A Shrewd Fool-The Rich Farmer

A Clever Fool—The Rich Farmer

Luke 12:16–21

“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul; Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”[1]

the picture that our Lord has given us in this wonderful story is the picture of a real man.

This farmer is no wax figure.

He is no bloodless nonentity.

He is altogether human stuff.

And we are interested in real folks.[2]

we are interested in this man,[3] because he is successful.

But there is a shock for us in the story.

The Master calls our shrewd hero a fool. “Thou fool.”[4]

Why then did the Master label him with this ugly name? It was not because he had a prejudice against him.[5]

He did not resent a man just because he had made a success.[6]

the reason that Jesus called him a fool is because no other name would exactly fit him.[7]

But why is he a fool? In what does his foolishness consist?

Certainly it does not consist in the fact that he has made a success.

He is not a fool simply because he is rich.[8]

The truth of the matter is that riches in themselves are counted neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral.

The Bible recognizes money as a real force.

What is done with this force depends upon the one who controls it.

Money is condensed energy.

It is pent-up power.[9]

They can provide a winter palace in the city and a summer palace in the mountains or down by the sea.

They can adorn my walls with the choicest of paintings.

They can put the finest of carpets upon my floors.[10]

On the other hand, if I am a good man, I may set these genii to the doing of tasks great and worthwhile.

I may command them to give clothing to the naked and food to the hungry.

I can order them to build better schools for the education of the world.

I can compel them to build better churches for the worship of God. [11]

there is no high task that man is called upon to perform but that these mighty genii can be of assistance.

They can help “to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”[12]

Nor was this man a fool because he had accumulated his money dishonestly.

The man who does accumulate money dishonestly is a fool.

So says the prophet Jeremiah and every clear thinking man must agree with him.

There is a way of getting money that makes money a curse rather than a blessing.[13]

But this man had not made his money after that fashion. He had never run a saloon nor a gambling house nor a sweatshop.

There is no hint that he had failed to pay an adequate wage to his laborers.[14]

But no such charge as this is laid against this man.[15]

How had he made his money?

He had made it in a way that is considered the most honest and upright that is possible.

He had made his money farming.

Listen: “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.”[16]

this man was not a fool because he had gotten his money dishonestly.[17]

Nor was he a fool because he set about thoughtfully to save what he had made.[18]

God lets us know that to waste anything of value is not only foolish but wicked.

What was the sin of the Prodigal Son?

It was this, that he “wasted his substance with riotous living.”

He spent his treasure without getting any adequate return.[19]

the foolishness of this man was not in the fact that he sought to save what he had made.[20]

Why then, I repeat, does Christ call this man a fool?

His foolishness lay fundamentally in the fact that he was a practical atheist.

He had absolutely no sense of God.

He lived as if the fact of God were an absolute lie.[21]

How do we know that he is an atheist?

We know it by hearing him think. Listen: “He thought within himself.”

Now then we are going to get to see this man as he really is.

You can’t always tell what a man is by the way he looks. He may look like the flower, but be the serpent under it.

He may smile and smile, as Hamlet tells us, and be a villain.

You can’t always tell what he is by what he says.

He may speak high sentiments to which his heart is a stranger.

Nor can you tell him by what he does. He may “do his alms” simply to be seen of men.

But if you can get in behind the scenes and see him think, then you will know him.

Tell me, man, what you think within yourself and I will tell you what you are. For, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Now, what did this man think? “He thought within himself, saying, What shall I do for I have no room where to bestow Mygoods and My fruits?

And he said, This will I do. I will pull down My barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all My goods and My fruits.”

Now we see him.

When he thought, he had not one single thought of God.

God was as completely ignored as if He had no existence at all.

This was the very fountain source of his foolishness.

He reckoned without God, and the man who reckons without God is a fool.[22]

Reckoning without God, of course, he has no sense of Divine ownership.

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