Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.” And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain 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 whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God. Luke 12:18-21
“The wealthy farmer, who thinks that he need not fear shortage of harvests for many years, is a man who wants to live without God and his fellow humans. But God’s comment to him is you fool, reminding us that a fool is a person who lives without God. Instead of sharing his blessings with God and humanity, he decides to store the crops as a security for an early retirement and a life of ease. So he tore down his old barns and built new and bigger ones. The treasure in the barns would be his lifelong security.
He is completely self-centered, separated from God and others by his love for earthly possessions. He falsely assumes that human life can be measured and secured by wealth, and regards his life and property as his own. In doing this he fails to honor the doctrine that tress, rivers, mountains, forests, birds, night and day, and everything within the creation speaks a godlike language, praises God, and should be used with awe and reverence.
God has created us as human beings who are meant to be interdependent, to live in a fellowship. By his actions, this man denies the principle, which is well illustrated in the following story:
‘There once was a man who was a staunch churchgoer and a deeply committed Christian. He supported most of the activities of the local church. And then, for no apparent reason he stopped attending church and became just a hanger on. His minster visited him one wintry evening. He found him sitting before a splendid fire with red glowing coals, radiating lovely warmth around the room. The minister sat quietly with his former parishioner gazing into the fire. Then he stooped with the tongs, removed one of those red glowing coals from the fire and put it on the pavement. The inevitable happened. That glowing coal gradually lost its heat, and turned in a while into a grey lump of cold ashes. The minister did not say a word. He got up and walked away. On the following Sunday, the old man turned up in church.’
A solitary Christian is a contradiction in terms. As human beings we are meant to live harmoniously with God, with our fellow human beings, and with the rest of God’s creation. Artificial barriers that separate human beings on the basis of economic status, gender, race, or age are contrary to God’s will. Our souls can only relax, eat, drink, and be merry together with all other human souls in the presence of God.”
Paul John Isaak in Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars, edited by Tokunboh Adeyemo (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006) 1255.
It’s Black Friday. Merchants in the USA and many other countries will try to entice us to buy many things. They will tell us that life consists in the abundance of possessions. They will say that security is found in independent living, and that storing up treasures for ourselves is the wise course to take in crisis.
Don’t be fooled. Instead, I pray this powerful story convicts everyone to put their coal back in the fire. I pray each of us chooses sharing and interdependence. And I pray our Friday is filled with sweet fellowship with God and people, and that our lives exhibit gratitude and generosity.