Parable of the Rich Fool

Jesus told a parable about a man who had a bumper crop, a banner year, but instead of blessing others with his wealth, he had something else in mind. How can I find a place to store up all of this wealth that I've just received? I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns. The last thing that was in his mind, ladies and gentlemen, was thanking God. We're examining the parables of Jesus this week on Renewing Your Mind.

I'm glad you could be with us. This particular parable is a warning against greed, but there is more we can learn. Let's join Dr. R.C. Sproul as he looks deeper into the parable of the rich fool. If you have your Bible, turn to Luke chapter 12.

R.C. will begin reading at verse 13. In this session, we're going to look at the parable of Jesus that is called the parable of the rich fool, and we find it in the 12th chapter of Luke's gospel, beginning at verse 13. Now read the parable.

It's a brief one, and then comment on it. Then one from the crowd said to Him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But He said to him, Man, who made Me judge, were an arbitrator over you. And He said to them, And He said to them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And He thought within Himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have no room to store My crops? So He said, I will do this. I will pull down My barns and build greater, and there I will 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. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." Well, this is something of a hard-hitting parable that comes to us from the lips of Jesus, and it was occasioned by this young man who approached Him, saying, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Now according to the law of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, if there was a dispute over the division of an inheritance, a judgment on such a matter could be made by a rabbi, who in that case would serve both as a teacher and as an attorney. And on this occasion, this young man comes to Jesus, asking Jesus to arbitrate His situation and to act, in this case, not as a teacher but as an attorney to represent the vested interests of one brother against the other. And obviously, Jesus is put off by this man's request. I mean, here is a case where you have not only God incarnate but truth incarnate, teaching, and it is recognized as the supreme rabbi that this man's only interest is not in what he can learn from Jesus but from what he can gain financially by Jesus siding with him in a particular case. He doesn't come and ask for a clear evaluation of the will and the legacy and asking Him to make a just judgment.

He says, Tell my brother to share his inheritance with me. He wants to enlist Jesus as his representative in this case. And so Jesus responded by saying, by saying, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? And then He said to them all, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things He possesses.

So before He gives the parable, Jesus gives a weighty warning to those around Him in light of this young man's request of Him. He says, Take heed. Be careful. Watch out. Be aware of what?

Of covetousness. I've said on several occasions that I gave the following responsibility to my seminary students. I say, Suppose that the United States government would fall, and the Constitution would be destroyed, and you were enlisted to write a new Constitution, a new Bill of Rights, and you, however, had this restriction. You could only include ten laws that would represent the bedrock of the new Constitution for the new nation. What ten laws would you include? Obviously, you would want to prohibit murder.

It's equally obvious. It should be any way that you would do something to protect private property rights and have a law against theft and against stealing from your neighbor. But how many of you would include in the top ten something like honoring your father and your mother or keeping the Sabbath day holy? And who among you would list as one of the top ten prohibitions to govern this new nation a law against coveting?

Very few people would think to put that in the top ten. But when God wrote a Constitution for His people, a law against coveting was included. And I wonder why. Do you have any idea how destructive the sin of covetousness is to a community, to a family, to a nation? Lebensraum is what Hitler wanted and justified his blitzkrieg into the surrounding nations at World War II because he wanted what they had. That war was initiated by a spirit of covetousness. So much damage is done because of jealousy, because of resentment, because you have something that somebody else does not. And so that person can rise up in jealousy and hatred toward you because they covet what you possess. People lie. They steal. They cheat. They slander. They get involved in all kinds of injurious practices because their hearts are coveting what somebody else possesses.

If you listen carefully to the rhetoric during every presidential election, you will see how the fires of class warfare are flames by the candidates who promise that they will take from your neighbor and give to you what you lack. And Christian people will even go to the polls and vote for policies like that, asking the power of the government to be used to take from your neighbor what you covet and give to you. That's a violation of one of the top ten laws of God. And God is saying here, watch yourself. Beware. Take heed. Look out for covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. You've seen the bumper sticker, he who dies with the most toys wins. It's pretty hard to find a way to be more cynical than that.

That's sick. But that idea has been pervasive among human beings long before our own contemporary culture. And so Jesus, with this warning, throws along next to it a story, a parable to teach His point. And here's how the parable goes. The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

All right, first of all, the reason why this man has so much possession at this point is because of what has been yielded by the ground. It's through the providence of God that he has this bumper crop as a farmer. And the Scriptures tell us that every good and perfect gift that we receive, we receive from the hands of God. The Scripture also tells us in Romans 1 that the two most basic sins of the fallen human race are these two. One, a refusal to honor God as God, and second, a refusal to be grateful. Dishonoring God, irreverence towards God, and ingratitude towards God.

Those are the most fundamental and foundational sins that define the lives of fallen humanity. Paul tells us in the New Testament that when we pray, we should make all of our prayers for thanksgiving. But if we come before God in a spirit of thanksgiving, we're acknowledging that we are not the heroes in terms of producing the benefits that we have received, but rather we have been recipients of His tender mercy and of His bountiful grace. With this fellow, if anything, he thanked Mother Earth. He had a good soil, had a good season of rainfall. Instead of droughts and famine, a bumper crop. He was already rich, and now his riches were magnified exponentially by this tremendous bumper crop. So then he begins to talk to himself. He has questions.

What do I do now? The question was not how can I use this wealth that I've received to enrich my neighbor, my community, my church, but rather how can I find a place to store up all of this wealth that I've just received? I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns. The last thing that was in his mind, ladies and gentlemen, was thanking God. He had no concern of following the Old Testament law of giving to God the first fruits that he received from God. In other words, to apply it to our contemporary culture, this man never once even considered the possibility of tithing, of giving back to God one-tenth that God had given to him as the law of God required. I've talked about that before, and I know that the overwhelming majority of professing Christians in our day do not tithe.

They're just like this fellow. They're totally absorbed with their riches, with their possessions. Their possessions are so important to them that they would go to such extent of holding back God's portion that they think nothing of actually robbing God Himself.

And if you confront them about it, they'll give you a host of reasons of why they do it. They'll tell you, well, that's the Old Testament. That doesn't apply today. And I say, well, I grant you it's the Old Testament, but it's not part of the ceremonial law. It's not part of the dietary law. It's part of the moral law of the Old Testament, which is never abrogated. But if you don't want to read the Old Testament, read the New Testament, which says you're in a much better covenant than you were then, and the obligations and the benefits are even greater. And so the Old Testament people got off easy. They only had to give 10 percent.

We start at 10 percent and go beyond that. And they'll say, well, I can't afford it. And I want to say to them, you're living better.

Your standard of living is better than 99 percent of human beings that ever lived on the face of the earth. I want you to stand before God Almighty who's given you what you have and say to Him, I can't afford it. The reality is you don't tithe because you're obsessed with what you have, and you don't want to part with any of it. Now that's a serious thing.

And I'm going to say something to you that may make you never want to hear me again. I worry about our congregation because I know there are people in our congregation who profess to be Christians who don't tithe, and I just don't get it. I'm sure theologically that it must be possible. Christians are capable of any sin, and so why shouldn't they be capable of robbing God?

It must be. But I really don't know how a Christian person can look at themselves in the mirror and refuse to bring their firstfruits to the Lord. Sometime I'd like somebody in our church who's not a tither, who is a professing Christian to say, let me tell you why I don't.

I'd like to hear what their thinking is because I really can't imagine. I think it's possible to tithe 10 percent and 20 percent and 30 percent and not be a believer, and not be saved. And I think it's possible to be saved and not tithe. Barely possible. Barely.

Remotely. But I would say the odds are that if you don't, there's a very good chance that you're just like this person. Somebody who really is an unbeliever, when it gets right down to it. This man is described in two ways. First of all, we are told that he's rich. And Jesus does not say that being wealthy is inherently a bad thing. What is bad is when your heart and your soul are tied up in your wealth, in your material possessions. The other thing that is said about this man is far more significant. It's the parable of the rich man, but it's also called the parable of the rich what?

Fu. Now let's not mistake that word. To be a fool in biblical categories does not mean that you're unintelligent or that you're uneducated. Even Aristotle made the observation that in the brain of the most brilliant man resides the corner of the fool. There's a difference between stupidity and foolishness. And in biblical categories, dear ones, the judgment of being a fool is not a judgment of intelligence. It's a moral judgment. It's a moral judgment. And the judgment of being a fool is not a judgment of intelligence. It's a moral judgment. It's a moral judgment. The psalmist tells us, it is the fool who says in his heart, he doesn't say it with his mouth, but he says it in his heart that there is no God. Like this man gets the bumper crop, and he starts talking to himself. The last thing that he's concerned about is God.

He doesn't have the slightest interest in spiritual matters. Always he's concerned about, what am I going to do with my surplus? Well, it's simple. I'm going to tear down the barns that I have, and I'm going to build bigger barns and yet bigger barns so that I can store up all of my provisions against the rainy day. And then I can say to myself, self, be at ease.

Take it easy. You've got all the wealth that's stored up now in these bigger barns. So you can eat, drink, and be merry. A pagan formula. Paul mentions it cynically in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says, if Christ is not raised from the dead, then we might as well, just like the world, eat, drink, and be merry. And the Apostle says, why? For tomorrow we will die.

So we might as well have our party tonight, because it's all over tomorrow. And here comes the punchline. But God said, you see, we have two parties speaking. We have the man speaking to himself, be at ease, eat, drink, and be merry, tear down your barns, build bigger barns. And the next speaker in the parable is God. And God looks at this man, and He said, you fool. Don't you understand that foolishness is the antithesis of wisdom and that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord? It's reverence for God. But this man had no reverence for God.

At all. And God Himself said, you fool. Tonight, not next week, not next month, not in 10 years, but tonight your soul is required of you.

And obviously, this man was not ready. Jesus elsewhere said, what can a man give in exchange for his soul? And this man said to God, oh God, don't worry about my soul. I'll tell you what, you can have all that I've stored in these barns. I'll give you all my wealth now.

And God is saying, it's too late. I don't want your money. I don't want your possessions.

I want your soul right now. So he who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God is like this man. You know what I wonder? That fellow that came up to Jesus and said, will you settle this inheritance question and tell my brother to give me my inheritance? I wonder what he was thinking after he heard the parable. You know what I think?

I think he was sneaking away. I don't think he wanted to push the point anymore because Jesus at just that moment identified him in front of the whole group of people as a fool. Jesus used parables to help us understand the kingdom of God. They help us think and act in a godly way, and they let us know when we may have the wrong idea about God's kingdom, as He did with this young man today.

This series covers 12 of Jesus' parables, including the prodigal son, the wise and foolish virgins, and the talents. We'd like to send you the two-DVD set when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. You can make your request online at renewingyourmind.org, or if you prefer, you can call us. Our number is 800-435-4343. Let me take just a moment to thank you for your support of this ministry. Your gifts allow us to continue creating teaching series like the one we're hearing this week.

We rely on the regular support of friends like you, and we're grateful. And again, if you'd like to obtain Dr. Sproul's series, The Parables of Jesus, call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. Tomorrow, R.C. looks at the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, and we'll hear one of the most sober warnings Jesus ever gave. That's Wednesday on Renewing Your Mind.