Luke 12:13-21--The Parable of the Rich Fool

Luke 12:13-21
English Standard Version

The Parable of the Rich Fool​
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

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As much as I would love if this parable was to help explain the last thing that Jesus said,  over which there is much debate, that is not its purpose.  We are back to focusing on the Pharisees that looked like they had it all together and that God was blessing them, but they had no relationship with God, and they were going to be condemned when they died.

God gave the Jews a lot in terms of food and while the Law tells us how this man was sinning if this were truly about the grain that he was collecting year after year, I don't think that's what is the true meaning of this parable.  I think the grain here represents the revelation of the LORD.  Like a bountiful harvest, there is a portion of God's revelation that is for us, but there is a lot that is leftover that is meant to be taken out and shared with others.  It does no good to hoard the truth of God's Word to ourselves so we can claim that we are just special and blessed because we have it and others don't, and that somehow we imagine that keeping all of it to ourselves is God's plan.  Not a chance!

The Jews were tasked with being a "city on a hill" and "a light to the Gentiles" and many of the other phrases used by Jesus to describe what the Church would be.  We already talked about how silly it would be to light a lamp and put it under a bushel basked where no light would shine.  The light has be be put up on a lampstand so that it will give light to the whole house.  I think this is some of that same teaching, yet now Jesus adds that if you have the Word of God and it doesn't transform you, of what good and what worth was it?  This man that was thinking he was in right relation with God talked and acted like a pagan Gentile.

The man talks and thinks only of himself and sounds a lot like Lucifer when he fell from heaven.  Look at how many "I will" statements this man makes.  He has no control over the harvest or the length of his life, but he imagines that at some point all his work is done and he can sit back and "retire" and let others do the hard work.  The man has spent his entire life accumulating wealth that he imagines will take care of him and that he can sit back and relax and do no more work--that sounds like our mindset in the United States today, but Jesus seems to speak against that mindset here.  God does not condemn saving for when we can't work anymore.  That's commanded biblically, but this is not a man who couldn't work anymore, this seems to be a young man who got rich quick and wouldn't work anymore.   He did not acknowledge the true source of His blessings nor did he put it to use doing the things that God would want done with the resources he was entrusted with (we'll see several parables along those lines, but I think it's fair to say that the most valuable thing we've been given and that we will be held to account for is the gospel and the Word of God).

This man was making big plans for himself that were self-centered and gave no glory to God and gave no thought of his fellow man.  The Law required that the LORD should get the first portion out of his harvest and while there was supposed to be some saving for the Sabbath year and the year of Jubilee, that excess was to be given to the Levites to be shared with the indigent, poor, and sojourners who were in need.  There is no way that this man should have thought the right answer was to tear his barns down and build bigger barns.  If God has given you more than what you need, then He's given you enough to share with others--this is especially true when it comes to the gospel.  He has given you much revelation that we are meant to go and tell the world.  We are not to keep it all to ourselves, especially if we are going to live lives that are not transformed by that revelation.  We are fools if we imagine simply having the Word of God and the gospel and never applying it to ourselves and letting it transform us will somehow save us from the coming judgment.  All of us will have to give an answer for what we did with what we have been given, especially those of us who have received the gospel and have easy access to the Word of God.  Can you see how this might be talking about the religious leaders who had all the revelation God had given them, were unchanged by it, and only wanted to accumulate more wealth and power for themselves and therefore proved that they were not in right relationship with God and would die in a state of rebellion?  When their lives were required of them, what good would their wealth and material blessings do?  What good would the Temple and their years of service to it do?  What good would the Old Testament do them if they had refused to believe it and apply it to their lives? What good did any of that do if they rejected Jesus and His kingdom and His gospel?


Hebrews 2:1-4
English Standard Version
​Warning Against Neglecting Salvation
2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.