“Fool! This night your soul is required of you” (Luk 12:20 ESV). I have preached and heard many gospel sermons on this parable the Lord Jesus told of a rich farmer, stressing how foolish it is to be prepared for this life with no thought of the world to come. But the primary audience of the parable was the disciples (vv1,22), not simply any unconverted who may have been in the crowd. Sometimes we’d rather apply the powerful truth of Scripture to others without thinking it has any relevance to us. To do so in this case means there might be a fool in the mirror, for we will miss the helpful warning of verse 15: “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (NET). That’s good advice to anyone, born again or not.
Here was a man totally self-absorbed. He was already wealthy and then had a bumper crop. His “problem” could have been easily solved without tearing anything down and rebuilding. There were plenty of poor he could feed. But all he could think about was building bigger barns and taller silos. When he speaks, he uses the personal pronouns “my” and “I” a total of 12 times (in the Greek). His language and plans reveal a deep selfishness. There was certainly logic in the farmer’s thinking but no love; there was calculation but no compassion. He had no thought for needy people all around him. He was laying up treasure for himself but was not rich toward God (v21).
In the next section of the chapter (vv22-34), the Lord illustrates what it means to be rich toward God; it means a life of confident trust in the Father. And the advice He would give to that farmer and to any of us blessed with more than we need is this, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail …. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (vv33-34 NIV).
We can become infatuated with the money we have and the money we want to have. Although we shouldn’t be reckless and waste our resources, how easy it is to make financial security our god. Our modern barns and silos are bank accounts and stock portfolios. We add them up and make our calculations. And we’ll do it again tomorrow and the next day. Hardly a day passes that we don’t obsess about money. We want to make sure we have enough, more than enough. We plan our retirements so we will have nothing to do but schedule the next exotic vacation once we’ve arrived home from the previous one. It’s easy to forget about the destitute and to overlook the necessity to fund the advancement of the gospel. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up sounding like this man who said to his soul, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!” (v19 NET). And now I know why I’d rather turn this parable into a gospel sermon. Who wants to be convicted and challenged about self-sacrifice and trust in God? It is far more comfortable to preach to people in a crowd warning them not to be fools than to preach to the one in the mirror.
