Amy C Walters

The Parable of the Rich Fool | Luke 12:13-21

Jesus concludes the Parable of the Rich Fool by saying that everyone who is not rich toward God will suffer the rich fool’s fate. What’s the reason we should be rich toward God? The story makes it clear: God has been rich towards us.

At the end of this story, Jesus wraps everything up by saying, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not rich toward God.” The opposite of greed–richness toward yourself–is richness toward God. Jesus doesn’t explain in this passage what it looks like to be rich toward God, although I think he does in the next passage, Luke 12:22-34.

But what Jesus does talk about extensively in this passage is why we should be rich toward God. That’s what we’ll look at in this post. 

Notice that this parable begins by saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.” The ground here has agency. The rich man is not given credit at all for the production of his land. The ground is given credit.

And who controls the ground? God, the Creator, who sends the rain, who makes crops grow. So what this rich man had was because God gave it to him. It’s not from his own effort. It’s from God’s grace. 

We have a tendency to look at what we have and say, “We earned this, we deserve this. I worked hard for it, and that’s why I have it.” But let’s take a moment and recognize who gave us the jobs that we have, and who gave us the health and the knowledge and the abilities and the skills and creativity to do those jobs. Who determined where we would be born, what education we got, and what opportunities were made available to us through all of that? God did.

The very reason that we’re able to work is because God gives us that ability. He is the source of everything that we have. 

James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights. What we have is on loan from God. 

The rich man in this parable does not acknowledge God at all. He leaves him completely out of the picture. But God inserts himself into the story and says to the man, “You fool, this very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” 

The wording that’s used here–“your life will be demanded from you”–is similar to language used for recalling a loan. God is saying to the man, I have loaned you your life, and now I am calling you to repay it. 

Everything that we have not only comes from God, it’s a loan from him that we need to use well because we are going to answer to God for it. For everything that we have, everything that we are. 

Let’s return briefly to the start of this story. The man in the crowd tells Jesus to make his brother split the inheritance with him. Jesus responds with, “Who appointed me as a judge or an arbiter between you?” 

Now, this is an interesting question. Jesus bows out of deciding this issue between them. But the reality is that Jesus is the judge, and ultimately we will answer to him. 2 Timothy 4:1 tells us that Jesus will judge the living and the dead. 

Jesus is also on his way to Jerusalem, preparing to sacrifice himself through death on a cross. Jesus’ very presence on earth is a reminder of God’s generosity toward us. 

Our key truth for today is that God has been rich toward us. 

He sent Jesus as our substitute, he’s given us everything that we have, even our very life is on loan from him. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32). 

How then can we be stingy toward him? How can we claim all these things for ourselves and hold them tightly when God has given us so much?

That’s what this story reminds us of today. God’s richness toward us in his grace, in his mercy, in sending his Son and providing for so many of our needs. 

Notice that in this story Jesus does not say that wealth is the problem. It’s the pursuit of wealth above God that is the problem. God actually gave great wealth to many people in the Scriptures, like Abraham and Job and Joseph.