15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 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 12:15-21
The Parable of the Rich Fool
The parable of the Rich Fool is a key scripture when exploring what the Bible says about money. As with so many scriptures on the subject, it first focuses our attention on what is truly important. It reminds us that we are eternal beings and that the things in this life, like money and possessions, are transient.
So where did the rich fool go wrong in this story? I believe he did so in two respects.
First, the passage tells us that this man acquired these possessions for himself. We see this in verse 20 when God says, ‘This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?‘ There was no greater purpose in his intent, no eternal focus. He could have used his abundance to give to the poor, or he could have used it to advance God’s kingdom. In other words, he could have used his earthly wealth to save souls and, so, store up treasure in heaven. The rich fool did none of these thing. Rather, he focused only on himself and his own desires.
This man’s attitude towards his possessions illustrates the fundamental difference between the love of money and stewardship very clearly. The love of money manages resources for Self while Stewardship manages those resources for God and his kingdom.
The second issue goes to the planned use of those resources. It is clear from the man’s thoughts that his intention was to store up his resources in order to take life easy (verse 19). His plan was to eat, drink and be merry. In other words, his goal was a life of leisure. Once again, his focus was on the transient when it should have been on the eternal. As God says to the man, ‘This very night your life will be demanded from you.‘
Stewardship is not about building a life of leisure but, rather, building a life of meaning.
Rich Abba, Holy Abba
In a nutshell, this man’s critical error was in how he chose to use the resources with which God had blessed him. He chose to use his abundance to live a life of leisure when he could have used them to live a life of meaning.
Modern Application
Here’s a scary thought; the parable of the Rich Fool sounds an awful lot like the traditional retirement plan that I, along with many other hard-working, first-world citizens, have been conditioned to prepare for and aspire to in the modern economy.
I guess each one of us needs to ask ourselves the question. Am I building toward a life of leisure or a life of meaning?
Something to ponder.