Eternal investment - January 17, 2010
Sermon Notes for Luke 12:13-21
Key verse: Luke 12:21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
I remember a little book I had as a child that depicted this parable in colorful and stylized imagery. On the one hand, the parable conveyed a fairly obvious lesson: “you can’t take it with you” or “better to make plans for a future with God than a future with your things”. Perhaps I figured the message of the parable had something to do with the futility of making bigger and bigger barns to store up grain as opposed to distributing the grain. The rich man in the parable had a good head for numbers, and must have been a shrewd businessman/farmer. But from the perspective of the parable, he made foolish choices by concentrating on building his wealth at the expense (according to the parable) of his starving soul.
Now that I am older, I can appreciate more nuanced interpretations of this parable, beyond pitting the rich against the poor, or greedy misers against those who are rich in love for God. Why does Jesus call the man a fool, for instance? Does it have anything to do with refusing to settle for good enough and always wanting the elusive more? The story seems to turn on the choice the man makes to store a bumper crop by tearing down his barns to build bigger ones to hold the abundant harvest. Then of course there is the underlying theme of judgment in the afterlife that hangs rather ominously as the parable comes to a close.
The rich fool was storing the grain for whom? For someone else, because he was going to die. And having revealed the man’s fate, Jesus concludes by contrasting the poverty of earthly wealth with the riches of a relationship with God. What are the lessons for us, as we consider how God measures success in our lives in this current recession?
My little book missed a few details that provide more ways to appreciate this parable, among the fifteen unique Luke parables. For starters, Jesus tells this parable in response to a heckler who shouts out a demand for Jesus to arbitrate an estate dispute between two brothers. Deuteronomy 21:17 mentions a custom that awarded the firstborn son a double portion of his father’s inheritance. Perhaps this man was a younger son. Jesus interpreted his demand as a sign of greed—and told the parable to demonstrate that “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions”. A few verses later (12:23), Jesus teaches that “life is more than food”.
What does life consist of, according to Jesus? Perhaps it has something to do with being “rich toward God” (our phrase “have a rich relationship with God” in the NLT). The phrase the rich fool utters on the last night of his life, “eat, drink and be merry” recalls an Isaiah prophecy (in 22:13) that uses the phrase to describe those who celebrate inappropriately in a time of spiritual crisis—and concludes with “for tomorrow we die”. Paul also uses this phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:32 to describe the futile lives of those who do not hope in the resurrection. The writer of Ecclesiastes (8:15) encourages us to “eat and drink and be glad” in the face of the meaninglessness and injustice of life, and to enjoy the life we have.
A life of radical dependence and gratitude for God’s amazing grace runs through these chains of references like a thread. Greed is never satisfied—always tearing down to build more inadequate storage barns that can never hold anything of true and lasting value. Jesus invites us to experience the “more than” life with God, whose love and friendship gives us true abundance.
Today’s sermon is available online 
; free sermon CD’s from
previous Sundays are available at the sound booth.
Suggestion for Reflection and Meditation
- What is the difference between the storing of grain that Joseph (coat of many colors) engages in in Genesis 41:33-36 and the grain storage practiced by the Rich Fool? How might the parable be inviting you to practice another kind of storage?
- In what ways do you invest in your relationship with God? What practices might help you invest more passionately in your “rich relationship with God”?
- In your life, what makes the difference between greed and gratitude? How might this difference encourage you to measure your worth differently?
- How did you experience the Holy Spirit’s presence in worship today?
