Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 3, 2025
“51 When 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
- Luke 12:16-21 –
In the rhetorical technique of hyperbole, one exaggerates to prove a point. To this end, one might use a contrived example that is ludicrous and comical in its extreme as an exaggerated version of the problem one is seeking to expose. The purpose of doing this is to show how bad something truly is. This is precisely what Jesus does in the parable of the rich fool. He uses a contrived and exaggerated example to expose the stupidity of covetousness.
In the parable this stupidity is evident in the behavior of the rich fool. He is so blinded by greed that he tears down his existing barns and builds new ones just to hold more of his stuff. But we might well ask, “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to share one’s excess than to tear down one’s barns and replace them with new ones? And even assuming that one needed more storage space, wouldn’t it be cheaper to build additional barns than to replace the existing ones?” But this is just the point that Jesus is making. The rich fool is so blinded by his covetousness that he can’t think straight. As a result, he does comically stupid things.
According to the Apostle Paul, covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). And the blinding nature of idolatry is evident in the parable. The rich fool forgot that he was God’s creature and that God had given him all his stuff. He therefore forgot that God owned him and all his stuff. Instead, he worshipped himself and his stuff rather than God. As a result, he laid up treasure for himself and forgot to be rich toward God. And since he and his entire estate belonged to God in the first place, he actually defrauded God in his lack of generosity.
Sadly, the rich fool is a picture of us. In the rich fool, we see the bondage of our will in sin. In the rich fool, we see that we are truly curved in on ourselves in idolatry and self-worship. But there is some good news in the midst of this picture. If we are concerned about these tendencies of ourselves, this is a sign that God has already freed us from our bondage to sin by his powerful grace. By contrast, the rich fool went headlong into his idolatry, oblivious and unconcerned, until it was too late.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 3, 2025
“51 When 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
- Luke 12:16-21 –
In the rhetorical technique of hyperbole, one exaggerates to prove a point. To this end, one might use a contrived example that is ludicrous and comical in its extreme as an exaggerated version of the problem one is seeking to expose. The purpose of doing this is to show how bad something truly is. This is precisely what Jesus does in the parable of the rich fool. He uses a contrived and exaggerated example to expose the stupidity of covetousness.
In the parable this stupidity is evident in the behavior of the rich fool. He is so blinded by greed that he tears down his existing barns and builds new ones just to hold more of his stuff. But we might well ask, “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to share one’s excess than to tear down one’s barns and replace them with new ones? And even assuming that one needed more storage space, wouldn’t it be cheaper to build additional barns than to replace the existing ones?” But this is just the point that Jesus is making. The rich fool is so blinded by his covetousness that he can’t think straight. As a result, he does comically stupid things.
According to the Apostle Paul, covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). And the blinding nature of idolatry is evident in the parable. The rich fool forgot that he was God’s creature and that God had given him all his stuff. He therefore forgot that God owned him and all his stuff. Instead, he worshipped himself and his stuff rather than God. As a result, he laid up treasure for himself and forgot to be rich toward God. And since he and his entire estate belonged to God in the first place, he actually defrauded God in his lack of generosity.
Sadly, the rich fool is a picture of us. In the rich fool, we see the bondage of our will in sin. In the rich fool, we see that we are truly curved in on ourselves in idolatry and self-worship. But there is some good news in the midst of this picture. If we are concerned about these tendencies of ourselves, this is a sign that God has already freed us from our bondage to sin by his powerful grace. By contrast, the rich fool went headlong into his idolatry, oblivious and unconcerned, until it was too late.