An Investment Gone Bad
Luke 12:13-21
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Key Text: Luke 12:15
“And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Wealth. We’d all like to have our fair share, wouldn’t we?
We’d like enough money to provide a pleasant home, healthful food, dependable cars, college for the kids. We want to pay the bills and enjoy a little recreation and lay something by for retirement. We’d like to have sufficient income to give something back by supporting our church, contributing to charities, or helping someone who’s facing hard times.
Those are reasonable hopes, goals that everyone should have a shot at, but not all do.
Wealth inequality in America is greater now than at any time since before the Great Depression, and getting worse. [DD] Our text contains a strong warning for those who put their trust in material things, making money their de facto god.
We’ve been following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, the road leading to the cross, when every teaching focused on serious business, including wealth.
A greed-based question (vv. 13-15)
The text follows a series of confrontations with hostile critics whom Jesus charged with hypocrisy and warned to be ready for the judgment (11:37-12:12). A large crowd had gathered to listen in on what Jesus was saying to his disciples (v. 1).
At some point, as Luke tells it, a man in the crowd felt emboldened enough to air a personal grievance. “Teacher,” he said, “tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (v. 13). [DD] [DD]
Jesus, looking toward the cross, had no time for greed-based family disputes that could be settled by a rabbi in the synagogue. Jesus responded “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator between you two?” (v. 14, NET). The NRSV glosses over Jesus’ impatience by toning it down to “friend,” but the Greek word is “man.”
Jesus did not begrudge the man his inheritance, but he had bigger fish to fry. Perhaps he sensed from the man’s attitude that his motivation was more mercenary than necessary. Having dismissed the supplicant, Jesus turned to address his disciples and the crowd gathered round them:
“Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (v. 15). “All kinds of greed” could include a desire for power, sexual lust, seeking pleasure through chemical means, or covetousness of any sort. [DD]
Here, though, Jesus’ primary concern was with material things: a subject with which we are all familiar.
A greed-based story (vv. 16-19)
Jesus’ encounter with the unhappy brother introduces a parable that is familiar to us, though it appears only in Luke. Jesus minced no words in telling the story, which is popularly known as “the parable of the rich fool.”
The protagonist is a fortunate farmer, already wealthy, whose fields produced such bumper crops that he was astounded. [DD] While considering his good fortune, however, he failed to appreciate the source of it. Jesus made a point of saying that “the land of a rich man produced abundantly” (v. 16). The farmer did not produce the harvest: the land did. It was a gift to him from God’s good earth.
The prosperous planter faced an unusual problem. He lacked room to store all that extra grain: what should he do with it? (v. 17). His poorer neighbors, no doubt, could have made helpful suggestions. The landowner could have shared his largesse with the laborers who did the actual work, and with widows and orphans who were often in need of aid.
But he didn’t choose the course of generosity. He pondered only briefly before deciding what to do. Note that everything the man thought and said was self-directed: “And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’” (vv. 17-19). [DD]
Storing grain for the future can be a wise choice. Joseph was regarded as a lifesaver because he advised Pharaoh to build huge storage facilities and store up bumper crops that he anticipated over seven years – but for the purpose of providing food during the seven lean years he expected to follow (Gen. 41:32-36).
Hebrew law decreed that farmers should leave their fields fallow every seventh year, requiring them to store up extra grain in the years preceding (Exod. 23:11).
But this man showed no concern for helping others or for keeping the law.
He never recognized the harvest as a blessing and never acknowledged God as his benefactor. He never considered that he could have used even a portion of the extravagant harvest to feed hungry neighbors or to aid poor farmers in danger of losing their ancestral land.
The rich man thought only of himself, and the only solution he considered was to ensure that his “ample goods” would be safe. He was a hoarder of the first magnitude. [DD]
A greed-based warning (vv. 20-21)
While his wealth appeared to be safe and secure, the man himself was not. While failing to figure either God or others into his business equations, he also failed to consider his own mortality.
God knew something he didn’t know, and God had a word for him: “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (v. 20). [DD]
“Fool” is a strong word, and intended to be. The man had made extensive plans for a life of leisure, assuming that many years of life remained. Now all the grain and goods he had laid by for retirement would go to someone else: he wouldn’t enjoy them after all.
We may recall an earlier question Jesus asked the disciples: “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” (Luke 9:25).
The parable should not be read as a case of divine capital punishment: God was not saying “Because you are greedy, I will kill you.” Rather, Jesus was pointing out that life is much more than possessions, and the wise (in contrast to the foolish) have a mature perspective that recognizes both their own mortality and their neighbors’ needs. They understand that the guiding force in their life should be God, not greed.
A potentially better reading of v. 20 acknowledges that the verb is plural and active, suggesting that it was the man’s ample goods that demanded his life: he had become possessed by his possessions. (See “The Hardest Question” online for more.)
Jesus’ closing comment was brief: “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God” (v. 21). [DD] How we live, and what guides our living, has consequences.
A greed-based lesson
This is a hard parable to love because most of us would secretly like to be rich, but none of us would like to be called a fool. Our culture idolizes having the newest, the biggest, the fastest, the nicest, the “coolest” of all things. We can have a hard time deciding where our primary allegiance goes, trying to focus on both God and wealth, despite Jesus’ insistence that it cannot be done (Luke 16:13).
We don’t have to be rich to be taken aback by this parable. Any of us who live in a home, drive a car, and have plenty to eat are rich by global standards. We are blessed beyond measure, but so often we fail to acknowledge the source of our blessings.
It’s easy to become obsessed with the problem of how we can hold on to the most of what we have. Instead of building bigger barns, we’re more likely to build larger retirement portfolios. We seek financial security to gain peace of mind, but there are larger issues to consider.
It is not unwise to prepare responsibly for the future, but it is foolish to live with no awareness of our own mortality and no sense of responsibility toward others. The parable of the rich fool reminds us that true security and peace is not found in worldly wealth, but in a generous spirit.
So, what should we give? How should we live? We often suggest that Christians should tithe – that we should contribute one tenth of our income to the work of God. Tithing is a good place to start, but it’s really an Old Testament idea that falls far short of Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him. All that we are and have comes from God and belongs to God. We are stewards not only of what we have, but of what we are.
Psalm 14:1 uses a word that we’ve already run across: “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” Whether we say there is no God, or just live as if there is no God makes little difference. When we look at who we are and what we have, if all we can think of is self-benefit – if we acknowledge no transcendent, higher claim upon us and our possessions beyond our own comfort and pleasure – if we see no connection between resources and responsibilities, then we are living just like the fool who says in his heart “There is no God: the only one who matters is me.”
Jesus had no qualms about calling the totally self-centered rich man a fool. If he were to examine our lives and our living today, what word would he use to describe us?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Luke 12:13-21
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
We all want our students to be comfortable. We don’t want them to want. We definitely don’t want them to not provide their needs. But how much is too much? Is giving away it all the only option? Should we have desires at all? What about this question: If you were asked to give it away, would you be able to?
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Luke 12:13-21
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Joker Burns Money” from The Dark Knight
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