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The Book of Luke, Beware of Greed, Part II - Lesson 158
We are continuing our study in Luke 12:16‑21.
This passage of scripture has resulted from a question by a man who interrupted the Lord Jesus Christ as he was instructing his disciples regarding the sin of hypocrisy.
It was a question, not of value to those whom Jesus was instructing, but a question based upon a selfish desire to get a portion of an inheritance from his brother.
Jesus Christ was not gentle to the man nor was his response one of political correctness in telling the man what he wanted to hear, for the Lord Jesus Christ responded by posing another question in response to this man’s question: He said:
Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
He then took the opportunity to teach the man and all who were within earshot.
For he said in verse 15, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
How appropriate this message is on this Christmas day as we acquire by gifting each other more possessions to add to the multitude of goods that require of us bigger storage closets or even the renting of a mini warehouse!
So within this context and avoiding the context of this man’s question our Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words of:
Luke 12:16‑21, 6And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Jesus refused to serve as this man’s judge, but He did not stop there but served instead as a teacher, the very title which the man used when he called upon Him for we said the word “Master” means teacher in this context.
Jesus did not teach this man by pointing at him and his sin in order to humiliate him but taught him by using a parable of a certain man, a man which all could relate to.
Jesus could have provided some very intimate and spicy details about this man who wanted his brother publicly scolded and wanted Jesus to do it for him.
Jesus could have rightly called this man a fool, but instead He told a parable, and in this parable he exposed the rich fool’s greed, and in it He also exposed the man as a fool if he was wise enough to see it.
Jesus always taught the truth in a way that would promote a godly response to the truth.
The man of the parable was very wealthy, and he owned land that was very fertile and productive, for which by the way he should have been grateful to God.
His barns were already full with the produce and goods he had previously harvested, for which by the way he should have been thankful to God.
Obviously he was a good farmer for he had used the resources provided by God and had brought forth a generous profit!
And now, once again, the land he had sowed had produced a great bounty.
His bumper crop provided him with a problem, a problem most farmers would love to have.
His barns were already full.
Jesus now takes us into the mind of the man.
We can overhear his conversation with himself. “I have no more storage space,” he said. “What am I to do?”
Then, the inspiration came. “I will tear down my barns and build even bigger ones.”
Of course! He could increase His storage space.
He could enlarge his capacity to hoard his possessions.
There was no thought given to using his bumper crop in ways to help others or to help the work of the Lord, simply thoughts of how to hoard his possessions.
This solution, now conceived, brings the rich fool to talk with himself in such a way as to reveal his purpose.
If his previous words have revealed his problem and the plan which will solve them, the next inner conversation reveals the man’s motives and his goals.
He talks to himself. Literally, he talks to his soul.
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
His mistake here is that he connects the goods he has laid up with himself being the one to consume those goods in the future. In this he has no right.
Once he has built his bigger barns and put all of his crops and goods into them, in his mind he will be able to say to his soul, “Soul, you’ve got it made.
You have many good things, enough to last for many years.
It’s time to retire, to take life easy, to enjoy the good things for years to come.
Its time to eat, to drink, and to be merry.
This is what the Bible calls pride of life.
Everything is going so well for me, I can take it easy and enjoy life.
Please don’t think that this kind of inner thinking only applies to this rich man for I believe it is the common thinking of most folks in this world.
The getting to a point where you can sit back and say to your soul: relax, eat, drink, and take it easy.
There is money in the bank, the house is paid for, the car is ours, the kids are on their own.
Things are looking up for my old age and I have it made!
Look closely at the goal and the means of the rich fool and you will see that they sound a lot like our concept of retirement.
Don’t we hope to be able to store up enough goods as we go through life to be able to cease or reduce our labor, and to enjoy the rest of our life as a kind of extended vacation? But Jesus Christ wants us to know that these are shallow thoughts, thoughts that extend to this life only, over the length of which we have no control nor do we have inherent rights.
God’s word pierces through the shallow thinking of this man, and exposes his sin and his future, which differs greatly from what he supposed.
You see God always has the last word in every conversation.
God always has the last word in every transaction, in every deal, in every contract.
God always is the last player in every plan.
God has the right to overrule every contract.
So God called the man a fool, a man whose solution and whose wealth seemed to suggest that he was wise.
If the man looked forward to a long life, a life of ease, God said that his life would end, this very night, before any of the good things of his prosperity would be enjoyed.
What he so carefully saved for himself, another would end up possessing.
Is this so contrary to the norm in this life.
We work and work and work to accumulate and most of it will end up being divided and given to others.
And so God overrules this plan and pronounces the end of the matter in verse 21 to all men who would store up things for himself, rather than to be rich toward God:
21So is he (a fool) that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Where had the rich fool gone wrong?
God’s words, along with those of our Lord, were probably shocking to those who heard them, and so they should be for us as well.
The rich fool is a man who would be looked up to and praised by our culture, and perhaps in many churches.
For he was a wealthy man.
That in itself seems to speak well of him, especially in a time when men equate spirituality and success.
Today, we call it the “prosperity gospel.
Here was a man who had been able to curb his appetite, or so it seemed.
Here was a man who is not described as spending his money on himself, but who had the discipline to save it, “for a rainy day,”.
Here was a man who thought of the future and who prepared himself for it.
How could such a man be called a fool?
How could this man receive God’s rebuke, and that of the Lord Jesus?
What is there about this man’s thinking and motivation and actions which is foolish?
What was the man who had made the request of Jesus to judge between him with his brother, to learn from this story?
And what are we to learn from this parable?
One of the primary lessons that we are to learn is that the rich fool was foolish in failing to recognize where his wealth had come from.
Regardless of how smart you are or how hard you work God is still in charge and without God nothing works.
Jesus was careful to tell us that the man’s ground produced a great harvest.
God gave the bountiful crop but the rich fool had no regard for God at all.
The second thing we are to learn is that the rich fool erred in his understanding of the purpose of wealth.
If the rich fool failed to grasp where his wealth came from, he also failed to understand what he was to do with it.
He thought that wealth was to store up and to save, rather than to use.
He further believed that wealth, when it was to be used, was to be used for his own comfort and ease with no thought for others.
He did not, as the Old Testament Law teaches, see his wealth as an opportunity to praise God, and as the means which permitted him offer sacrifices and offerings.
Neither did he see his wealth as a God‑given provision for him to minister to others, both by giving and by loaning to those in need.
It never occurred to the rich fool that when his barns could not hold any more, he could have given some of his wealth away.
Thirdly the rich fool was foolish in that he saw his possessions as his security, and as the basis for his ceasing to be productive.
It would seem from this man’s words that he not only planned to retire, but that he planned an early retirement.
His wealth, we might say, was his “social security.”
I understand him to be saying that he would be at ease once his bigger barns were built and his crops were safely stored inside, along with his goods.
He is planning to hang up his tools and to retire to the rocking chair.
He is looking forward to eating and drinking the finest and in enjoying all the fine things for the rest of his life.
Fourthly the rich fool was foolish in his presuming upon God for a future.
The rich man presumed two things about the future, both of which were false.
First, he presumed that he would possess his wealth in the future.
Second, he presumed that he would be alive in the future, to enjoy his possessions.
Both of these presumptions were shown to be false when his life was demanded of him that very night.
Someone else got his possessions, and he did not live to enjoy what he had stored up.
In this same line the rich fool was foolish in holding a view of the future which was short‑sighted and which excluded the kingdom of God.
The rich fool lived his life in the light of the future, but that future did not include the kingdom of God, death, or the judgment to come.
The rich man’s future was only as long as his earthly life, and only as broad as his own interests.
And lastly the rich man was a fool both in the way he defined life and in the way he thought life was to be obtained.
Perhaps we have all said at some happy and prosperous time “Oh, this is the life” which is defining life other than the Bible defines life.
The word “life” is frequently used in chapter 12.
To the rich fool “living” or “life” was defined in terms of ease and pleasure, in terms not just of eating and drinking, but of doing so in a way that was enjoyable.
And life was obtained by putting oneself and one’s wealth first.
One found life by seeking life for oneself and by ignoring others, including God.
Jesus told His disciples that the way for a person to obtain “life,” to save his life was to give it up.
The rich man lived his life exactly the opposite to the way Jesus taught His disciples to live.
Those who die in the pursuit of “life,” “living,” or “living it up” are aided by Satan, the murderer, who leads men to death by promising them and causing them to pursue “life” wrongly defined. |