The Parable Of The Rich Fool

Luke 12:13-21

Key Verse 12:20 

"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?'

The title of today's message is "the parable of the rich fool." It is good to be "rich", but it is not a good idea to be a "rich fool". This is particularly true when it is God who holds this opinion. Imagine at the end of someone’s life, after working so hard for money, God takes a good look at that person as says, “You fool!” It may seem too harsh but that is exactly what happened in this passage! Let’s read the key verse together.

A greedy person doesn’t become a “fool” all at once but it’s a process of several critical mistakes. Today’s passage covers seven such mistakes made by a greedy man on his way to being labeled a “fool”. We want to learn how greed played a role and how we can avoid being foolish?

First, greed made this man a fool because…he undervalued Jesus & his brother, and overvalued material things (13). 

Look at verses 13-14. “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’” Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?""

It may not be obvious but just by this man’s question he is braking the fundamental spiritual rule. This rule is described in Genesis 1-2. Here we learn that God created the universe and everything in it according to a creation order, that is, God first, man second, and then the material world third. This order is the order of value. We can call it a vertical order in that the value of God rests at the highest level, and then the value of man comes in the middle, and then below the level of man all material things have their place. This spiritual order is the order of blessing in that if we keep it, God's blessings will overflow from God to you, and through you to all men, and then to all the rest. 

In v. 13, however, we see the man putting this order in reverse. Let us stop and think about the value system the man went by. To him, the material things (the goodies of which the inheritance consisted) sat at the top. Then, his brother, then Jesus who is God. 

Jesus is the son of God. He is the exact representations of God's being. Yet, he treated Jesus as his personal "gopher." And Jesus refused to entertain his request. Thus he got nothing out of Jesus the source of life. 

What about his relationship with his brother? From a spiritual standpoint, to have siblings such as his brother is a great blessing. Most likely the "brother" mentioned in verse 13 was his elder brother. Because he was attached to material things, he was mad at his brother and even considered him an enemy. Due to his greed, he failed to see the great value of Jesus. And each time he saw his brother, ill emotions such as hatred and anger took over him. It’s no wonder he was unhappy all the time. Regarding material things higher than Jesus and higher than our brothers and sisters equates to foolishness before God.

 

Second, greed made this man a fool because…he underestimated the power of greed and became its victim (15a).

Look at verse 15. "Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed..." Here Jesus warns us against “greed.” What is greed? According to dictionary.com, greed is an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.

Since greed exists on the level of a desire it is hard to detect. Desire is not bad in itself, but desire becomes greed if we start desiring too much. But honestly, it is not easy to differentiate between too much and just enough. The most basic example is food. In America we have a lot of good food. Especially in Los Angeles: Mexican food, Italian food, Korean food, etc. Everyone starts off with one helping and sometimes our first helping wasn’t that much and we want a second helping. But where do we draw the line? Where does a meal change from being a time of fellowship and refreshment into a greedy indulgence? It is always hard to say and for this reason we can see that greed is a powerful enemy because it is not easily defined. So Jesus’ command is “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed…” Our only defense to greed is to be on the look out, keeping watch for it to rear its ugly head. Through a prayerful heart we can keep a watch out for excessive desires lurking around. If we remain prayerful and watchful greed cannot elude us.

But what kind of greed are we looking for? According to Jesus, “All kinds of greed”. This means that there are several strands of greed. One form of greed that I have had to face is consumer greed. Several years ago I purchased an electronic device that did something very specialized. I thought that I would be needing this device and so laid down the 100 bucks or so to get it. Well one year passed and I didn’t use it, two years past and I didn’t use it, three four and now five years have past and I still have never used this device one time. I have kept this device around as a reminder of how much of a fool I am when I have consumer greed– that is buying things that I don’t need. My method for some time has been to pray about all my purchases whether great or small. I ask God for help to know what I need and to help me control my desire when it is something I really like. This method has worked fabulously.

Many people in our country have unfortunately fallen victim to greed because they desired something that they neither were ready for nor deserved to have. Like the man in the passage they underestimated the power of greed and racked up 10’s of thousands of dollars in dept buying things like computers, home entertainment systems, cars or houses. The fact that our national dept is over eight trillion dollars ($8,198,034,722,370.24) is a telltale sign that greed is deeply entrenched and on the rise in our culture. So once again Jesus says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed."

Third, greed made this man a fool because…he didn’t know what life consisted in (15b).

The Bible says that life comes from a relationship with Jesus. In fact, John 1:4 says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Let’s keep this verse in mind and read verse 15b, "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

The man who came to Jesus held to a different view. The greed in his heart convinced him that life consist in the abundance of one’s possessions. His sense of life and happiness was based on what he could get for himself. Of course even if he got what he wanted he would want more and more and even more. As his want for more ever increased he would eventually come to the point of wanting something that he in no way would be able to attain. Already, he was frustrated that he couldn’t get a piece of the inheritance. The greed in his heart was already making him miserable – suffering in want of material possessions is a fool’s game. In the life of most people greed pumps them up with a huge burning desires that drive them up and down the wall. Greed becomes so strong that they go crazy.

 

But let’s consider the example of Jesus– he was exactly the opposite. He was born in a manger. He grew-up poor and then around the age of 30 he left his hometown and began his public ministry. In so doing he did not own that much. Maybe all he owned was a pair of sandals, clothes on his body, and that was about it. Yet with so little or virtually no possessions at all, Jesus was filled with life from above, that no matter where he went he could reach out to many, healing the sick, making the dead live. Certainly what Jesus says is true. "Man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." So what does it consist in? A man’s life consists in a flourishing, life giving relationship with God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Fourth, greed made this man a fool because…he didn’t know God's purpose in being blessed materially (16-19a).

Now look at the first part of the parable in verses 16-19a. "And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 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 all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years."

It is interesting that before this man’s ground produced a good crop, he was already classified as a “rich man”. He was a rich man who was now even richer. So what did he begin to do? Look at the parable. In these verses we see the word "I" repeating six times and the word "my" repeating five times. This indicates that he became selfish. He did not acknowledge the Lord God who gave him the abundant crops. Nor did he begin to make plans to use it for a good purpose. What did he do then? He began a thought process to keep the whole stash to himself by building bigger barns. Greed blinded this man to the purpose of his material blessing. He thought that it was all for himself when God intended him to use it for blessing and serving others. 

Therefore when he saw abundant crops, instead of building more barns for himself, he should have started preparing a fund for the needy. Had he done so, the Lord could have blessed him all the more, so he would be literally a source of blessing for all peoples on earth. But because he was going the way of greed he was going the way of a fool, which is eventually downhill.    

Fifth, greed made this man a fool because…he mistook the purpose of his life on earth(19b).

Look at verse 19b. "Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." Let us stop for a moment and compare what he said with what Jesus taught his disciples back in Luke 9:32, "Jesus said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." But the rich fool said the exact opposite. This is more evidence that the desires of greed do not just make man go the wrong way but steers him in a head-on collision with Jesus the Son of God.

When we read the parable of the rich fool, and compare what average Americans are seeking, we can see that most of us, if not all of us, are going the way this rich fool went. And how many of us can claim, "Oh, no. I am different from the rich fool!"? But we must remember: the way of the rich fool is really a fool's way. We must remember what Jesus said, and daily struggle to go the way Jesus teaches us to go. 

 

Sixth, greed made this man a fool because…he forgot that God could take away his life at any moment (20a).

Look at verse 20a. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you." This passage suggests that by the time the rich fool was about to enjoy his life something unexpected happened, like a car accident or a major stroke, which eventually caused him to expire way before he expected to die. How sad!? How foolish!? It is amazing how greed was able to cancel out any notion of immediate death. He though his life was pretty much in his own hands but God saw this as the ultimate expression of a fool’s heart. For, it is written, “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” 

The point for us to remember further then is we never know when God will call us home and to be wise is to be ready to go at any moment.

 

Seventh, greed made this man a fool because…he lost the opportunity to receive a good life on the other side of the grave (20b-21)

Look at verses 20b-21. "Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."" This passage indicates that this rich fool was doubly a fool. He worked hard to enjoy life, by making lots of money, but by the time he must have bought a nice vacation house God took his life and he had nothing was unable to enjoy it. And then in eternity he was burned again because there was no vacation house in heaven. He also must have built a nice financial portfolio consisting of a handsome stock option at his company, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and all other investments such as fortune 500 stocks, mutual bonds, and real estate holdings. But alas! By the time he was about to enjoy his life, he had to die. 

What is the most sorrowful however is this: because he spent all of his life to make money, he had no opportunity to be rich toward God. It has been said that life on this side of the grave is the only preparatory period, the period in which we prepare for the eternity to come. Was he prepared for the enjoyment of the eternity to come? No. 

In conclusion, we learn that the rich fool was a complete fool for on all of the seven accounts he acted foolishly. Amazingly he was a member of the chosen people Israel whom the Lord chose as the custodian of the Bible. He also had Jesus right in front of him. As a follower of Jesus, he must have listened to Jesus’ words, watched Jesus performing miracles. Yet he remained blind to Jesus. Because of his attachment to material things, he remained as a fool. Does this man’s example say anything to us, the Americans, a Bible believing nation?

One Word: Watch Out! Be on your Guard!