The Parable Of The Rich FoolMessage preached by
Dr. Chris Chong on 2nd August 2009 at SIB Metro Church The Parable of the
Rich Farmer (Fool) This evening the bible passage is taken from the book
of Luke 12: 13-21. I want to start by first giving you the setting of this
parable. It is important to know what actually transpires before that. Before
that huge crowds had gathered around Jesus and Jesus took this opportunity to
teach them about important spiritual truths- blasphemy of the holy spirit, warning against hypocrisy etc. In the midst of the crowd, there was a man who
approached Jesus and requested Jesus to arbitrate his inheritance. He said to
Jesus in Luke 12: 13-14 “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me”. Jesus replied ,
“Man, who appointed me as a judge or an arbiter between you?” Apparently this man had a dispute with his brother
about inheritance. He came to Jesus because in Jesus’ time, it was not
uncommon for a Rabbi to make a judgement or to settle
a dispute. But Jesus wanted no part of it. Even though he was
requested to arbitrate, he kind of took what the man was doing and began to
shift the subject. What he did was he began to warn the crowd of the sin of
covetousness (greed) as noted in Luke 12: 15 – Watch out ! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a
man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”
Here Jesus gave a specific instruction that our focus or priority doesn’t
need to be wrapped in accumulation of things. Jesus wanted to use this
situation to teach about covetousness. The bible taught a lot about covetousness, which is not
an uncommon subject. Psalm 119: 36-“ Incline
my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness”. The implication here is that we tend to
desire earthly things than the word of God. The psalmist therefore prayed for
spiritual rather than material enrichment. In Hebrew 13:5 – “Let
your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as
ye have …” The author of Hebrew is trying to turn your heart
towards the Lord. When you have the Lord, there is security there and you
don’t have to grasp for other things. Jesus knows that we have the propensity or tendency
towards earthly material and he uses this setting to correct our perspective.
Now Jesus tells a story of a rich farmer from verse 16 onwards. Secondly I would like to tell you the 2 perspectives of
this parable. There are 2 perspectives found in this parable. Firstly –
the rich man’s perspective, which is temporal in nature (related to the
real physical world) and the Lord’s perspective, which is eternal in
nature. This is as if 2 persons are listening to the same story. One person is
thinking form this perspective and the other one is
thinking from a perspective which is 180 degree opposite. Jesus tells this
parable to make a drastic contrast between these 2 perspectives. Luke 12: 16 says: and he told them a parable,
saying,” the land of a rich man was very productive. Verse 17- and he
began reasoning to himself , saying, “ what
shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?” So here is a farmer who is very
industrious and prosperous. Now that he was so overflow with abundance and has
more than he could deal with. What is his solution? In Luke 12:18- Then he said ,
“ This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones,
and there I store all my grain and my goods’ Please note the many
“I”s and “My”s found in this
verse which gives an impression of self centredness
(his crops, his barns and his food). In Luke 12:19- And I will say to my
soul, (which give a sense of confidence) “Soul, you have many good laid
up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry” . Brothers and sisters, the passage does not indicate
anything unethical or sinful of the farmer’s riches. When he began to
assess he had or did, the name of the Lord was completely left out. It is all
about himself, earth and now. No” thank you God
for this abundance” – the one who provides the sun and the rain. No
thought of God, no thought of others and just how can I keep all to myself.
That was the human’s perspective. This is in contrast with God’s eternal
perspective, which is found in next verse (verse 20). Verse 20- but God said
to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now
who will own what you have prepared?” But when the farmer began to think of
time as his, he crashed into God to his eternal ruin. God told him that he
would die that very night. The he would lose ownership of all his material
possessions. It is interesting to note that God is not so concerned about now
but the future (the eternal future). Thirdly I would like to draw a few lines of
applications from this parable, but before that, let us note some things that
this man did which were not wrong. This man was rich and successful. Is that
sinful and wrong to be rich? Jesus is not saying that rich is sinful. As a
matter of fact, from the book of Genesis and Job, we know that Abraham and Job
were very rich men. What about planning for the future? Is planning for the
future wrong? It is necessary to plan for the future. You have to be prepared
or equipped. What mistakes did this rich farmer make? 1)
Presuming for
tomorrow is foolish We
all will think that we will live tomorrow, as if we will live forever. The
scripture warns us about presuming for tomorrow. Proverbs 27:1 says –
“Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest
not what a day may bring forth”. We do not know what tomorrow holds
for us. We have no idea and furthermore, we have no control at all. The rich
man however thinks that he is in control. Listen to what he says “Soul,
thou has much goods laid up for many years, take thine
ease, eat, drink and be merry”. He assumes that everything is in
order, prepared and equipped. He thinks he has enough crops to be laid up for
him for many years to come. What he doesn’t know was that that very
night, life is going to be over for him. James 4:13- Now listen, you who
say,” today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year
there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what
will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a
little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “
If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that”
. There is certain uncertainty about tomorrow. James is warning us about
presuming about tomorrow, warning us about self confident, boastful planning
independence of God. Our lives are as fragile and unpredictable as a puff of
smoke. 2) Being
rich on earth and poor in heaven is foolish Luke
12: 21- So is he that layeth
up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This man is a
rich man on earth from human stand point. What he does not realize is that his
soul is going to be taken that night. Although he lay
up much treasure on earth but he is poor in heaven. He thinks that everything
is being taken care of but he has not thought much about his soul (I e
salvation). We can spend a lot of effort and work diligently to have abundance
but have not given much thought about laying treasure in heaven. Jesus says in Matthew
6: 19- Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. Jesus goes on and says that in Matt
6: 21 “ for where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also” If your treasure is on earth, it
will has all your affection, all your devotion and your heart. Our hearts will
be pulled away from the eternal things and gravitate towards the things of
temporal nature. Brothers and sisters, if you wish to be rich, don’t give
all your efforts on treasures on earth but give your major efforts to the
treasures in heaven. Jesus is saying that our major investment is in heaven not
on earth. Colossians 3: 1-2 captures the spirit that we are telling now–
Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things
above, not on earthly things”. Brothers and sisters, as I come to the end of this
passage, I want to challenge you to think: where are you marshalling your
resources to? I hope your bank
account in heaven is bigger than your bank account on earth, because one of
these days, when all of our souls are required of us, either when Jesus comes back
or when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, whatever position or
possession you have, does not matter anymore. The only thing that really matters
is the treasure you lay up in heaven. When you think about it, you may need to
change a bit of your life style. That is exactly what Jesus says in this
passage, the parable of the rich fool. Dr. Chris Chong |
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