First Mennonite Church
January 25, 2026
The Parable of the Rich Fool
Text: Luke 12:13-22
A first look at this parable, calling this successful farmer, a “fool,” doesn’t make much sense. Here is a man who has done everything right and his hard work has paid off. His good fortunes were only increased by a bumper crop. He is forced to make happy choices upon which he made a well-deserved conclusion about his future. We might even say, “Lucky him!”
According to the prevailing values and wisdom of today, we are encouraged to work hard, to save or invest as much as we can for the future, which seems exactly what the man of our story did. According to the value system of the world, it would be foolish not to prepare for the future. So, we wonder, what or where was this man’s failure or problem to be called a “fool”?
But in order to understand the story, let us see the context in which Jesus told the parable. According to Luke, Jesus was teaching. Thousands of people had gathered that many were trampling upon one another, Luke says. Jesus was warning the crowds about whom to fear. He said, “Don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body but after that can’t do more. But I tell you whom you should fear. Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” He then proceeded to warn about the risk of following him. He said, “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.”
But as serious as Jesus’ words were, among the crowd was a man whose heart was trouble by something else. There was a family dispute regarding inheritance. Thus, he asked Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus refused to be dragged into this conflict. In return, Jesus asked him: “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And to further clarify his point Jesus told the parable of the rich man.
As I noted, according to common wisdom and the prevailing values, this man had done everything right and had been very successful. His produce was abundant. His hard work had yielded accordingly and the man was confronted with a pleasant dilemma. What should he do with his abundant crop.
As we see, the man thought to himself. He talked to himself, planned for himself, and in the end, congratulated himself. He conferred a blessing upon himself—take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry!
In this man’s world, the only one who mattered was him, and in his view, nothing could interrupt the flow his achieved blessed horizon. He had secured for himself a future and the world lay at his feet.
In the Gospel according to Luke, God is presented as the sovereign God who intervened through John the Baptist, through Jesus and is the one who has the course of history in his hands. Here is an interesting fact: Luke is the writer who mentions God more than any other New Testament writer. In the gospel that bears his name, alone, “God” is mentioned 119 times, and in the book of Acts of the Apostle that he also authored, God is mentioned 176 times, more that in Romans where Paul has the most mentions. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus does not proclaim the “kingdom of heaven” as he does in Matthew’s gospel, but he proclaims the “kingdom of God.” In Luke, God is ruler of the human history and God always makes cameo appearances. He suddenly appears in the scene to play an although brief but significant role.
Thus, Jesus continues, “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?’” Jesus then warned his audience: “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
The main intent of this parable, like some others in Luke, is to change our behavior. However, it is not by simply giving us an example to follow or in this case to avoid. Instead, it wants us to change our behavior by changing our perception, our view, our vision about the world, our lives, of material things, but above all, about God’s powerful intervention through Jesus Christ. This is especially so for the people who call themselves followers of Christ; those are we.
In the case of the man in the parable, the entire world revolved around him. He was the perfect narcissist. He even congratulated himself. And when his good fortunes were only increased by a bumper crop, he only talked to himself and made plans for himself. His newly increased abundance forced him to make a happy decision—to build larger barns. And why not?! He had everything most people could only wish they had. His abundance afforded him beyond the basic necessities of life, namely, leisure, security, and pleasure, which must of us would dream of having. But one thing he failed to see. He failed to see that every blessing in life and a real secured future depend on God.
One the one hand, we must remember that our lives and possessions are not our own. They all belong to God. We are merely stewards of them for the time God has given us on this earth.
On the other hand, this parable reveals the consistency of the message found throughout the Gospel of Luke. God has intervened or interrupted world history and therefore, he has changed the rules of the game. It is no longer, “blessed are the rich and the well-fed, but as Jesus declares in Luke, “Blessed are you who are poor . . . Blessed are you who are hungry now.” But that does not mean that God wants us to live in need and in starvation. Jesus showed the example when he shared his bread with the hungry and when throughout of Luke’s gospel, Jesus calls on his followers to share with those in need. One prime example of that is Luke’s account in the Book of Acts of the Apostle where believers sold their properties in order to provide for those who were in need.
As we saw in the parable, God appears to the rich man and calls him a fool. In Psalm 14, verse one, reads: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” The psalmist is not saying the fool is an atheist. (Atheism is a modern category unknown in the ancient world.) Fools are the ones who live as if there is no God or that God makes no difference in their lives. And that is exactly what the man in our story was. He lived to himself. He worked for himself. He wanted to secure his future and when everything went well, he thought he had gotten it. But then God appeared.
One of the consequences the prevailing values and wisdom that guide our lives is the belief that we are on our own. And if and when we get caught and wrapped by the prevailing view about life, we center our view on ourselves only. We begin to talk, discuss, and plan for ourselves only. And that sets us on a course of hoarding. It would not matter how much we would get to amass; we would still feel that it is never enough.
But as believers we need to see the new reality in Christ. It is one where we use or employ God’s given gifts with generosity and readiness toward those in need. God’s given gifts to us, as good as they are, they are impermanent. In Luke 12, 33, Jesus urged his disciples saying, “Make purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Death peels off the fingers from all possessions no matter how firmly their owners have held them. Our Old Testament reading this morning puts it very bluntly: A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? (Ecclesiastes 2:24, 25). You see, the kingdom people spend, not like if there is no tomorrow, but instead spend as those who know that tomorrow belongs to God and to God’s kingdom.”[1] Amen!
[1] Thomas G. Long, Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville 2024), 286.