Luke 12:16-21 2024/12/01 Osaka Church
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
A rich man who had a great harvest cried out in joy. “I have no place to store my harvest.” So he decided to rebuild his old storehouse into a large one. He chuckled to himself, “Thank goodness, with this much stored up, I can live in security and abundance forever.” Hearing this, God said to him, “Foolish man, you are going to die tonight. What good is this storage?”
Jesus concludes the parable by saying “So is everyone who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
This parable has long been called “The Parable of the Rich Fool.”
But was the rich man really foolish? Is it really foolish to use one’s wisdom to live in security and abundance? …Yes. It is foolish to be preoccupied with life in this world “now,” and to not use our minds to serve God or to continue in a relationship with God after death.
However, as we are listening to this parable now, we live in a society that does not believe in the existence of God or the immortality of the soul. The time when everyone believed these things to be self-evident is long gone. If that is the case, it is only natural to view life in this world as the only certain reality, not an illusion, and to use our wisdom to ensure that we can live a secure and fulfilling life, at least while we are alive. Isn’t this wisdom, rather than foolishness?
Our foolishness is actually the foolishness of the way we live our “wise” lives, of “not believing in God” and “only accepting visible reality as truth,” which is the premise of our wisdom. It is more than “foolishness” it is “misery.” It is misery that has no choice but to accept such a way of life. In fact, this is what Christ calls “foolishness.”
Is there a way to escape from it? …There is. This is evidenced by the fact that there are very few people who are able to live in this way (!). People cannot settle for a life without faith in God. Working hard in pursuit of money and “happiness”… our insatiable pursuit of the pleasures of the eyes, ears, mouth, and body, wandering restlessly and looking here and there, urged on by “something good”… are evidence that people are not desirous of this ever-changing world, but are actually seeking God, that God created people for Himself, and that there is a being who, although completely beyond human understanding or acceptance, exists and is calling to us, who for the time being we can only call “God”.
This is why, following today’s Gospel, “The Parable of the Rich Foolish Man,” Jesus calls us to look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field… and that this world itself is a wonderful gift from God. “Faith” is not about forcing oneself to “believe” in the existence of God and clinging to it. We must first discard the opposite “belief” that only what we can see is the truth, forget the word “God” for the moment, and continue to open our hearts to everything, reclaiming this visible world as a place where “invisible truths” are opened and revealed, a “place of wonder”… This is what the Bible means when it says, “The fear of God (the Lord) is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). “Fear” does not mean to be frightened. It means to be “struck with wonder.” At that time, we will no longer be “fools,” but will become people who live in true fellowship with the “living God,” and who live in true wisdom.