Luke 12: How Much Is Enough? The Rich Fool's Trap

Introduction

Two weeks ago, Forbes published its list of the 100 richest people in the world. At the top was Elon Musk, with roughly a trillion dollars depending on the mood of the stock market. In Australia, Gina Rinehart is worth 25 billion. And the youngest person on the list is a twenty-year-old woman who inherited a company and owns 1.1 billion dollars. Ross Wilson then asks the question that gives the message its title: how much is enough for one person?

This message is the third in the series "Make a Difference" at Southside Presbyterian Church, in Australia. We are not on the list of the richest, the preacher admits, but the question concerns us too: how much money do we need? To answer it, he opens Luke 12:13-21, the parable of the rich fool.

We rarely think of asking Jesus for advice about our finances. What could a first-century man living under the Roman Empire possibly know about our situation? He lived in a different era, but one thing has not changed: human beings. The people of his day had the same ambitions, the same dreams and the same struggles we do. Some of them, Jesus calls fools. Others, he shows the path of wisdom. And as you read, you find yourself wondering: is he talking about me?

Outline of the message

1. How much is enough for you?

We are all different: ages, cultures, economic situations. The preacher walks through the generations and what each one thinks it needs.
Those over 80 need to be able to pay for care that has become very expensive. Many earned about 30 dollars a week during their working lives, and today pay 130 dollars an hour for basic home help.
Baby boomers, aged 63 to 80, have built up their savings. There will be no new income: they have to ration their spending so the money lasts.
Generation X, aged 45 to 62, has to save for retirement. The preacher mentions an advertisement that comes to his mind every time he sees it: "the beast," a big investment fund you absolutely must have.
Generation Y, aged 27 to 44, has to cope with the costs of family, home, food, clothing, electricity and fuel. Money seems to leak out from everywhere.
Generation Z, for its part, needs a financial miracle to ever become independent: how do you get a house, how do you own anything at all?
The preacher sums it up with the image of a tank. The older generations have to make theirs last. Some want a bigger one. Others watch every dollar drain away. Generation Z replies: "A tank? I'd love to have one."
If you ask each of us the question, most will answer: "Just a little more."

2. A man pushes through the crowd with a question about money

At the beginning of Luke 12, thousands of people have gathered, so packed together that they are trampling one another to hear Jesus (Luke 12:1). One man makes his way to the front because his question matters enormously to him.
His request: "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me" (Luke 12:13). A question about money. It is not only the Generation Z young person who needs an inheritance to get started in life: any one of us could ask it.
Jesus refuses to step into this family matter: "Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?" Then he gives his financial advice: "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses" (Luke 12:14-15).
It is the same kind of language Jesus uses to warn against false teachers (see Matthew 7:15). False teaching destroys a life and leads people away from God, and we take it seriously. Covetousness deserves the same vigilance.
Jesus speaks of "all" covetousness. Some forms are easy to spot. Others are hard to see, because they are lodged in our hearts.
The preacher quotes the new slogan of an Australian lottery, Oz Lotto, which promises a win that could change your life. Something in us says: I will find real life when I have lots of things.
Hence a tension: we live in a world that depends heavily on money, we need it, and yet Jesus tells us to be on guard against it. To help us, he tells a story.

3. The rich man and his barns

"The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly" (Luke 12:16). Even if you are not a farmer, you understand: when a season of plenty arrives, you want to make the most of it.
He reasons: "What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?" Then: "I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones" (Luke 12:17-18).
And he says to himself: "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:19).
This man could be living in Australia today, Ross Wilson remarks. What is the goal of life in our culture? To rest. To retire at 70, or better, at 60, at 50, why not at 40. We have all thought about it. We cannot blame him.
But God says to him: "You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Luke 12:20).
Jesus concludes: "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21). This man thought he was securing his future, and he lost everything.

4. The fool: "my money, my plans"

The preacher offers a simple definition of the fool: "my money, my plans for my life." He talks about his crops, his barns, his goods. Everything is his.
God has no place in his view of the world. He sees himself as the main actor, when it is God who is. God is the creator, he sustains the whole universe and he has always provided. This man lived only "five minutes" on God's scale of time, whether he lived sixty years or forty.
We often take the same road: I worked hard all week for my money, so I choose how to spend it, probably on myself. That is the first sign of folly. It is God who provides.
"What will I do?" He could have prayed. He could have read the Scriptures and asked what matters to God's heart, to line up his heart and his money with what God values. He did not.
He is not stupid: he makes a plan. The week before, the church had spoken about how Christians should be wiser with their money and make plans. But whose plan? Not God's.
Hence what the preacher calls the trinity of greed: my money, my plans, my future.
He pictures this man settled on his couch, checking the stock market and his bank balance: everything is at an all-time high. In Greek, the words "take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry" are imperatives. He gives himself orders: you have made it, reward yourself, everything revolves around you.
Without God, this man has nothing. He prepares a comfortable future without even thinking about his eternal future. Everything is decided for the short term.

5. Being rich toward God

The rest of the story gives two clues. The first is God's question: "The things which you have prepared, whose will they be?" Someone else is going to benefit. The second is Jesus' conclusion: being rich toward God. If you try to keep everything for yourself, you are a fool.
Here is the preacher's definition, which he draws from the text: being rich toward God means "using wealth, as God gives it, for his purposes."
We often avoid talking about money because it is uncomfortable: I don't really give, but I am generous with my time and my talents, I serve on a team. Yet this passage is clearly about money. The man comes to Jesus with a question about money, and Jesus deals with the greed tied to money.
"As God gives it": the rich man in the parable is in a season of plenty, but that is not everyone's situation. In the same church family, each person is going through a different season.
The season of plenty is very dangerous, because it is easy to forget there that everything comes from God's provision.
The season of drought is hard: work, home, family life, money going out faster than it comes in. Even there, we have a loving Father who provides and who loves to provide. The preacher invites us to read Luke 12:22-34 at home, with the passage on the lilies of the field: God loves you far more than they are loved.
The steady season is dangerous too: as long as next week's paycheck arrives, all is well. It is routine, and we forget that it is God who provides.
Whatever your age or season, we all face the same question: what are you doing with what God has entrusted to you, whether little or much?

6. A legacy that makes a difference

Who will benefit from what you own? For the preacher, the word "legacy" answers the question well.
The rich man wanted a legacy centered on himself: for people to say he had succeeded and had stopped working so young. God answers that he is a fool and that others will receive what he worked for.
God wants us to make a difference in other people's lives. The question is not how much I can set aside for myself, but what impact I can leave around me.
The local church exists for God's kingdom and his purposes: making disciples of Jesus and helping them grow.
Ross Wilson tells the story of a foundation that owns a farm in Bundaberg, where avocados and macadamia nuts are grown. Its aim: to help young people, especially those leaving detention centers, find solid ground again. Over six years, more than 60 young people have received basic training there, trade and farming skills, and support for themselves and their families. Over the years, hundreds of people, even thousands, have been helped.
Who pays for all this? It all goes back to 1947, nearly 80 years ago. Two women owned this farm. They decided to give it to the church they attended, on Ann Street, and to create a foundation with it to help young people get back on their feet.
They could have made the farm prosper and then rested, eaten, drunk and been merry. They could have kept it as a family farm, and there were probably many pressures to do so. They probably were not living in poverty, but the temptation of comfort was there. They chose to use what God had given them for his purposes.
We may not be able to leave a large part of our possessions to the work of the church, or perhaps we can: the preacher does not want to answer for us. He invites us to reflect on our legacy.

7. The legacy we are building together

Southside's vision: that God would use the church to make disciples of Jesus and help them grow, and to reach 1% of the local population, which is a thousand people. That number is only a beginning.
Last year, the church grew by 10%, as in previous years: about forty more people than the year before. Some became Christians. Others had drifted away from church, sometimes hurt, and came back to a place of healing. Others found a place to grow.
The Discovery course was excellent this year and will run twice next year. The playgroup is bursting with activity every Tuesday morning. In the "English for Life" class, where people learn English before a basic Bible study, one woman was in tears: "I had heard about Jesus. I had heard what he did, but I can finally see that what he did, he did for me."
Today there are 400 people, adults and children, on Sunday morning, more than 230 people on the teams, more than 30 team leaders, 10 leaders of leaders, and the equivalent of three full-time staff. "A stretched situation, we are short of resources, but God is doing extraordinary things."
In three years, with 10% growth a year: more than 500 people on Sunday, more than 300 on the teams, about fifty team leaders, more than 20 leaders of leaders and about six staff. That takes money.
The preacher does not want us to see this as a burden, but to rejoice in the legacy we are part of. Every point on the graph represents people: the faces of our friends and our families.
About eleven years ago, a congregation of about 80 people decided to buy the current building, which will eventually hold 450 people, the size needed to reach a thousand. That meant a debt of 4 million dollars. They said yes. Without that decision, most of the current members would not be here.
"Now it is our turn." Many ministries last about twenty years, then lose their vision, and by thirty there is almost nothing left. The preacher's prayer: that this ministry would continue after all of us, to reach our children, our grandchildren and their children.

Key takeaways

Asked "how much is enough?", most of us answer "just a little more." Jesus says: beware of all covetousness.
A man's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15).
The fool lives by the trinity of greed: my money, my plans, my future. God is absent from his view of the world.
Being rich toward God means using wealth, as God gives it, for his purposes. This really is about money.
Plenty, drought and steadiness each have their own dangers. In all of them, God remains the one who provides.

Personal application

If someone asked you today how much is enough for you, what would you honestly answer?
Which season are you in: plenty, drought or steadiness? What is the particular danger of this season for you?
When you make plans for your money, how much room do you leave for prayer and the Scriptures?
Who will benefit from what God has entrusted to you? What legacy are you preparing?
Concretely, how can you use a portion of what God gives you this week for his purposes?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does God call the rich man in the parable a fool?

For Ross Wilson, it is not because he makes plans: making a plan is wise. He is a fool because God is absent from his view of the world. Everything revolves around "my money, my plans, my future," when everything he owns comes from God. He prepares a comfortable future without thinking about his eternal future, and he loses everything that very night.

What does it mean to be rich toward God in Luke 12:21?

The preacher gives a simple definition: using wealth, as God gives it, for his purposes. This really is about money, not only time or talents. Whether you have little or much, the question remains the same: what are you doing with what God has entrusted to you, and who will benefit from it?

Why does Jesus say "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness"?

Jesus uses the same kind of language as when he warns against false teachers, who destroy a life and lead people away from God. Covetousness is therefore a serious matter. Some forms are easy to see, others are hidden in our hearts. All of them rest on the same illusion: believing that real life depends on the abundance of possessions.