Reflection on Luke 12:16-21
A portly middle-aged farmer is extremely rich and not afraid to show it. He owns over 500 acres of land in the countryside of Israel, which is filled with wheat fields, olive and pomegranate trees, and grape vineyards. The rich man views himself as the “King of the Land of Milk and Honey.” He inherited most of the farmland but is also very driven and hardworking, achieving much success. All he thinks of is yielding additional crops and expanding his “agricultural empire.” For the rich man, more crops and possessions equal more wealth and more happiness. Constantly dressed in lavish clothes and gold jewelry, the rich man habitually looks at himself in the mirror, admiring his achievements. He is known to be impatient and smug towards others and condescends to those he sees as below him.
The rich man exports and sells from his farm, but this year, he generated an inconceivable haul and has a tremendous superfluous of product. So much that he doesn’t know what to do with it. His slave workers have spent all week in the hot sun, for many hours harvesting, picking, and putting the wheat, fruit, and olives into wicker baskets. There is so much that they carried some by hand, put some on the backs of the mules, and filled up carts which they and animals pushed. The rich man used to help them when he was younger and starting out, but now it is beneath him. Instead, he looks out from his house in excitement and yells from a distance to hurry and load up his storage barn.
With a melancholic spirit and monotonous pattern, his slaves go back and forth from the fields to the barn. Making dozens of trips—exhausted, thirsty, and sunburnt. Hours later, the barn is finally filled to the rafters. All of the items are neatly sorted and stacked. There is barely any room to move as the grapes, olives, pomegranates, and wheat are all piled high like mini skyscrapers. Some items spilled on the floor because of the absurd amount. The barn is bursting at the seams. The sun shines through a window revealing particles of wheat floating in the air. It smells like a farmer’s market. Some of the grapes and olives are inadvertently squished on the ground by the callused workers’ feet, and there is a mouse gnawing on a “runaway,” fallen pomegranate. Excess food begins to be placed and loaded up outside the barn into the dirt road. The rich man is giddy, and his eyes widen in greed.
There is an older slave, a man who has worked for this rich man for years. The man stands outside, leaning against the barn door, and wipes the sweat off his brow with a handkerchief as he admires the situation. It indeed looks like a miraculous haul. He doesn’t make a lot of money, and it is challenging to provide for and feed his family on such a low wage. Although he knows his wealthy owner never shares his crops, he is astonished by the massive number of items harvested this time. For a split second, he ponders the possibility of the owner sharing a little with those who worked so hard to reap and sow; but then reality overtakes him, and he shakes off the thought.
He overhears the rich man inside the barn marvel at his prized harvest. He mumbles to himself but speaks just loud enough to be heard. “What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?” The rich man begins to pace back and forth the small entryway, with his hands clasped behind his back in a determined posture and intense rhythm. He ponders what to do. He has spent his whole life focusing on and striving for wealth on earth. Much to the shock of the listening enslaved person, the rich man says, “This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods, and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years—rest, eat, drink, be merry!”‘
Utterly blinded by his greed, selfishness, and pride, the rich man can think only of how to hoard his wealth, never considering sharing his abundance with the less fortunate or the hungry. On the contrary, he wants to have his poor, hungry slaves rip down this barn, build him an additional storage barn that is bigger, and then move all the food into the new barn. And because he is greatly impulsive, he wants it done as soon as possible and starts to think of a plan in his head that further excites him. “Oh, the possibilities,” he thinks!
Before he can spiral any further down his rabbit hole of gluttony and self-absorption, God abruptly interrupts the rich man in his deliberations to judge his way of life and current sinful actions. With a rude awakening and loving firmness, God tells the rich man that he will die tonight and leave all of his wealth behind, unable to take it with him. He stored up treasure on earth and not in heaven, which will cost him his salvation if he doesn’t repent. God says, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus, will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God?”
The rich man forgets that his life passes as quickly as a snap of the fingers. All his wealth is as fleeting as a breath or like straw in the wind. He neglects the truth that this world is passing, and wealth and excess possessions are to be used to serve and help others in need. The rich man didn’t realize that God created him for heaven, not earth and that God blessed him with talents and riches to bless others, which would have led him to true fulfillment and joy. Sadly, he is so attached to his wealth and worldly inheritance and detached from the heavenly inheritance for which he was made. Blinded by his greed and lust for wealth, he falsely believed that his happiness was found in his possessions, although it was never enough. He failed to recognize that the joy he sought would have been found in serving the poor. Like swinging and missing on a fastball, unable to see the target, missed the opportunity to help the poor, even though they were placed right in front of him more accessible to select than the produce he hoarded.
If we are the rich man– in any way–we are now moved to reconsider how we treat our wealth, possessions, talents, and earthly attachments.
By Deacon John Garabedian