The Rich Fool

Luke 12:15-21 — The Rich Fool

Then he said to them,

15 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 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. 

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.” ’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.”

It is not wrong to be rich. Abraham, Solomon and Job were not simply rich; they were "very rich" (cf. Gen. 13:2). The rich man of our text is not criticized or condemned because he was wealthy. Wealth itself does not damn. Poverty does not save. Wealth is not a vice. Poverty is not a virtue. Many will go to hell over riches who never had money in the bank. At least, Paul intimates as much when he says, "they that will be (not, "they that are") rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Tim. 6:9). It is not riches but the "trust" in riches that dooms men (Mk. 10:23-35).

It is this trust, this belief in material substance, that condemned the rich man. Five times he used the personal pronoun "my." He referred to "my fruits, my barns, my fruits, my goods, my soul. " That is not evil, either, for there is a sense in which things do belong to us; we "own" them (Acts 5:4; Matt. 20:15). However, it was the absorbing, consuming thought of his life, and that is wrong. He acted wisely in building greater barns for his surplus lest it rot or be devoured by scavengers. He acted foolishly in allowing his goods to secure, as he thought they did, his soul.

He imagined "many years" of solace, succor and security. "Take thine (another possessive pronoun) ease, eat, drink, and be merry." How does the rest of it go? "For tomorrow we die" is how it ends, but the rich man did not consider death. He stopped with "merry." He forgot, "for tomorrow we die." But even if he had said it, he would still have been in error. It was not, "tomorrow, " but "this night thy soul shall be required of thee."

"Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Neither the devil nor this world can give you one itern that will not be snatched and taken from you the moment you die. We go into bankruptcy at death. We leave and lose it all (Eccl. 5:15). The wise man of Ecclesiastes wondered whether his riches might not go to a fool who would throw it all away (Eccl. 2:18,19). "He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them" (Psa. 39:6). The rich man did not foresee this eventuality. He was oblivious to eternity. "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him . . . that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption" (Psa. 49:6-9).

Being "rich toward God" is the antidote to covetousness. It is the man who has his priorities in order who sees to the wealth and prosperity of his soul. "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17). Do not ever forget who the real beggar turned out to be in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31). Ironic, is it not, that the rich man of our narrative will also be the impoverished beggar in spiritual rags in the day of Judgment?