The Parable Of The Rich Fool

The man broke in abruptly, breaking the thread of Jesus' conversation with his disciples. He had a personal matter which to him was more important than all that Jesus had been saying. "Master" he urged "speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me". The total irrelevance of his request to the subject on which Jesus was dwelling shows that in this case at least the Master's teaching was falling on completely deaf ears. The man was not interested in what Jesus had to say to him; only in what He would do for him.

A very noticeable factor in our Lord's ministry is the unceremonious manner in which He dismissed those claims on His attention that came from unworthy sources. Although He never missed an opportunity of doing good when such action was in accord with the object and tenor of His mission He would not use his power or authority on unworthy objects. In this case He saw through the man and refused his request without hesitation. He said "Man", (what scorn and contempt lie in the use of that epithet) "who made me a judge and a divider over you?" And without another word to him He turned to His disciples and began to talk about the evils of covetousness. "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of goods which he possesses".

It is evident that the original suppliant was a covetous man; he had become involved in argument with his brother over the disposal of their inheritance and was hoping to introduce the authority of Jesus to favour his side of the argument. That was his only interest in Jesus; he called him "Master" but he was not particularly interested in becoming a pupil, less still a follower who would give up the interests of this world and follow Jesus wherever He might lead. He was a covetous man and he meant to get all he could while life lasted and if the moral leadership of Jesus could be invoked to his advantage in this argument with his brother, he was going to invoke it.

The remark about covetousness was only the prelude to some more positive teaching. Straight away Jesus plunged into His parable. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, so plentifully in fact that he was faced with the problem of the disposal of his gains. There were of course a number of alternatives. Having taken enough to provide himself with a comfortable living he could devote the remainder to the relief of the poor. There were plenty such in Israel and the need was always there. Or he could make a generous donation to the Temple treasury for the work of God. There would be no lack of worthy outlets for his surplus. But no; he intended to keep all that he possessed for his own selfish enjoyment. He decided to pull down his granaries and storehouses and build bigger ones, and there store all that his land brought forth. Having done so, he would say to his soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry". The rich man was too covetous to part with anything that he had or to do good with it. He would hang on to it and look forward to a life of ease and indulgence.

But man proposes and God disposes. This man does not seem to have considered God in his calculations at all, but now God spoke to him. "You fool" — an epithet meaning one lacking reasoning power, unintelligent; perhaps our colloquial use of the word 'idiot' is the best equivalent—" this very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" To that, of course, there was no answer. The one circumstance in life over which the man had no control was come upon him, and in the face of that fact all his planning and expectation was come to nought. There is an expression in use in this our expressive day "You can't take it with you" and that is the thought which came at last to this man who had laid up treasure for himself but was not rich toward God.

Let that last point be well considered. This man's fault lay not in the acquiring of wealth or of goods. To the extent that he diligently cultivated his lands and cared for his flocks and herds he did well, for the earth has God given to the sons of men as a stewardship, to be wisely administered and made to bear increase. Slothfulness and idleness are never extolled in the Scriptures ‑ rather the reverse. The unprofitable servant is reproved but the one who increased the money entrusted to him is commended. Up to the point where the man had increased his productivity tenfold he did well; the fault lay in the disposal of his gains. He failed to recognise his wealth as a stewardship from God. "All things come of you, and of your own have we given you" sang the Psalmist but this man had forgotten that. The needs of his daily life were supplied, and well supplied; now came the question of an acknowledgment to God and some return made to God. There was nothing of that in the man's mind. He failed to admit that all he had gained came in the first place from that which God gave and that some return was appropriate. More than that, he also failed to realise that the purpose of man's existence is not merely to absorb food and drink and pleasure and thus enjoy the blessing of life without bearing any responsibility toward others or fulfilling some useful purpose in creation exterior to himself. "No man lives to himself" wrote Paul. Each and every man is designed by God to live for a purpose, both now and in eternity, to fulfil some useful function in the fabric of His entire creation. This man intended to live a life of idleness, and idleness has no place in the Divine purpose. "Bless the Lord, you mighty ones that do his bidding, obedients to his spoken word. Bless the Lord all you his hosts, his ministers that do his will" (Psa. 103. 20-21) is a conception of the celestial world and its abounding activity for which we are indebted to the Psalmist. This same energy and zeal is used for the administration and orderly conduct of the material creation, must animate men if they are to be adjudged worthy of what, in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, is called the inheritance prepared for them from the foundation of the world. The keynote of creation is work ‑ without fatigue, without sweat of brow, divorced from the unpleasant associations normally attached to the term, but work nevertheless. These activities are necessary for the proper maintenance of the order of existence in which men have their being, and this man did not want to work any more. He had made his pile and he wanted to sit back and enjoy it.

So the rich man passed through the gates of death empty-handed, with nothing to show for all his years of labour. He could have laid up in store rich provision with God for the eternal future, stores of sterling character and understanding of the principles of righteousness and Divine government, that he might fill a useful place in the eternal world. He might have had stores of sympathy and compassion and experience of human folly and weakness, gained from the wise and beneficent administration in this life of the wealth he had acquired. These are qualifications which would fit him for use in God's future work of reconciliation and reclamation of men in the day of Messiah's Kingdom. But he had none of these. He came to God without anything to show for what God had done for him, a unit of creation that had yet to find his proper place in God's scheme of things.

Jesus drove the lesson home. "Therefore" He insisted, "take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, nor for the body, what you shall wear." Jesus did not mean that we are to give no consideration whatever to our bodily needs nor plan for the future. That would be the very negation of all his practical teaching. The Greek word employed here and in many similar passages is not one that refers to taking thought in the sense of considering or reasoning, but one which means literally to be anxious for, or to have care or concern. Most modern translations render "take no anxious thought" or "be not anxious" and this is precisely what Jesus meant. We who are Christians must realise that God has the oversight of all our interests and will overrule circumstances for our good; He can provide against the unforeseen events of life and we may give ourselves without distraction to his service in the security of that knowledge. That does not mean that we should live a hand to mouth existence without using any part of our present gains to make necessary provision for the future. Christian stewardship demands that we order our lives within the limits of our ability, that we can expect to go on serving the Lord to the end. Neither does it mean that we should announce our intention of "living by faith" ‑ which may be an excuse for sponging on the generosity of other Christians to avoid working at a regular occupation or undertaking any of the normal responsibilities of citizenship. It does mean that we should put the service of God and the interests of his work foremost in our lives, making all other things subsidiary and using all that comes to us in this world as aids to this supreme object.

Jesus' reference to the ravens and the lilies is liable to be misunderstood. The ravens, He said, neither sow nor reap, but God feeds them. Lilies neither toil nor spin but are arrayed more magnificently than Solomon in all his glory. His words need careful reading. God has designed creation so that the ravens can obtain their food and live their lives in a perfectly natural fashion, instinctively going to the place where food is to be gathered and finding it there. He has so ordered Nature that the lilies, as they grow, can absorb light and air and moisture, and the elements of the earth, to build the wonderful structure that is a flower. These things happen because the ravens and the flowers fit quite naturally into the place God designed for them, and so fulfil their function in creation. So it with us. We can rest in the knowledge that there is a place for us in God's purposes and that nothing save our own unbelief or obstinacy or wilfulness can prevent our occupying that place. We can be as the ravens and the lilies, fulfilling our designed place in creation in complete orderliness and serenity, giving glory to God by the very fact of our being. Just as the ravens must go to find their food, just as the lilies must lift up their faces to the sun and push their roots deeper into the earth, so must we be diligent in sowing and reaping, toiling and spinning, to fulfil our own particular destiny before God. It will be, always, in the serene knowledge that He is overseeing all and we are doing His will. There need be no anxious thought then; we are units in His scheme and He is controlling all things, cognisant of every life that waits upon him.

"Which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?" asked Jesus. He called this "that thing which is least" but the addition of eighteen inches to one's height would seem to be a pretty big thing. In point of fact the AV translators misunderstood this expression altogether. "Helikian" means extent of years, not extent of inches, and is rendered "age" in other translations. Which of them could lengthen his life by the shortest possible span? That was Jesus' question. No man can extend his life by worrying about it. No man can avoid entering at last into the portals of death. In the final analysis we have to trust God because we have no power of our own. He gave us life, all the things which are necessary to continue life, and He alone knows the ultimate purpose of life. The things of the present are transient and must sooner or later pass away. The life that is in us is capable of eternal continuance, sustained always by God, who is all-powerful. We have to discover His purpose, and place ourselves in line to be fitted into that purpose. Everything else will fall into place. "Seek first the Kingdom of God" was the conclusion of the lesson "and all these things will be added unto you."