MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (LK. 12:13-21)
The biggest business collapse in 2001 was the downfall of giant energy-trading company Enron. For six years running, Enron was voted Most Innovative among FORTUNE’s Most Admired Companies. From 1998 to 2000, Enron’s revenues shot from $31 billion to more than $100 billion, making it the seventh-largest company on the Fortune 500, with a net worth of over $200 billion.
In an October, 2001, press release, the company dropped a bombshell on investors by announcing a $618 million loss. Before the year was up, Enron filed for bankruptcy. Its stock fell from more than $80 per share to less than a dollar in a few weeks. The public later knew how Enron’s self- promotion, business practices and fuzzy accounting had charmed and conned employees, investors, and financiers.
In this passage Jesus denied a petitioner’s request to arbitrate in a sibling dispute over money. Jesus refused to act as a money manager, a family lawyer, or a middle man. He warned hearers against greed in any form. In fact, he called the rich man who is obsessed with money or goods or property in his riveting story a fool. Why was the rich farmer a fool? Did he like to sleep? Was he a big spender? Was he defrauded? None of the above. Why is a greedy person considered a fool in the sight of God?
Fools live in their own egocentric world.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ’What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “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.
The fool’s little world is summarized by two words: “more” and “me.”
Someone once asked John D. Rockfeller the question, “How many millions does it take to satisfy a man?” The answer was: “The next million.”
A little over a decade ago before the Enron debacle, insider-trading arrests were the biggest business news. A man named Dennis Levine disclosed how he and his famous partner Ivan Boesky traded illegally with the information they had as insiders, buying and then selling stocks of companies in soon-to-be-announced announced mergers, implicating big names Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert in the crime.
Levine later explained to Fortune magazine (5/21/90) in an exclusive interview: “People always ask, ‘Why would somebody who’s making over $1 million a year start trading on inside information?’ At each new levels of success I set higher goals, imprisoning myself in a cycle from which I saw no escape. When I became a senior vice president, I wanted to be a managing director, and when I became a managing director, I wanted to be a client. If I was making $100,000 a year, I thought, I can make $200,000. And if I make $1 million, I can make $3 million.”
The first folly of greed is a craving, an ambition, and a demand for more and more things, goods, and property- more than what we need. It has been said, “Money is a good servant, but a bad master.” Greedy person can never have enough of physical or material things. They think of making more money, creating more wealth, and becoming more prosperous. They dream of money in their sleep, bring up money in their conversation, and believe that money talks, money makes money, and money makes the devil his employee. The void in their heart becomes a hole and, if unchecked, a crater. Note that the rich man was already a well-off landowner before the land yielded its crop.
The other word known to a greedy person is the word “me.” This Greek word “thought” in verse 17 occurs only sixteen times in the Bible, all in the gospels, mostly with a negative connotation, describing Jesus’ displeasure and ridicule of the disciples on one occasion, with the scribes and Pharisees on another, and the final with the chief priests and elders. It usually ends with Jesus being “aware of their discussion” (Matt 16:8, Mk 8:17), “Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts” (Mark 2:8) and “Jesus knew what they were thinking” (Luke 5:22). The rich man’s dialogue, indeed, was a cover. He had it all figured out. He asked and answered his own question. He did not need any counsel but his own. The only opinion that mattered was his.
Further, the rich fool’s speech in Greek was peppered with seven incessant “I’s” and five my’s.” He uttered two I’s in verse 17 (’What shall I do? I have no place…), 4 I’s in verse 18 (I will do…I will tear…I will build…I will store), and a last I in verse 19 (I’ll say to myself…). The five “my” was all about himself (v 17): my crops or literally fruits (v 17), my barn, my grain, my goods, and my soul. On top of that, he thought to himself (v 17). The only “you” in his speech in verse 19 was addressed to himself: “You have plenty of good things...” The rich fool’s motto in life is “What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine!”
The second characteristic of fools is that they live to eat, not eat to live.
19 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.” ’
Forest Gump said, “There is only so much fortune a man really needs- and the rest is for showing off.”
On my last trip to Asia, at the end of 2001, I learned the wisdom of restraint, selection, and prevention. I had my fill of Hong Kong dim sum, wanton noodles, and milk tea the five days I was there before I arrived in Singapore, where my mother bought me all the mouth-watering fruits that I had missed after the last trip four years ago. In three days, I had eaten five durians. On day one I ate two durians for my afternoon snack. Another two the next day and on the final day I consumed the last durian, a mango and a dozen rambutans right after dinner before I took an overnight train to hours later to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the middle of the night – around 3 or 4 a.m., nature called and I had to bolt to the nearest available restroom. However, the men’s restroom was occupied and I deliberated whether to use the ladies’. Looking left and right at all the indifferent, sleepy passengers, I quickly dashed into the booth–like lavatory.
On the return trip to Hong Kong, the six families on my wife’s side – 3 returning from U.S. and three in Hong Kong - had a gathering at where else but a restaurant for a reunion! We were served a sumptuous dinner at an upscale restaurant called Peking House located within the Central Station subway station. The menu was impressive. The HK $4000 meal included shark fin soup, two Peking Ducks served with tortilla wrappings, a four-pound braised fish, my first taste of Beggar’s Chicken, and noodles. Again, my stomach churned when everyone was sound asleep and I couldn’t sleep until I took care of business!
There is only one meal we can stomach at a time. The stomach has no respect for first-class chefs, five-star treatment, or ten-course dinner.
The rich man had earned, saved and kept a lot of things. He counted his chickens before they were hatched. He thought he caught a break and was set up for life. He could afford to break a leg, live like a king, or eat like a pig. The Greek repetition of the word “much” or “many” in verse 19 was pointed. The rich man congratulated himself: “You have much good things laid up for many years.” Actually what he had were fruits, crops, and grains-- all seasonal and perishable items.
The problem of the rich man was equating riches with rest or the translation “take life easy” (Matt 11:28). Jesus, never associated riches with rest but often contrasted the word “rest” with tiredness or weariness or drowsiness (Mt 26:45, Mk 6:31, 14:41). We can rest when there is peace, calm, or quiet, but not because we have money. Actually, a rich man’s last luxury is rest or relaxation. Jesus alone has given us the only option for rest. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
The rich and the wise make merry in the Bible for two opposing reasons. Jesus has exclusively used the verb “be merry” for his three parables in Luke (Lk 12:19, 15:23-32, 16:19). Twice, it describes the celebration of the rich - the rich in this parable and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19)- who made merry over good things and possessions and food, and once describing the celebration of the wise father in the parable of the prodigal son. Jesus contrasted the celebration of the two foolish rich men with the father of the prodigal son with a powerful effect. The wise and loving father celebrated for spiritual and eternal and precious reasons: the return and finding of his lost son (Lk 15:23, 24, 29, 32). The only true cause of celebration disclosed in the Bible was never over the gratification of the flesh, but the salvation of the soul.
Finally, fools live and die in vain.
20 “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?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
Several years ago I was happy as a lark with my nest egg. My cousin had convinced me to put in $2,000 a year to a tax-deductible Roth IRA account and recommended the popular low-cost Vanguard US Growth Mutual Fund. I watched the savings grow as the mutual fund giant delivered an average annual return of 15-20% for a few years.
Just after I had stopped investing in the fund in 1998, the bubble burst and it nose-dived with the economic downturn in the new millenium.
The healthy $20,000 figure listed in my account at the end of the third quarter in 2000 was reduced to $15,000 at the end of the year in three short months. If that was not bad enough, the giant fund plummeted by another 31% to $10,700 at the end of 2001 and another 22% in 2002 to $6,900. I read at the end of the year that the fund was the third highest investor in Enron!
The rich man was a fool because he was not ready for the last chapter of his life. A fool is one whose life is invested in physical and material needs, but not spiritual needs. The Greek text is rich in detail. Twice he had mistaken his body for his soul. In Luke 12:19 the man boasted, “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have much goods laid for years.’” However, the soul does not eat, drink, play or socialize; the body does. The rich man met the wants of the body, but not the needs of the soul (v 19). Before the day was over, God visited him with the truth about the soul: “Fool, this night your soul shall be required of thee.” The soul has a limited body life; it has an expiration on earth and an appointment with God.
Life is a loan that is compounded with interest, a line of credit that cannot be defaulted, and an independent future audit. Death renders everything we have useless, valueless, and profitless. Unknown to the rich man, he had less than a day to live.
Famous Hollywood director Martin Scorcese echoed this emptiness: “From our culture in the early ’80s on to now I think the emphasis has become the worst possible kind of materialism. You make a lot of money. You spend it. And then what? You still feel funny when you go to sleep. You still wake up. You still have a chill when you think about dying and the void. Don’t you?” (Times Calendar 11/10/91).
Jesus warns: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt 6:19-20)
Some people are wealthy and some are rich. The wealthy are those who have money in their pockets, bags, or banks, but the rich are those who have God in their hearts, minds, and lives. Their investment is in the kingdom of God, a life of devotion, and in the salvation of lost souls.
Jesus is the greatest model of riches. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). In 1 Tim 6:17-19, Paul charged the rich in the world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. The only lasting riches for the coming age, Paul continued in verse 18, is to be rich in good deeds, using the same word as Jesus did at the conclusion of the parable of the rich fool (Lk 12:21).
Conclusion: Money is a false sense of security. Life is a roller coaster with its ups and downs. Any one who is not ready to give a credible account of his life to God is a fool; in fact, the biggest fool. People do not usually think that life will bottom out until it is too late. The key words in the whole passage (vv 15, 17, 21) are two negative words, one with the equivalent of the word not and the other no. You are a fool if money is the first thing on your mind and eternity is the last thing on your mind. You are a fool if you gratify the wants of the body but neglect the needs of the soul. The fool’s life is all acquisition and no attribution. And you are a fool if you do not know your Creator, Savior, and Lord.
Victor Yap
http://epreaching.blogspot.com/
www.riversidecma.org(For sermon series)
www.preachchrist.com (For Chinese sermons)
