Luke 12:13-21, Poor rich fool
The story must have circulated that a farmer not far
from Christ’s old home in Nazareth had made it big. Talk about a tycoon,
about a richly blessed man, his old ample barns weren’t big enough—he
had to build new ones. It half sounds like he took early retirement when
he had completed his year’s work because he said, "Well, you have
enough to keep you going for years so relax and take your ease." But the
very day he retired—that night—he died, and people would have gone
around saying how well he had done and how much he had left behind, so
much more than even they had imagined. He had possessions by
the trainload. Mercedes Benz vehicles in the garages, money bulging from
bags shoved into cupboards and under beds, hand-made suits hanging in
closets, hand-made shoes by the score under the beds, watches, big-name
spectacles and George Clooney shades, Japanese cameras, and the like,
scattered everywhere. Now that’s livin’!
Christ knew him well, stopped by his grave, glanced in the direction
of his barns and before walking away he murmured, "Aahhh, fool!" We’re
not to think that Christ begrudged him the blessings his Father had
poured out on him. To Christ it was a sad spectacle and plainly stupid
that a whole human life should be thrown away for so little. Something
had happened to the man. Somewhere along the way he had confused
possessions with life and somewhere along the way he got the impression
that God’s gifts to him were only for him.
It isn’t only farmers that get confused. Singers, songwriters, movie
makers and stars, politicians and policemen, judges and church-building
preachers, university heads and world-travellers, authors and television
personalities, doctors and the mass of us that claw our way in life
toward independence and security—we miss the point too.
"Made it, Ma, top of the world!" says James Cagney in the movie White Heat, as he explodes the world under him.
I genuinely do think it tragic to imagine Christ with that
awful honest sadness of his, looking at our graves, eyelids with a
flicker of deep disappointment, whispering "fool". Calling us fools not
because we had been rich or famous or that we were handsome or talented
or beautiful—no, not because we were any of those, but because we were
nothing toward God and toward others because we were something toward God.
This is fierce and piercing truth he tells. But what of those who
don’t know what we know, haven’t heard as much as we have heard, haven’t
had their eyes opened as we have had ours opened? They’ll come before
God and they’ll be dealt with in a way that is righteous because no one
gets a bad deal from God. But those of us that have heard and have
received the call of God loud and clear—we’ve received something awful
as well as something glorious. When God comes into our lives, hoarding
and self-obsession is sinful stupidity! To invite this God and this Christ into our lives and continue to think that we can worship and serve ourselves is moronic. Poor fools. Poor rich fools.
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