This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Luke 12:13-21. The English Standard Version supplies the passage with the title “The Parable of the Rich Fool.”
Have you ever reflected on the lives of dead people?
Consider Howard Hughes (1905-1976). He was 70-years old when he died. You can click this link to learn more about him. He was a very successful businessman.
When he died, his net worth, in today’s money, was US 14 billion dollars. His drug-addled life was pathetic. Though he knew for years that he was on his deathbed, he didn’t prepare well for his death. He was a germaphobe who washed his hands until they bled.
Consider Steve Jobs, who was only 56-years old when he died in 2011. His inventions changed the way we live our lives. When he died, his net worth was in the same ballpark as that of Howard Hughes.
Jobs sought to delay his death by receiving a liver transplant. After the transplant, he lived two and a half years.
There’s much controversy over what his last words were, and whether he was joyful when he died. What is clear is that, like Hughes, he knew he was on his deathbed for weeks if not months before he took his last breath. According to his daughter, he had a Buddhist priest in residence during that time.
Consider John Jacob Astor IV (1864-1912). He was the richest person to die on the Titanic. He was only 47-years old when he died. His was a sudden, unexpected death. His not-yet-born child by his 18-year-old second wife, who survived the sinking of the Titanic, didn’t get the inheritance he’d intended for her, because he’d not updated his will.
Our passage is about wealth; about accumulating wealth; about life.
In verse 1 of the chapter, Luke tells us that thousands had gathered around Jesus. He tells us that Jesus began to speak at length about life in the Kingdom of God. He spoke of those who recognize and submit to him and of those who don’t.
He told them that they should not fear being killed for submitting to him. He spoke about them being his witnesses, martyrs. He urged them to do what the Spirit led them to do, to serve others, to put others before themselves.
While he was doing that, he was interrupted. Interrupted by a man who was a younger brother. Who, because he wasn’t the first-born son, and because he’d quarrelled with the first-born son, needed the help of a respected teacher of the law, to get his share of his father’s wealth.
Then as now, if you didn’t have wealth, if you weren’t a landowner, you had to work mighty hard to lift yourself out of poverty and into the circles of the property-owning, politically well-connected, Hughes and Astors. You had to be like Jobs, you had to work hard to make meaning of your life.
The younger brother wasn’t interested in Jesus’ agenda. He was interested in his own agenda. He wanted his inheritance. He wanted it now.
How does Jesus respond? He tells the parable, the story, of The Rich Fool.
The owner of a huge property had an abundant grain harvest, like other landowners, though their properties were smaller than his.
The market was flooded. Better not sell now. Better keep and sell later.
But there was too much to fit in his old barn, his old storage shed. He was so rich, he could fund the project even without selling this year’s harvest.
He pulled down the old barn, to put up a taller one, a bigger one. But before he could finish the project, he died.
Jesus says his life was taken from him because he was “not rich towards God.”
Who would dare say that at a funeral, about the guy in the coffin?
The story only makes sense if the man’s action of storing the grain in order to make a profit later would have a huge impact on the economy.
The story must be read as part of a long sermon which begins at 12:1 and ends at 13:9.
The story must be read in the light of the eschaton, the final events in God’s plan for the world.
The story must be read as part of teaching about the difference between those who serve God and neighbour and those who serve themselves.
Most scholars agree that in Jesus’ day, there was no middle class, as we think of it today. Essentially, there were the haves, and the have-nots. The vast majority were so poor that Jesus often had to feed and heal them – a work which his disciples, in the early church, continued.
There were certainly rich people in Jesus’ circle, for example Lazarus. But when Jesus pointed out the rich, he used them as negative examples.
Luke has a special interest in what Jesus said about the rich. He uses the word “rich,” 17 times; that’s way more than Matthew’s five times, Mark’s four times, and John’s zero times. Luke has 10 accounts of rich people.
Ultimately, the measure of a man is “how much did he enrich his fellow human beings by the decisions he made.” And we will all be measured by the one who died on the cross and rose again.
Who are today’s rich fools?
Peace be with you.
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