Don't be Fooled

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

DON’T BE FOOLED 

 

Luke 12:13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"  15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."  16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '  20 "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?' 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." 

NIV

Knowing that Greed is the center of this parable, we still should look a little deeper into the truth of what Jesus is pointing out. There are three interesting aspects of the parable of the rich farmer. First, this rich man received a crop every year. He had barns to store his yearly crop in, like most farmers did, and even do today unless they immediately take their crops and sell them to a grain elevator. Nevertheless, the farmer in this parable stored his own crop each year, which we would have to think evidentially sold it off for cash. This particular year, his crop was exceedingly great. Although Jesus has not included this truth in the parable, the crop of any farmer is totally dependent on the creation and control of God. We know this from the Psalms when David writes that man who mediates in the word of God is like a tree planted by the stream of water that brings forth his fruit in season and leaves do not wither and whatsoever, he does prosper. This rich farmer was not rich toward God, he was all about himself, which we would also think he saw this crop as from the efforts of his own hands. The second truth is about this good crop, which was larger and better than any he had already harvested. It was so much bigger he did not have enough barns to store it in. What we find interesting is that he did not simply build another barn, but he decided to tear all the old barns down, the ones that had always been enough to store his normal yearly harvest, and build all new larger barns. This was not only greed at the highest level, storing up his harvest for his own gain, which is the third truth we need to get to, but he had to make a big show of his great wealth, having pride, or being proud of himself, and the labor of his hands. Look at me, see how much I have accomplished. Look at me, see how much I have, I  how much I can do. We certainly can be in danger of that same kind of pridefulness on so many levels and yes, in the church as well, among us believers. There is one more truth here that is the very point Jesus is making. The fact this man thought that because of his efforts, he produced a great crop this year and was able to build all new barns to store his great crop in, though he could now sit back and relax, do nothing else in life, forget about all others, especially God, and keeping all his wealth for his one personal pleasure. We see this whole retirement phenomenon happening in our culture today. We watch it being played out on social media with all the posts of the evidence of their accumulation of wealth and how they are sitting back relaxing and enjoying life. Not that anything is bad about that as long as they are also rich toward God. This is the same danger we must face in our own lives, always being aware of being rich toward God, putting him first, as we have been told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and he will add all the things to us in this life. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that we have accomplished the gain in our lives whatever that is. God is the source of all the goodness in our lives.