Luke 12. 13 – 21
Fr Alex
We’ve just heard the Parable of the Rich Fool – ‘You fool!’ says God, to the rich man who got richer, and stored up all his possessions.
We might think that actually it’s quite a prudent thing to do: his land has produced a great surplus that year, so he’s going to store it up as surety for his future. Surely that’s just being sensible.
But rather than being commended for shrewd financial behaviour, the man of the parable is called a ‘fool.’ Why is he foolish?
First, let’s consider the man in the crowd to whom Jesus tells this parable.
Jesus has a lot to say about money and possessions in the Gospels. In fact he talks about it even more than prayer! And while he doesn’t condemn outright those who have money and possessions, he warns repeatedly about the dangers of material things.
That warning is at the heart of his parable today. “Take care!” he says; “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
It is life that Jesus is really concerned with: “I came that they may have life in all its fullness,” he says elsewhere. He responds so strongly to this man in the crowd because he can see how his love of money is already diminishing his experience of life.
The man is obviously in a dispute with his brother over his inheritance. Money has caused a split within the family. But rather than asking Jesus to counsel him on how to reconcile with his brother, he simply asks him to decide in his favour.
He has valued his inheritance more highly than his relationship with his brother. And so it’s no surprise that Jesus doesn’t do what he’s asked. He has come to bring us into the fullness of life – to reconcile humanity with God – to draw people together in love – not to confirm divisions over material things.
And the parable that follows is designed to show the man the logical conclusion of his way of living, if he continues to diminish his life and his relationships in this way.
So let’s turn our attention to the rich man of the parable. Notice that he is totally alone. When he discovers how his land has produced abundantly that year, he has an internal discussion with himself about what to do with it.
This would’ve been extremely strange for those hearing this parable. In that culture, people made decisions about important things after hours of discussions with their friends. Communities were, and still are, tightly knit, and everyone’s business was usually known by everyone else. Even trivial decisions were made after long discussions with family and friends.
But this man appears to have no friends with whom he can discuss anything.
Look at how many times the first-person pronoun is used in his discussion with himself: “what should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? … I will do this…” And so on. Ten times, in those couple of sentences. This is a man totally focussed on himself, and he congratulates himself that he can now “relax, eat, drink, and be merry.” But in response to this self-centredness, God says, “You fool!”
He appears to have so much, and has now received even more; but in fact his life is diminished to the point where he no longer has any meaningful relationships – he actually has no one with whom he can go and eat, drink, and be merry. And because he has “stored up treasures for himself” he has diminished his relationship with God, too; he is rich in material possessions, but “not rich towards God.”
So when the end comes, as it will for all of us – but for this rich man, this very night – what will he really have? He cannot take all those possessions with him, so what can he take? Nothing. He has diminished his life to the point of absolute nothingness.
At the heart of this parable today is the truth that all we have is not really ours to keep: it is all a gift from God, entrusted to us for a time. Our very lives are, in a sense, a loan from God that can be called in at any time. And when we see our lives in that way, we can begin to discover the meaning of the freedom and the fullness of life that Jesus comes to bring us.
If my money, my possessions, my life, are not really mine, I won’t feel the need to keep them all to myself, to preserve them at all costs. I will want to share the gift of my life with others. And when I receive gifts abundantly from God, rather than build bigger storehouses and keep it all to myself, I will see that abundance as a sign that this gift is not just for me to keep for myself: it is meant to be shared.
This is how we become “rich towards God.” It is in maximising our experience of life by cherishing and nurturing our relationships with others, that we enrich our relationship with God. Indeed, St Augustine, when reflecting on this parable, summed it up pretty well: “The rich man didn’t realise that the bellies of the poor were much safer storerooms than his barns.”
The fundamental point of all this is that what the rich fool does is the opposite of how God deals with us in Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t keep all his goodness to himself, locking it up in the heavenly barn and throwing away the key. He is constantly giving of himself, reaching out to others, drawing people to himself.
He takes the risk of sharing the abundance of his life with us. In giving us custody over his creation. In giving us our very life, and free will over how we live it.
And he takes the greatest risk of sending his only Son, his precious self, into the greatest danger, as one of us. Taking on the trials and sufferings of our human existence, even unto death – all in order to share with us the abundance of his eternal life.
The response of the Christian to such amazing generosity is not to congratulate ourselves and say how blessed we are. But to share that blessing with whoever we can find.
Our sharing of the generosity of God is expressed in all sorts of ways – in prayer, in praise, in being good stewards of the creation that God has entrusted to us. In serving one another; in seeking first to reconcile, and overcome divisions.
And ultimately in putting our trust in the only thing in this life that is completely and utterly safe – in God, and his abundant love for us in Jesus Christ. Amen.