The Parable of the Rich Fool – Luke 12:13-21
Luke 12:13 - And one of the crowd said unto him [Jesus], “Teacher, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus is busy doing the work his Father called him to do – preaching the gospel, healing the sick and setting the captives free. In other words, he is ministering to the spiritual needs of a lost and dying world.
In the midst of this important work, Jesus is interrupted by someone in the crowd asking him to resolve an issue between him and his brother. The issue was the division of the family inheritance. In Jewish culture, only male children received an inheritance. Each son received an equal portion except the eldest son, who received double the amount of the others. To be fair, the firstborn male also received some additional duties – essentially, he became the new leader of the family and he assumed responsibility for his mother and any unmarried females in the household.
In this particular case, one of two things was true: Either the older brother had control of all the wealth and wouldn’t give the younger brother his fair share or the younger brother was unhappy with his rightful share and was demanding that his older brother give him more. Based on the parable which follows, most scholars believe the second scenario was probably true.
Luke 12:14 - And he [Jesus] said unto him, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?”
Jesus could have stepped in and easily resolved this dispute, but he didn’t. Why do you think he refused to become involved?
History helps us answer this question. It was common practice for kings to settle difficult disputes between their subjects (I Kings 3:15-28, II Samuel 15:2). If Jesus quickly and wisely resolved this dispute, the crowd would have seen this as a sign/confirmation that he was an earthly king seeking to establish an earthly kingdom. They would probably have tried to force him to become king (John 6:15).
The crowds did not yet understand that Jesus was doing something much, much greater than setting up an earthly kingdom. The mission given to him by the Father was to reveal the spiritual truth of the gospel and to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven through his death and resurrection. Acting as a judge in earthly matters was not part of his mission. In fact, it would work against it.
Luke 12:15 - And he said unto them, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.”
Nevertheless, Jesus used this opportunity to warn believers against the real problem in this situation - the sin of covetousness (not injustice). In fact, he provides us with a double warning; we are both to ‘take heed’ and ‘beware’ of covetousness. Jesus uses the following parable to warn us that we must keep a close eye on our own hearts and desires so we do not fall into this trap of the enemy.
Covetousness is an eager and insatiable desire for the things of this world which results in the neglect of spiritual matters. Covetousness places a person’s chief happiness and fulfillment in the things of this world. The situation with the brothers centered on the love of money, but the literal translation of the text references ALL covetousness. You can covet not only money, but power, fame, property, possessions, control, or an infinite number of other things.
Jesus warns us that the things of this world have no real value. They cannot lengthen life, ward off disease, or save you from enemies. Only God has ultimate control of those things. The things of this world cannot produce true joy or peace or consolation. They will not follow you into eternity, neither can they prepare you to meet God in the next age.
What they CAN do is capture our attention and our hearts, preventing us from closely following God who is the giver of all blessings, including eternal life.
Let’s see how Jesus illustrates this truth with the following parable.
Luke 12:16 - And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:”
The original word translated ‘ground’ signifies a region or country, indicating that this man didn’t just possess a small family farm. He had extensive real estate holdings. It would be like a commercial farm in our day. He is described as experiencing an extremely prosperous year in his worldly businesses and activities.
Luke 12:17 - And he thought within himself, saying, “What shall I do, because I have no room to store my crops?”
This thought reveals the true state of the man’s heart. Notice that he left God completely out of the picture:
- He did not praise or thank God for blessing him.
- He did not acknowledge God for giving him the health, resources, staff, or rain needed to produce this wealth.
- He did not acknowledge God’s protection from drought/flood, locusts, foreign invaders, or bad business deals.
- He did not ask God’s advice on what to do with his abundance; he never even considered using his wealth to glorify God.
- He gave no thought for the welfare of his workers or the poor of his community.
- He never considered the spiritual implications of his situation.
Luke 12:18-19 - And he said, “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’”
The rich man has been deceived. He mistakenly assumes that because he is rich today, he will always be so. He mistakenly assumes that he still has many more healthy years to live on earth. He mistakenly assumes that temporal goods will make him happy. He mistakenly assumes that he will continue to be successful in all that he undertakes.
Clearly, covetousness had entered the rich man’s heart. This is evident in his plan to satisfy his earthly appetites and desires, such as pride, idleness and luxury as well as his blatant disregard for his own spiritual/eternal outcome. In addition, he has no regard for the will of God and he is unmoved by the needs of others.
Obviously, covetousness is prompting him to ‘store up’ treasures in this life, rather than treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).
Luke 12:20 - But God said unto him, “You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have prepared?”
Jesus clearly shows us the futility of covetousness or the insatiable desire for worldly things: The very night that the rich man had finalized his plans, his soul was summoned into the eternal realm to meet the God he had neglected/ignored for so long!
As a result of his own foolish thinking, the rich man was completely unprepared for his entrance into eternity. He entered the eternal realm empty handed; the worldly possessions he spent his life accumulating remained here and were given to others (Psalms 39:6).
Thus, a life that had the potential to be amazing and fruitful in the kingdom of heaven (John 15:5-8) ended up being a life of vanity and emptiness in the kingdom of man.
Luke 12:21 - So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Jesus uses this parable to show us the final outcome of any person who shuts God out of their life and spends all their time, thoughts and resources to amass worldly riches for themselves. In the end, they will be deceived and disappointed; they will enter eternity unprepared while the wealth they worked so hard to obtain will be given to others.
So, what lessons can we take away from this parable?
- We must remind ourselves that it is God who determines the length of our days. A life dedicated to the service of God is an extraordinary and fruitful life, no matter how long or short it may be.
- Each one of us should be ready to enter eternity at a moment’s notice. When we have one eye on eternity, we can see clearly when covetousness comes knocking at our door. We can also see the opportunities for good works and service that God gives to us, so we may store up treasure in heaven.
- Temporal riches and success should never be the primary goals of the Christian life. That being said, there is nothing wrong with having riches, and/or enjoying temporal blessings as long as we steward them according to the word of God and the leading of Holy Spirit.
Regardless of how many or few earthly blessings we have, we must all be on guard against covetousness, because it is a trap of the enemy, designed to render us ineffective in the Kingdom of Heaven.