"making The Smart Investment:" The Parable Of The Rich Fool

Parables to Live By

“Making the Smart Investment:” The Parable of the Rich Fool

Luke 12:13-21

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Parables to Live By

“Making the Smart Investment”

Luke 12:13-21

We live in a society that is pulverized under the weight of wrong priorities, crushed by debt, and pinned under a mountain of materialism. And what happens is that all this stuff blocks our vision of reality and causes us to miss out on the life God has so graciously given to us.

Such was the case with one man who interrupted Jesus as He was talking about hypocrisy, about how much God cares and values us, and how we need to make an open confession of Him before others.

But this man wasn’t there to listen to Jesus’s wisdom; rather, He wanted Jesus’s help in the matter of inheritance.

He cried out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13 NKJV)

This guy wasn’t interested in the truth Jesus was sharing. He wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention; instead, he was consumed with his own financial condition.

But why come to Jesus with this request? The answer is found in Jesus’s designation as a teacher or Rabbi. You see, Rabbis were knowledgeable of the Law, and as such were expected to investigate and were considered qualified to judge ethical matters. And so, this man was appealing to Jesus’s authority and knowledge of the Law to force his brother to comply.

But Jesus responded, “‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ Then he said to them, “’Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’” (Luke 1:14-15 NKJV)

And in saying that, Jesus recused Himself from judging between the two, instead he chose to get to the heart of the matter, or the root cause of this man’s problem. You see, this man was preoccupied with the wrong thing because his desire was greed based. Jesus then goes on to establish his point through the parable we’ll be looking at today.

The Parable of the Rich Fool

“And He told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ 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 whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21 NKJV)

The message is simple: “Spiritual poverty occurs when our satisfaction depends upon the accumulation of stuff.”

Therefore, it would be wise for us to evaluate our desires in light of what Jesus says in this parable. Now, there are several warning signs this parable reveals, that is, those ways we find our satisfaction other than in the Lord, or as Jesus puts it, when someone is not rich towards God.

The first warning sign is when our savings crosses over into hoarding.

1.  Our Savings Crosses into Hoarding

Hoarding is what the rich man was doing. The success he experienced brought him to one conclusion, “Where am I going to store it all?” He thought of nothing else or no one else but himself, and not of those that he could help.

Nor, did he consult God as to what God may have wanted him to do, forgetting it was the Lord who gave him the ability to gain wealth.

The Bible says, “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:18a NKJV)

This man’s entire thought was in stockpiling for his future. The barns he already had were filed with crops, so in his mind they must now be torn down to make way for bigger and better barns that could hold more.

Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saving, it’s the proper and prudent thing to do, but savings can become dangerous for our spiritual health and wealth when it develops into hoarding.

How can we tell?

When our savings go beyond what we can reasonable use, and for those rainy-day unexpected expenses.

When what we have over our own needs is needed by others.

And anything that goes to waste in storage.

We need to be careful not to allow our desire to save, which again is proper on our part, doesn’t move into greed. But, when our saving becomes hoarding it is a sign that we’re finding our satisfaction in the wrong place, which in the end will result in our spiritual poverty