16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 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 my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain 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 whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12: 16-21
A frightening truth began to unfold for me while reading this parable.
In short, the Rich Fool’s approach to life in this story looks an awful lot like the pension plan to which I, and most of my middle-class peers, tend to aspire. Financial advisors throughout the Western world tout this as the Holy Grail when engaging with their clients.
Planning for Retirement Like the Rich Fool
This is the middle-class dream! To store up our grain in barns until we have enough laid up — enough to carry us for many years. And once we achieve that goal, we will finally take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. Just like the Rich Fool in Jesus’ parable.
We Work our Ground
The Rich Fool was far from lazy. He was a hard worker. Jesus paints the picture of a man who worked his ground, possibly for many years. And he kept at it until he achieved his goal and his ground yielded abundant grain. This offers remarkable similarities to the modern-day pension plan.
We spend twelve to sixteen years in school learning how to navigate life in this world. Then we spend the next forty to fifty years working our fingers to the bone. Forty hours a week, then fifty — then more! All the while, climbing the corporate ladder, seeking a higher income, or that next promotion. We do this to ensure that the ground we work will yield an abundant harvest.
Many such hopeful workers fail to realize the dream. They simply don’t manage to save enough. These people are forced to continue working well into their seventies and even their eighties. And when their strength finally fails, they live out the few years they have left in relative poverty.
We Store up Grain
The luckier folk among those hopeful workers find that their diligence and hard work pays off. Their ground yields an abundant harvest. Their “crops” come in the form of big paychecks; excess cash which they can then squirrel away for their retirement. An army of bankers and financial advisors suggest they invest in this retirement annuity or that 401k. These are the barns in which they store their crops, putting their money aside for that one day when…
The more successful — or disciplined — among them are able to save more than most. These people seek bigger “barns” in which to store all their excess cash.
We Plan to Take Life Easy
Eventually, the day comes when they are able to say, ‘You have plenty of grain, laid up for many years. Now, finally, you can take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’
Finally, they can live the dream!
The parable takes a rather dark turn here, when God says to the Rich Fool, ‘This very night your life will be demanded of you.’
I am reminded of an interesting anecdote I heard about the first pension schemes in the United Kingdom. The initial state pension made a compulsory deduction from every person’s salary. This money went toward supporting people when they reached pensionable age. At that time, pensionable age was sixty-five.
But here is the catch. At that time, the average life-expectancy for the hard-working generation, who paid that money in over the course of an entire career, was — you guessed it — sixty-five!
In other words, the average beneficiary of that pension would never live long enough to enjoy it. For most of those hard-working folk, God might have said ‘…this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?‘
A really good question! Who indeed? Not their children, or families, that’s for sure.
Over time, of course, life-expectancy has increased. At time of writing, the average life expectancy for men is 75.1 years. Should it come as any surprise, then, that a think-tank is currently discussing proposals to increase the UK pension age to 75?
How to Avoid the Rich Fool’s Trap
For the record, let me say the Bible does not teach us that putting money away for retirement is a bad thing. In fact, it is quite sensible to plan for the future.
So what issue did Jesus have with the Rich Fool in this parable?
The key to understanding the Parable of the Rich Fool lies in the man’s response to his good fortune when he says, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.‘ Having now accumulated enough to support himself for the rest of his days, the man’s plan was to live a life of leisure — but Jesus calls us to live a life of meaning!
In this parable, the Rich Fool spent the most productive years of his life working his ground. But to what end? Jesus tells us, ‘To take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’
There was no kingdom focus in this man’s life. All he did, he did for himself. He was not rich toward God. His whole goal in life was to live the dream; a life of leisure. Without any focus on God’s kingdom or a life of service and ministry, the Rich Fool’s life had no meaning.
And therein lay the great irony in Jesus’ story. Having spent a lifetime doing a backbreaking job — working his ground — the rich man finally had enough grain laid up to support him for the rest of his life…
… only to discover that his life was already over.
The lesson in Jesus parable is this; live a life of meaning now! Plan for the future, by all means but not at the expense of God’s calling on your life today.
None of us knows when our personal journey in this world is going to be over; when God will say, ‘This very night your life will be demanded of you.’
I pray that, when that day comes, we will be ready, secure in the knowledge that we have lived a life of meaning in Kingdom terms; one in which God can say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’
This is being rich toward God.
Why not spend some time in prayer right now? Seek God… and ask this question. What life of meaning is God calling me to live? What is my purpose in him and his kingdom?
And when he reveals the answer, have the courage to follow that course for your life from this day forward. If you can do that…
Just imagine where God might take you!