Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV).
The last portion of this verse is rendered this way in different translations:
Your true life is not made up of the things you own. (GNT)
Life is not measured by how much you own. (NLT)
Even if a man has much more than he needs, it cannot give him life. (WE)
Jesus immediately followed this statement with the parable of the rich fool:
There was a rich man who had some land, which grew a good crop. He thought to himself, “What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and other goods. Then I can say to myself, ‘I have enough good things stored to last for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’” (Luke 12:16-19, NCV)
So far, doesn’t this story sound great? Store up lots of money for yourself, retire early, and live large!
These different translations of verse 19 capture the rich man’s philosophy, which sounds remarkably like the American dream:
Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. (CEV)
Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. (RSV)
Relax! Eat, drink and have a good time! (Phillips)
You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life! (MSG)
Jesus didn’t accuse the man of dishonesty, theft, or injustice. For all we know, he might have faithfully attended synagogue. He was living the life others dreamed of. What’s wrong with that?
Then comes the big surprise: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?’” (Luke 12:20, CEV).
What derailed the rich man’s attempts to live what he believed was the good life? First, death. Second, God’s judgment on his now irreversible life. In the predigital age, a high school photography teacher taught me how to develop photos by immersing photo paper in solutions. As long as the photograph remains in the developing solution, it can change. But once it’s dropped into the stop bath, it’s permanently fixed. Likewise, when we die and enter eternity, our lives on Earth will be permanently fixed, never again to be altered or revised. “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, NIV).
The rich man wasn’t merely a fool like the kind described in the book of Proverbs, who still had an opportunity to repent and choose wisdom (see, for example, Proverbs 26). God’s appraisal of us after we die is final. There’s no reset button, no do-overs. If at the end of your life God calls you a fool, you’ll be a fool forever.
This parable serves as a warning to all of us. Jesus applies the rich fool’s experience to that of others: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). To lay up treasures for ourselves and not be rich toward God means clinging to our riches instead of honoring God by helping those who are physically and spiritually needy.
What Makes Someone a Fool?
In Christ’s story of the rich fool, the word translated “fool” literally means “unthinking one.” Mindless. Senseless. The rich fool was out of touch with eternal realities. Despite death’s inevitability, he failed to prepare for it—and failed to remember that he would give an account to God (Romans 14:12).
The rich fool stored up treasures for himself on Earth as if he were the center of the universe and as if this world was where he’d live forever. The man was a fool to imagine his silver, gold, crops, land, and barns were actually his. He was a fool to ignore God’s claims on him and his possessions:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. (Psalm 24:1, NIV)
“The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. (Haggai 2:8, NIV)
A wise person will regularly ask, “Lord, what do you want me to do with all you have put in my hands?” God reveals Himself to us in the living Word—Jesus—and the written Word—Scripture. That means we don’t have to wait until we die to discover how we should have lived. God’s Word tells us exactly how to prepare now for the afterlife. Though our culture and even some of our Christian friends may encourage us to do so, we don’t have to live like fools!
In the world’s eyes, the rich fool was a great success. Today he would be admired, and he might even be placed on a church or ministry board. But in the end, all his success counted for nothing. D. L. Moody said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”
Had the rich fool acknowledged God as his Creator and Redeemer, and as the ultimate owner of everything he possessed, he would have been rich toward God and stored up treasures in Heaven. Instead, he stored up for himself treasures on Earth and was suddenly and eternally parted from them at death.
The most troubling aspect of this parable is that if we met this man, most of us would commend him for his foresight. Yet foresight is exactly what he lacked. He may have planned twenty years ahead, but he failed to plan twenty million years ahead. And as it turned out, he didn’t even have twenty years before facing God in judgment. He had closer to twenty minutes.
Trusting in Riches Is an Illusion
When it comes to how we view money and possessions and what we do with them, what’s right is also smart, and what’s wrong is also stupid. In the end, this man’s “good life” turned out to be an illusion. Notice he isn’t called the rich sinner, but the rich fool.
God graciously gives us money and possessions to meet real needs, both our own needs and the needs of others. He wants us to enjoy life, but He doesn’t entrust excess to us so we can indulge excessive wants. Money and possessions are not life giving. They are utterly incapable of imparting to us the identity, purpose, significance, and security we crave.
Let’s determine not to be rich fools disguised as disciples. Instead, let’s commit ourselves to learning to boldly put all our resources at God’s disposal, as He has put all His resources at ours.
