10th Sunday After Pentecost – Year C (Luke 12: 13-21)

I don’t think that this parable is really about wealth vs. poverty (although Luke/Acts as a whole certainly exhibits what Pope Paul VI called a “preferential option for the poor”.) The text is not even really about hoarding or even financial planning for that matter.



Notice that upon his death, the wealthy man is called a fool by God. In the Hebrew Scriptures, a fool is not a person without intelligence but someone who consistently fails to understand. At the end of this parable, Jesus implies that wisdom (the opposite of foolishness) is to be found in being “rich toward God”.


So what then does being “rich toward God” actually mean? One might see the parable as a suggestion that individuals should be concerned about collecting good works rather than possessions. No one is against the doing of good deeds, especially as they relate to assisting the poor, but I don’t believe that to be Jesus’ point. On the contrary, the parable seems to be a lesson about the futility of storing up anything, even good deeds. Being “rich toward God” then is the opposite of possessing. It is the recognition of our complete and utter dependency on God for not only life and sustenance, but for the ability to do or achieve anything good. The Psalmist says that the fear of the Lord is the first stage of wisdom. Fear of the Lord is the acknowledgment that God is God and that I am not, the acknowledgment of complete dependence.


All that having been said, there are financial implications to the parable. The wisdom of dependence allows for a freedom to be generous. If all is gift then no individual has final claim on anything. The gift of manna in the dessert was for the needs of the day and not a commodity to be stored or traded. In last week’s Gospel Jesus instructed the disciples to pray for their “daily” bread, no a life-time supply. We have earned nothing, not our possessions nor our salvation.