The Rich Fool

Welcome to Prairie Lakes! Hey: if this is your first weekend with us or maybe you’ve been hit and miss the last few weeks, here’s what you’re jumping into today:

We’re in a series that we’re calling “The Stories Jesus Told.” In the (4) Gospels - the (4) books of the Bible specifically dedicated to talking about Jesus’ life and ministry on earth—in those (4) Gospels we have sermons from Jesus. We have lessons that Jesus taught to his disciples. We have some records of interactions that he had with different people.

But we also have a collection of a bunch of stories that Jesus told. And these stories are called “parables.”

Parables: What and Why?

Here’s what a parable is:

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The word parable is the combination of two words:

Para, meaning near; and

Ballo, meaning to cast or put.

Literally: a comparison.

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In fact, every story that we see Jesus telling in the Gospels is a comparison. Jesus is throwing these stories down alongside something he’s seeing or what someone is saying… or even something that Jesus is trying to teach.

Could be any number of things going on—but Jesus is going to lay one of these stories down beside it as a way to help people realize or recognize something.

And what he’s trying to help people realize or recognize | is something about how life with God works in his kingdom.

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Jesus speaks in parables (or, tells these stories) as a way of helping people realize or recognize how life with God works.

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And he almost has to do this. He really has to. He has to tell stories that help people realize or recognize how life with God works.

Why?

Because the story that’s in front of people every single day is so very different from how it works with God.

Every single day, before everyone’s eyes, on repeat, are stories that are predictably and utterly shaped by sin and brokenness. That’s our reality. And that reality shapes our stories. Every single day on repeat.

Like:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Plays out every day.

Like:

Absolute power corrupts absolutely—but it also seems to protect the corrupted. Plays out every single day.

And, of course, let’s not forget:

And the world is a dangerous place. Sickness could get you; an invading country could get you; a robber on the road could get you. 1,000 ways to die. And people did.

In fact, good people did. Tragedy strikes everyone. No one is immune.

These are the stories that played out for everyone, every single day.

And so this is why Jesus has to tell these parallel stories—these parables of how life with God works.

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Jesus has to speak in parables because life with God works—but works very differently than the stories we’re most familiar with.

These stories can help us see that.

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Parables: How to Interpret

Ok. One final thing before we jump into one of Jesus’ parables this weekend. And that is this:

How do we interpret these parables? How do we know what they mean?

And this is an important questions, primarily because they’re... stories.

They aren’t newspaper articles.

They aren’t chapters in textbook.

They. Are. Stories.

And stories are… stories. They can have meaning; they can have lessons; they can have takeaways. And every single one of Jesus’ stories do.

But it’s also pretty easy to either read things into | or take things out of | a story that aren’t meant to be.

So here’s a few principles for you on how to catch the meaning of these stories that Jesus told:

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Finding the Point in the Stories Jesus Told:

Focus on the main characters.

Most parables have a single point.

The stories made perfect sense in the 1st century.

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(Explain.)

And that last one might require a little digging on your part—which is why we’ve provided this weekly resource on our website as you study and discuss in your groups. (Show sermon study guide; explain where to find it on our website.)

Transition

Okay. Let’s dig into the story for this weekend.

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The Rich Fool

Luke 12:13-21

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So… you guessed it: we’re talking about money this weekend.

But it’s ok, right? It’s ok. Because we’re not talking about your money. And we’re not talking about my money.

We’re talking about rich people’s money. Right? So… pressure’s off. If you started to squirm a little bit, just sit back. Because we’re not the “one-percenters.”

We’re Iowans.

We eat gas station pizza.

We brag about how many miles are on our American-made cars.

We clip our Culver’s coupons for free ice cream.

Our idea of a nice night out is driving 40 miles to get to the nearest Applebee’s.

This is who we are.

Right? If Jesus is telling a story about a “Rich Fool,” we can be sure that he wasn’t talking about us.

But, it’s Sunday, we’re all already here, and so just for the sake of the exercise, let’s take a look at the story. Picking it up in Luke 12, verse 16. Let’s watch Jesus get after those rich people/not us/go get ‘em Jesus:

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Luke 12:16-19 “And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

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I mean, what a fool, amiright?

Here’s this guy. And he does what… farms.

Dumb.

And obviously he worked pretty hard—which is stupid.

But then—get this—he’s successful. Yields were good that year. So what’s he do?

He decides to grow his operation. Idiot.

And on top of all of that, here’s his goal:

He wants to save up so that he can retire!

What a moron!

(I hope you’re picking up on my sarcasm. Because otherwise, you’re deeply offended right now.)

This is the story Jesus told, though. Now, in fairness, it’s not the whole story. It’s not the whole story. We’ll get to the whole story.

But it is a familiar story. To us. Today.

Goes something like this:

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Success is earned. Hard work = success.

The rewards from my success are mine to do with whatever I choose.

I will save more of what I earned so that I can live easy later.

This is a wise plan.

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This is a familiar. To you and to me. This is a story that in many ways I am living out personally. You probably are, too (I hope!).

And also: I believe it to be true.

Success is earned. You do have work hard for it (usually).

And it is wise to save up for later. I’m doing that, and I hope you are, too. (Because the market has not been cooperative in this last year or so.)

This is a story that we’re very familiar with. But this isn’t the whole story. It’s in the rest of Jesus’ story that we see what might be foolish about how this guy is living.

Verse 20:

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Luke 12:20-21 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

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So that’s how the story ends.

And now, with the end in mind, let’s go back to the nuts and bolts of the story Jesus told. Here’s what we saw:

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Success is earned. Hard work = success.

The rewards from my success are mine to do with whatever I choose.

I will save more of what I earned so that I can live easy later.

This is a wise plan.

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But now with the end in mind, here’s what we see:

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Success is earned. Hard work = success.

The rewards from my success are mine to do with whatever I choose.

I will save more of what I earned so that I can live easy later.

This is a wise plan practical atheism.

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Practical atheism. God is not practically in this story anywhere.

Maybe this guy “believed” in God. Maybe he didn’t. We don’t know. It’s just a story.

But what we do know is that in how this guys was living out his life, God didn’t factor in in any way. God didin’t factor in in any way.

He didn’t factor into how he...

Saw his own success and the reasons for it...

Managed his resources or his investments...

Planned for his future—

God is nowhere in his story.

He didn’t recognize or acknowledge that God had any part in his success.

He didn’t ask God about what to do with what he earned.

And so...

When God doesn’t factor in practically to any part of his mindset—when he doesn’t play any real part in the reason for his success...

Then God doesn’t factor in practically to any part of his decision-making—how he chooses to spend, save, or leverage what he’s earned.

This is practical atheism.

And here’s the result of practical atheism, 10 times out of 10:

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When God is practically absent from how we manage what we’ve earned, we become the sole reason for and benefactor of it.

Practical atheism leads to sanctioned selfishness.

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That’s what was so foolish about how this guy was living his life.

And so let’s be clear on this, because it’s a story, and stories are easy to misinterpret.

Was he foolish for working hard? No.

Was he foolish for being successful? No.

Was he foolish for saving up for later? No.

Was he foolish for building bigger?

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That’s a pretty easy conclusion o jump to, I think. You could read that story and think to yourself, “Oh. Jesus is trying to say that bigger isn’t better. Smaller is where it’s at. Jesus is anti-big and pro-small.” I’ve seen plenty of people use this story as a way to advance that mentality. Even when it comes to church: big churches aren’t what Jesus had in mind. It’s small churches. Stay small. That’s what Jesus is saying.

But I don’t think that’s the point—and I’m not just saying that because I work at a big, multi-site church.

I work with a lot of churches. Churches of all sizes in just about every different part of the country.

And s o trust me when I say this:

It’s just as easy to be selfish by going big as it is by remaining small. I’ve seen churches that chase after big for selfish reasons, and I’ve seen churches that protect and promote small for selfish reasons.

So that’s not the point that Jesus is trying to make. That’s not why the man was foolish.

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It’s not the size of the barn that Jesus has a problem with. It’s why he was building them:

He was building them only for himself, his future, his comfort.

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His practical atheism was sanctioning his own selfishness, which is foolish. And that foolishness was going about to become readily apparent—because this guy failed to realize that the future that he was planning for was not guaranteed. In fact, it was going to be the opposite:

He was gonna die in his sleep before he could even start demo-ing.

Jesus is saying:

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The point:

Life is too short for you to live only for yourself.

God has bigger plans for you than just you.

But your selfishness will blind you from seeing them.

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That’s really the point.

And now that we see the point, let’s jump up to the very beginning of this passage of Scripture, before Jesus begins to even tell this story, to see what prompted him to tell it in the first place.

Remember what a parable literally means: it’s to put something down near something to make a comparison.

What was happening right in front of Jesus that caused him to lay this story down?

Verse 13:

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Luke 12:1,11 “Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy… When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,”

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So before Jesus launches into this story about a rich fool, here’s what’s happening:

A crowd has gathered around Jesus as he’s teaching his twelve disciples. So, everyone is trying to respectfully eavesdrop.

And what Jesus is saying to these 12 guys is this: watch out. There’s a lot of religious leaders who are going to try and get you to think that their way is the right way, and they’ll even drag you into court and threaten you with punishment if you don’t agree. But it’s ok; you can trust that God will be with you.

So… pretty weighty stuff. Heavy stuff. He’s talking about what following him is eventually going to cost them so that they don’t get caught off guard. And he’s telling them that God will be with them in those last moments.

And because hindsight is 20/20, here’s what we know: we know that every single one of those guys, except for Judas, was going to be martyred for their allegiance to Jesus.

So that’s what’s going on.

And then this happens:

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Luke 12:13 “Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.””

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Huh?

What about what’s going on right now tells you that this is a good time for that kind of question?

Watch out. It’s gonna get bad. These guys are gonna come after you. And they’re gonna get you. But God will help you know what to say.

“Um… hi. Jesus. Um, my brother’s being a jerk. He’s trying to screw me out of what my dead parents said is mine. And that’s not right. You would agree. So, um, sorry to interrupt, but he’s standing right here. Could you tell him that you’re on my side on this? Then you can go back to whatever you guys were talking about.”

Remember what we said about this story that Jesus told:

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Life is too short for you to live only for yourself.

God has bigger plans for you than just you.

But your selfishness will blind you from seeing them.

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Here it is. Jesus is delivering this important message about life, how life with God works, and how despite what they were going to experience and how their story was going to end, what God would be up to in the midst of all of it.

And this guy has a front row seat to all of it. He was the first to arrive. There’s so many people pressed in to try and hear what Jesus is saying, and this guy has them all to his back with Jesus right there in front of him.

But rather than being able to listen,

Rather than being able to see,

What has this guy’s heart, his mind, his ears, and his tongue...

Was a chunk of money.

And so Jesus goes from warning his disciples about these Pharisees to a different kind of warning:

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Luke 12:14-15 “Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

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Life is too short to live it for ourselves.

God has bigger plans for us than just us.

But if we live in such a way that we are at the center of the bullseye, we’re going to miss it. We’re not going to see it. We’re going to be blind to it.

Jesus is saying:

There’s a better life than a successful one.

There’s a better life than a comfortable retirement.

There’s a bigger plan than bigger barns.

But you can’t see it, because you’re so focused on you.

This guy who interrupted Jesus wanting him to pick a side between him and his brother. This guy is probably the younger brother. And we know that because that’s how it usually worked in 1st century Palestine: the oldest son had the “power of attorney,” so to speak. The man who interrupted Jesus wouldn’t have interrupted him if he was the one who had that power.

And the reason it most often worked this way was so that the wealth of the family—which, back then, was usually tied directly to some land and what it produced—would stay in the family instead of getting divided up. It was a way to preserve and build generational wealth so that the next generations in the family would benefit from it.

But neither his relationship with his brother nor the next generation meant anything to this guy.

Bigger than his relationship with his brother,

And bigger than the welfare of the next generation--

Bigger than anything Jesus himself was saying in the moment, for this guy, was this:

Getting what is rightfully mine to do with it whatever I want.

And, hey: it’s easy to pile on this guy, but before we do: it may have been a life-changing amount of money that he could be coming into. Maybe the kind of money that would have put him on a completely different course, social circle, business opportunities, level of comfort… whatever.

But he was absolutely willing to seal off a relationship with his brother and take from any future descendants—and remain completely deaf to learning anything that Jesus was saying—for the sake of what that money could do for him.

And that, my friends, is the very definition of poverty.

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Poverty isn’t the absence of resources.

It’s the absence of generosity.

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You wanna live poorly?

Put yourself in the center. Make yourself the reason and the point.

Make yourself the focus of your dreams.

Use relationships and religion to get what you want.

Use your resources for you and no one else. Not church. Not your community. Not those in need.

And in doing so, you’ll create an extremely comfortable life for yourself until it ends (and it could end tomorrow)—

And you’ll never know the feeling of what it’s like to live for the sake of others in God’s bigger story.