Rich Fools— Luke 12:13-21
Modern Day Rich Fool
There was once a business man who owned a small corner store in Mona Vale— let’s call him Sam. Financially, things had always been tight, but somehow he’d always managed to pay the bills and keep up the loan on his small house in the Warriewood valley. But then a new block of luxury units was built just next door to his shop. As a result, in a short space of time, his turnover doubled. So what did Sam do? He did some renovations to his store, put in a trendy Italian deli and coffee shop, and he put up his prices. What happened? Turnover quadrupled and his profit soared. Sam sold his old Ford and bought a fancy red sports car.
The next year, with some clever marketing and some posh imported product lines, profits were up again, turnover had increased tenfold. Sam bought a new house in Avalon near the water. Then, one day, a businessman from the big end of town came to the shop and said, “Hey, we’d like to franchise Sam’s stores all over the country, maybe all over the world. We’ll pay you a million dollars upfront, as well as 10% of the profits of every Sam’s outlet across the world! Whaddya say, Sam?”
That night, Sam went home, looked in the mirror and said to himself, “Sam, you’ve made it. You’re finally secure in life: you’ve paid off all the loans, you’ve insured all your assets, you’ve diversified your investments, and the business is booming. I know what I’ll do, said Sam, I’ll take early retirement. After a bit of a holiday in Spain, I’m going to get more involved in life down at St Marks. I’ll join a Home Group. I’ll volunteer to help out with Scripture, maybe even sign up for the Market Day team. I might even join the church cleaning roster. I’ve got time on my hands now, it’s about time I thought about God a little bit more.
But that night, God said, “Sam, you’re a fool. Time’s up, your life is over. All your good intentions count for nothing. And now who will get all the good things you had stored up for yourself?”
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God." (Lk 12:20-21).
If Jesus was around today, I think our passage in Luke 12 would sound pretty much like that, don’t you? We’re going to be looking in more detail at Luke 12:13-21 so you might like to open up your bibles to page ????so you can follow along.As we do, we're going to see that Jesus does not have it in for rich people. He doesn't tell the story to say money is bad and if you're wealthy you're going to hell. Instead, Jesus is interested in the things that drive us: our passions, the things that mean so much to us, the reason that we sacrifice time or comfort, the causes and motivations that shape us.
The Demand for Justice
Make My Brother Divide the Inheritance (12:13-14)
Looking more closely at the passage now, we see that Jesus told his story of the rich fool in response to a demand for justice from someone in the crowd. In verse 13 we read:
"Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13)
You can picture it.... Jesus has been teaching for some time about the Kingdom of God. Suddenly, someone in the back calls out and interrupts the whole group with a question. Not a question, really, but a demand that Jesus straighten out the man's legal affairs.
Now the man who has called out sounds like a younger brother who feels he is being cheated out of something that could be his. Inheritance in Israel was devised to keep land in the family, rather than let it go to other tribes or individuals. (Deut 21:16-17). When the Father died, the oldest son always got a double share of the inheritance, and would serve as the new patriarch of the family. If things continued as they were under the father, all the brothers would farm the land and support their families with it, rather than dividing it up into smaller and smaller pieces which may no longer be viable. But it seems that this younger son wants the estate carved up so that he gets a share, so that he has control, so that his security in his own hands.
Now under the Law of Moses, the younger son had a right to take the matter to court— usually an assembly of village elders and rabbis. And so this is why the man is trying to get Jesus, as a well-known rabbi, to act as a judge in this property case. The man is seeking some kind of justice. But justice or not, Jesus isn’t interested. He says:
"Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" (Lk 12:14).
Why isn’t Jesus interested in the case? Look at what the man says, "Tell my brother to divide the inheritance..." He commands Jesus and instructs him what to do. He has already decided what he wants, what he thinks is just, and now he is looking for a judge who will see it his way. Instead of going through the normal legal channels of his neighbourhood, he is trying to get Jesus to take jurisdiction over the case. But Jesus will have nothing to do with it. Jesus' mission is far above judging petty probate cases.
The Warning
So having refused the man’s request, he turns to the rest of the crowd and says:
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Lk 12:15).
Is a desire for justice wrong? No. But the motivation here is more than a call for justice. The man is consumed with the inheritance: he wants something and he wants it now.
I’m sure that you, like me, know of families that have broken up squabbling over an inheritance. Perhaps the family patriarch has been sleeping on a stash of money, or living in a house which is now worth a fortune; and almost before the funeral directors have gone, the first fights have broken out over who gets what. Inheritances seem to do that to people.
It's as though Jesus has been coerced into exactly that situation, to try to resolve the dispute. But Jesus sees exactly what’s going on. He labels it "greed" — the ugly green eyed monster, the self-driven desire to have more and more. Avarice. An insatiable desire for wealth, and the comfort and power that it brings. That’s what Jesus sees driving this particular demand for justice, and so he warns his disciples against it by telling them the story of the rich fool who wanted to build bigger and bigger barns.
Notice that Jesus warns not just against greed, but against "all kinds of greed". We all know that Greed takes all sorts of forms, and its easily hidden. It’s easily rationalised and justified, isn’t it. How much is enough? How much is too much? What sort of car should you drive? Is your standard of living high enough, or too high? What seems reasonable in Avalon seems outrageously extravagant in Uganda. There are a thousand ways to justify almost anything, but when your motives are laid bare before God, are you just plain greedy?
The temptation to greed requires vigilance, hence Jesus' warning, "Watch out!" "Be on your guard!" Beware, because greed is the kind of sin that buries itself so deep in our psyche that we can become completely captive to it, and yet be completely unaware of it. So be on your guard.
Life Is Not Abundance of Possessions (12:15b)
Well, after warning his disciples against greed, Jesus gives the reason for his warning: "a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions" (12:15). This is one of Jesus' common themes. "Man does not live by bread alone" . The value of your life is not the sum of all the things you own.
Just as in Jesus’ day, this teaching goes against the grain of all that our culture assumes to be true. Listen to these statements, and see if you think that Jesus would agree:
*Rich people are more successful than those who live in poverty.
*Wealthy people are more important than poor people.
*Well-off people are more believable in court than the under-privileged.
*Well-to-do people bring expertise, status, and their greater wisdom when they serve on Parish Council or Synod.
I think Jesus would disagree with every one of those statements, but our culture would argue that they are true. Wealth in our world changes people. Success in our culture is measured largely in terms of quantity -- quantity of degrees, wealth, salary, perks, possessions, publications. We are ambitious, we are trained by our society to want more, to strive for more, to be greedy. Greed is embedded in our lives.
But Jesus says, "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions". And that means we must choose to change, we will be different at this point to those around us. Transformation is nothing if it doesn't have a practical edge.Greed is an enemy within which robs us of true riches.
The Story of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-20)
The problem with the Rich Fool who wanted to build bigger and bigger barns was that he really did think that his life consisted of whatever he owned; in whatever he could measure and touch, see and take pleasure in. His problem was that his barns and crops and possessions actually owned him. His greed had made him totally selfish. See if you can hear it in this man’s words, Follow along as I read from verse 17:
17 `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 `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."' (Lk 12:17-19).
This man’s deepest passion in life was himself. For him, all that mattered in life was I, My and Mine. His first thought in the morning and his last thought at night was himself. And so when it was time for him to face up to God, he found himself totally poverty stricken. When it came to God, he was broke, bankrupt and ruined. He really was a fool.
Listen to how Jesus concludes his parable in verse 21:
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God." (Lk 12:21).
The reason the man was a fool was that he was not rich towards God.He was not a fool because he was rich.He was a fool because he was not rich towards God. He may have had it made when it came to luxuries and security, but he was poor, destitute and penniless when it came to God.
So here’s the rub. Here’s where this passage applies to us. How do we become rich towards God? If we really do want to learn from this man’s mistake, how do we live now, so that when God asks us to give an accounting of our lives, we will be found to be truly rich towards Him. Later in Luke 12 Jesus starts to answer this question. In verses 29-31 he says:
29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. (Lk 12:29-31).
And then a few verses later he says:
34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Lk 12:34).
We become rich towards God by finding our satisfaction and security in life in him alone. We orient our life around him, our relationship with him becomes central. We direct all our energies towards the things which are important to him.
I guess the use of our time is an easy litmus test. The person who wants to become rich towards God will actually spend more time in a week enjoying God and getting to know him better, than he will on something less important. For example, the person who wants to become rich towards God will spend more time reading his bible than he will reading the newspaper. That person will spend more time in prayer than in idle chatter. There’s nothing wrong with reading the newspaper or chatting on the phone— nothing at all. It’s just that being rich towards God means you’ll spend more time reading his words than reading those of some journalist. You see communication with God as more important than communication with an acquaintance.
Being rich towards God ultimately means finding our satisfaction and joy in life in Him, more than anything else.
One of the tragedies of our day and especially in our area are the people who have achieved everything they once hoped for—only to realise that it is all unsatisfying and ultimately worthless. The very thing that drove them to work so hard, to sacrifice themselves, that one great passion in their was not enough. It did not satisfy.
I'm told that Sir Bob Geldorf experienced this at the end of his great life-project—he had organised the huge world-wide Band-Aid event in support of debt-ridden third world countries. The exposure was huge, the concerts were brilliant; and as the lights went down at the end of the closing number, the stage in darkness, Geldorf was heard to say, "Is that it?"
You can almost hear the pain, can't you? Is that it? My life's work is complete. The thing that drove me, my passion, my highest achievement in life; it's not enough.
Conclusion
What is your passion in life? Is it Jesus?
'Where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.'
To be rich towards God, put everything else aside for him. If there are any threats to his place in your life, put them on the altar.This will help you to live in his company.To invest your life in the only onewho can satisfy—now and forever.
Are you rich towards God? If you knew your time was short, what things would occupy your mind?
I read in The Good Weekend that some years ago, British Airways flight BA009, a Boeing 747, was flying over the Indian Ocean bound for Australia. Suddenly all four engines failed, clogged by volcanic dust from an Indonesian volcano. Over the next 12 minutes, while the aircraft plunged 25,000 feet, the 263 people on board faced the fact that it was going to crash. Their lives were as good as over. Captain Moody made the following announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.” Can you imagine what would have been going through the minds of those people during those 12 minutes? Well, fortunately the pilot did manage to restart the engines, and everyone on board was survived to tell the story.
In fact, a reporter asked all of the passengers that question. “What went through your mind, knowing that you were about to die?” Listen to what the reporter wrote:
[There was little panic] …Most passengers sat quietly, alone with their thoughts. John Krumpelmann wished for his family’s sake that he had taken out more life insurance. … Stewardess Lorraine Stewart worried that she had two outstanding bills at home. Stewardess Wright wondered how her parents would find her car at Heathrow Airport. Bronwen Williams wondered if the papers would spell her name correctly in their accounts of the crash.
I’m not sure about you, I find these comments remarkable. At the end of their lives, facing imminent death, their minds are filled with such trivia. When it comes to the crunch, these sorts of concerns were the sum total of their lives. Listen as I read on:
…June Bellairs told The Good Weekend that as she hurried to apparent certain death she could think only of the computer game she had bought her grandchildren and the fact that they would never receive it. Doris Hankinson dwelled obsessively on the T-shirts she had bought in Bali for her family. “All I could think about was, “Oh no, all my t-shirts are going to float away.” Evan Dillner regretted the imminent destruction of two pieces of antique silver he had bought in London; “I can remember thinking, it’s a real pity no one is ever going to see them.”
When it came to the crunch, it seems to me that these people thought their lives did consist in the paltry ‘abundance’ of their possessions. In a sense, their lives were so impoverished that they valued their computer games, T-shirts, and antique silver more highly than God. In Jesus’ words, they were Rich Fools.
Folks, this bible passage today does not say, ‘Money is bad, so give it all to the poor’. Luke 12 is about our passions, about the things that drive us, the things that we value. We are talking about the first thing that goes through your mind when you wake up in the morning, the last thing you think about at night. It’s about our ambitions, our goals, our aspirations & desires. Jesus says his followers will be rich towards God. We will invest our lives in him. We'll see him as our security and our worth. And he warns us that Greed will only get in the way.
Immersed in a culture driven by greed, we must choose to change. We must choose to be rich towards God. Beware the alternative, which is to choose to clothe our base covetousness with piety in order to convince others, and hopefully ourselves, that we really aren't greedy. When it comes to greed, you can fool just about everybody, but not God. Invest your best energies in God, and then you will be truly rich.
AMEN.
Prayer: Father, please make us so rich towards you, that we care less for our possessions. Grant us such a deep awareness of your reality, your presence, and your purposes for us in this world, that we forget about our goods and chattels. We ask that we might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that we may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God, and thereby enjoy true wealth. Please change our thinking and reshape our minds, for we ask it in Jesus name, AMEN.