The Parable Of The Rich Fool

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Luke 12:13-21

There is nothing like a simple store to illustrate a point. We gravitate to storytellers, and Jesus was a master of the story, in particular the parable. They are stories from everyday life. This makes them easy to understand. One does not need to go into a lot of analysis to get the main point. Or so it seems. We must remember that Jesus used parables to conceal as much as to reveal. The simplicity of the parable makes it easy to jump to the wrong or incomplete conclusion. This is true of this text as well.

At first the story is simple enough. It starts with an argument between two brothers over an inheritance. This is timeless. How many families have been destroyed over division of their parents’ estate? The man who comes to Jesus was probably the younger brother. In Jewish law, the oldest brother got possession of all the property and a double share of the goods. This seems strnge to us today, but the reason for this is to prevent the family farm to be divided into such small pieces as to make it hard for one to sustain his family. We don’t know whether this argument was a division over a family house and farm, but Jesus’ parable that he uses to illustrate the problem indicates that it well might have been.

In those days in Palestine, disputes were often settled by going to the local rabbi rather than to file charges in court. So this brother came to Jesus wanting him to settle the dispute in his favor. At this point, Jesus was held in high regard among the common people. But Jesus refuses to intervene in the dispute. If he took sides, then there would be dividing his listeners as some would side with the other brother, and some with this one. Jesus’ mission was far too important than to get involved in local politics. He tells the main plainly that He had not been appointed to settle such disputes. There were others who could serve in this capacity, but not Jesus.

Jesus then uses the occasion as a teaching moment. Turning to the crowd, He warns them about the danger of covetousness. He tells them that one’s quality of life is not dependent upon how rich one was. This in turn is illustrated by the Parable of the Rich Fool.

Farming is still familiar enough today for most people to understand. We still need to grow food to eat. Perhaps today, Jesus might have used a rich stock investor who made an investment which made him incredibly rich. But the economy of Palestine tended to be more agricultural. We first of all notice that this man was already rich, even before the bumper crop. Agriculture is always a risky business as drought, rain, locusts, and other things always made a crop uncertain. But this was an incredible blessed year. This rich man had such a harvest that now he was incredibly rich. He had a problem everyone would envy. His barns were not big enough to store all the wheat.. This crop was enough to sustain him for many years, and he had to protect it. He came up with a brilliant solution. He would tear down the barns and build bigger ones. He had so much now that he could quit work and live a life of ease.

There was only one problem. It is not only the production of crops in semi-arid Israel which was certain. Life is uncertain. It seems that everyone wants to live to an advanced old age, but if one checks the obituaries, one soon realizes this is not the case. Some people die young, and others live to advanced old age. And death is no respecter of wealth. Rich as well as poor die young. And some rich and poor live to advanced age. One thing is for certain. Everyone dies. That rich man had no longer thought he was set for life that the death angel came. Now the children would be left to fight over his estate.

Jesus sums this up by saying that this is the case for someone whose treasure is in himself and is not rich towards God. Nothing is said about the rich man’s eternal destiny, but is seems that his untimely death was the judgment of God against him for his pride.

It seems short and simple. Don’t covet earthly things, and be rich towards God. We like simple pragmatic answers. Will Rodgers once said that a sermon had a good beginning, a good ending, and not too much in-between. If this is all, then we might as well have the closing hymn and benediction. O, I see your faces. You are hoping this preacher will shut up and let you out to lunch early. I hate to disappoint you, but there is more that needs to be said. I hope that all the in-between stuff will be illuminating.