Luke 12:13-21
Has it ever happened to you that you are daydreaming and suddenly you are awakened by reality? I believe something like that happened to Jesus in our story. In the previous verses he was teaching to the crowd the ideal in our relationship with God: Trust and dependency on Him who is our provider, and he use the example of nature, if sparrows are important to Him, we are worth more than sparrows. However, in the middle of his teaching he is interrupted by someone who was worried about his inheritance, the reality of us humans, our security depends in what we have. Jesus uses this moment to teach the crowd and now to us about greed. And to do so, he told them the parable we heard moments ago. Greed is defined by the dictionary online Merriam- Webster.com as a “selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed.”
To continue talking about this parable let me make something clear, in this parable Jesus is not criminalizing money, wealth, or material abundance. He is warning us against greed, about the feeling of never having enough. And he uses this parable to illustrate it. According to Jesus the farmer’s problem is not that he had a great harvest, or that he is rich or that he wants to plan for his future. The farmer’s problem is that this great blessing has curved his vision, so that everything he sees starts and ends with himself. The conversation described by Jesus it is an egocentric conversation. Therefore, Jesus called him fool. He has the notion that life, and particularly good life, consists of possessions. Precisely the thing Jesus warns us against.
Listen again to the conversation the rich man had. And let us remember, he is making plans for the blessing he has received. He did not hold this conversation with his wife, or his best friend, or parent, or neighbor looking for advice; it was with himself: “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have plenty good things laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”
Confronted with the happy problem of a great harvest, he concludes that the answer to this blessing was to build bigger barns for his harvests and his other goods. Then happy with his decision he even congratulates his soul -which can be also translated as life- and plans to spend many happy years eating and drinking. That was his plan, however, God -the one he left aside, the giver of life- had other plans, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” The rich man was trusting his life and his future in his ability and his material possessions. According to Jesus that is not how we should plan. we should trust God and not our possessions, we should make plans for our retirement yes, but more important we should make plans to meet our Creator. Because sooner or later we all are going to be before His presence.
What Jesus taught in this parable was and still is a countercultural message. Jesus is telling us that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. He is reminding us that money and wealth can do many wonderful things, yes. It can provide for us and our family; it can be given to others in need; it can be used to create jobs and promote the general welfare; it can make for us a more comfortable life; it can provide for us when we do not have the strength of our younger years. However, it cannot produce the kind of full and abundant life that each of us seek and only Jesus can give. So, in this parable Jesus is not against abundance, with this parable Jesus confront our attitude towards what we have received from Him and those around us; this parable is about our attitude in our planning. The God of life must always be part of our planning.
Now, why did Jesus call this rich man, fool? Because as I said before, he was egocentric; he wanted to benefit himself only with the blessings he received from God. He forgot to involve and bless God from whom all blessings flow; he forgot to bless his neighbors who God loves and care.
What is the message of the parable for us today? If God has given us a little or a lot, He expects from us to do good works, He expects us not to be greedy and do our best, he expects us to “Set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). He expects us to “not store up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:20-21. He expects us to remember “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 says
According to Paul when God gives us something it is because He has already prepared in advance something for us to do. Whatever we have received from God, He expects us to do good work with it.
This good work Paul talks about begins by being rich toward God. How can we be rich toward God? By making him part of our today and our tomorrow, by inviting him to be part of our decisions, by remembering that everything good comes from God. To be rich toward God is to recognize that apart from God we are nothing, he and only he is the source of our wealth, health, and salvation.
Our parable invites us to remember who we are and whose we are; invites us to consider who are we serving with what we have, God or ourselves; and finally invites us to remember all the blessing we have received and to be thankful to our provided.
In 1967, President Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall as the first black judge to the Supreme Court; in 1991 he retired. The day of his retirement a reporter asked him, how do you want to be remembered.? Judge Marshall was thinking for a while and then he said, “I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with what I had.” My brothers and sisters that is exactly what God expects from us to do. The best with what He has given us. Does not matter if we have little or a lot, let us do the best because as we sing every Sunday every blessing flow from God.