Who's the Fool?

There's a great story in the gospel of Luke where Jesus tells this story of a farmer who strikes it rich with a bumper crop that, in his own mind, sets him up for the High Life for the rest of his life. That is, until God shows up to set him straight.

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 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."

And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

"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. 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." '

"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?'

"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
(Luke 12:13-21, NIV)

What I find interesting here is how Jesus' original audience would have reacted to the description of this rich farmer. His actions, really his attitude, probably pass right over the typical American reader of Luke's gospel, but for the typical Jew listening to this parable, the man's attitude and actions would have probably provoked mixed feelings. For one thing, there might have been some envy among the day laborers who were used to bringing in little to nothing by way of income, and might deem this farmer as having received a real blessing. For another thing, however, there might be real shock that in no way did this rich farmer's comments/thoughts include God in the scope of his hopes and plans - something that may be well outside of our cultural ground zero, but not Jesus' original audience. (*I credit a conversation with Dr. Diane Chen for some extra insights as to the possible reactions of the original Jewish audience.) But all in all, this man's attitude and position, while envious, would be categorically wrong.

Why, you might ask? Because the man's plans, and the attitude behind those actions, are completely absent of God. That is, if a man had a bumper crop of whatever, he would almost be responsible to look around at his fellow Jews in need and help out in some way. Instead, we Americans [Christians?] might be somewhat shocked at God's anger at this man, after all, isn't he merely enjoying what we might think of as a proto-"American Dream"? Doesn't he deserve to sit back and enjoy the fruit of his labor? What's wrong here?

Luke offers us two keys from earlier in his gospel that I think help us in understanding this parable. The first comes to us from Luke 9, where Peter has just professed that Jesus is "the Christ of God," and Jesus launches into warning His disciples of His coming suffering and death. This is part of Jesus' "invitation" to discipleship, that whomever would follow Him must take up their cross daily, and follow Him. Then he posits the paradox of what we might call true Christian discipleship, that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will for Jesus will save it. The punch line for us is, "What good is it for a [person] to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (9:25, NIV.)

The second key is in regard to our relationship with God. Earlier in Luke 10, Jesus is asked by an expert of the Law what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, in good midrashic fashion, turns the question back to the expert, "how do you read the law?" The man sums it up by citing love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then he makes the mistake of trying to justify himself, he asks Jesus who is neighbor, and Jesus goes onto to tell the story of the Good Samaritan in order to illustrate the point that anyone and everyone is our neighbor.

And here's the breakdown for our "rich fool" of Luke 12. He was guilty of putting his temporal comforts first before and at the expense of eternity (and therefore, God), therefore, he neither loved God nor loved his neighbor. Instead of following God and surrenduring his life to God, he gained "the whole world," and thus forfeited his very self. Instead of loving God and loving neighbor(s), he made for himself a boatload, and rather than seeking to glorify God and care for the needs of his neighbor, he sought to live for his own purposes, his own comforts.

This is where Jesus' parable needs to hit us square between the eyes. Most of us Christians in the West, particularly in the U.S., are quite wealthy compared to the rest of the world. That joined to the fact that while a number of Christians are trying to live more simple, Christ-centered lives that allow them to share the many blessings that Christ has given them, too many Christians in our country live life much like the rich fool. We are blessed to be a blessing, yet too many of us have attitudes that betray the true condition of our hearts - we are number one. I must confess that this is one of my ongoing struggles. I admit it; more often than not (too often for my own comfort), I think about that really nice large, flat screen, LCD HD plasma TV that would be oh so much fun to watch movies on. Or I think about all the different restaurants I would love to dine out at this coming weekend. Or any number of far less interesting examples that still fit the bill of revealing in me a heart that does not love God or my neighbor.

These parables and words of Jesus should come back to us, as later in Acts, where Luke illustrates the living out of this parable in the lives of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). They see in the generous act of Barnabas' giving of his property to the Church a lot of positive attention that they themselves would like to have. In other words, they're only thinking of themselves when they sell their property, keeping part of the profit for themselves, and then proceeding to give the rest to the apostles', telling them that what they have turned over is the entire sum. They want all the fuss that was made over Barnabas, but none of the possible sacrifice. They still want to be able to enjoy the comforts of life, too. And just like God came that very night to the rich fool and demanded of him his life, so Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, leaving the entirety of their wealth to someone else to enjoy.

So who is the fool?

While this is not meant at all to be an exercise in finger pointing, it's a question we must wrestle with, and where need be, allow it to confront those areas of our lives, those areas in our hearts, where we do not love God and neighbor as much as we love our own lives, our own comforts, and fall into the trap of avoiding suffering (and possibly death), while at the same time seeking to enjoy the whole world. In the mean time, may God have mercy on us, and patiently give us the grace and power to both recognize and repent of our foolish ways. May we live lives that point to Him who has blessed us, that our neighbors may see our good works, and praise our Father who is in heaven.