearby cities. Churches and people opened up their homes for
people to stay in them to help them get back on their feet. Now, imagine you were living in one of the
nearby cities and this disaster happened, and you were out sitting on your back
porch, drinking your lemonade and you thought to yourself “I have two extra
bedrooms, an extra car and a cupboard full of food, what should I do with all
this extra stuff I have?” Actually, you probably wouldn’t ask that would
you? You’d find a way of reaching out
and helping, right?
Unless, somehow we’ve managed to isolate ourselves
from the real problems in our city, town or village. Unless we’ve organized our lives in such a way
that we never actually rub shoulders with anyone who has unmet needs. There
is this underlying, biblical assumption that wealth is not for individuals. It is not so we can get bigger homes, get more
stuff, treat our kids even better and secure our futures. Any wealth that we’ve acquired is for the
community. In the same way, when a
community is in need, or when someone in our community is in need, and we have,
we are obligated to give it to them. The
purpose of wealth is for the public.
Biblically speaking, we really aren’t supposed
to think that if we give it all away then we won’t be wealthy anymore, because
the money was never just for our own anyway. The real issue here is about the focus of our
life. The fool’s or the idiot’s focus
was on preparing things only for himself.
Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger
ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of
good things laid up for many years. Take
life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
Evidently, this man has experienced a big
harvest. In fact, this harvest is so big
that the guy needs new barns. Any
experienced farmer wouldn’t be left without room after his harvest, so that
either leads us to believe that he isn’t an experienced farmer or this harvest
was too good to be true. If it’s too
good to be true, then anyone listening to or living in this story would have
instantly given God the credit for the miracle harvest.
Giving God credit for such a wonderful harvest
would make the farmer prudent and wise by preparing ahead of time for the lean
years storing up the excess for his community, the same way it happened during
Joseph’s time in Egypt. But by the time
we get to the end of this section, we get the idea that this farmer might not
have such pure intentions. He describes
his goods as those which will keep him (and only him) for many seasons.
In general, the wealth we experience every day in
the US is pretty hard to ignore. We are
given what we need but also much, much more. We thank God for all our great stuff. Whether we get it as a spiritual blessing from
God or because of a capitalist economy it still finds its way into our lives. The scriptures are full of warnings to try to
keep us safe from it; the commandments, the parables and proverbs. Either way though, we like the wealth we have
and it doesn’t take us very long until we are thinking about building ourselves
a bigger barn.
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, once
wrote, “The parable of the barn builder is an expose of greed: using what we
have to get more instead of giving away more; using our position or goods as a
means for getting impersonal power rather than giving away love.”
Jesus goes through great pains here to give us
two major characteristics of his life. The
barn builder is greedy and the barn builder is alone. These typically aren’t two things that we put
together. We don’t really see
consumerism, hoarding and having stuff as our biggest obstacle to relationships,
but Jesus does. The more this guy is
focused on his bigger barn and taking care of himself, the more alone this guy
became. He ended up being so alone that
by the end of the story he’s even enjoying a great big party – to celebrate his
wealth – all by himself.
This parable completely ignores the brother’s
request to Jesus who felt that he had rights to an inheritance and instead,
Jesus addressed his greed. I wonder if
he even identified with himself as the barn builder. We can’t just look at a parable from the
outside as a spectator and expect to understand what is going on. Parables don’t make things easier but rather they
make things harder by demanding participation, by entering the story. And in this case, by taking on the role of
the barn builder.
Jesus tells these parables out of the ordinary
stuff of our common life-in this case building a bigger barn. Building a barn is normal work for a farmer. No one would ever think of it as a moral
failure. No farmer ever got in trouble
by his pastor or put in jail because he builds a barn. The story of the barn builder doesn’t condemn.
It just sits there, in our imaginations.
So, it makes us wonder. Did the brother get it? In the same way I think we could be at danger
of not really seeing our role in the story, too. The only position we can take is that of the
barn builder. We are the barn builders. We are the ones that are securing our own
future at the cost of everyone around us.
But there is a direct lesson at the end of this parable.
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night
your life will be demanded from you. Then
who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores
up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
So, this morning, I don’t want to leave you
with a challenge. This parable is
challenge enough. Instead, I want to
leave you with a request for prayer. I think
we should ask for forgiveness for every time we choose to build bigger barns
rather than be with people and give away our blessing. I think we should ask for forgiveness for not
caring and pray that God helps us care more. And I think we should ask for forgiveness for
choosing to look out for ourselves instead of others.
Thanks be to God for stories that challenge
us. AMEN.
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