Andrew Carnegie said "Millionaires who laugh are rare. You may have all the money in the world, and yet be a lonely, sorrowing man.”

In the parable the rich man had a bumper crop. It was a gift of God but instead of being grateful to God, he started thinking on selfish lines,

We read that “The rich man began reasoning to himself”( v.17) In general, people went to the city gates to discuss everything. May be he did not go because his relationship with others was not very good. He says, “What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops? This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.” His use of ‘I’ and ‘my’ shows his preoccupation with self.. He did not understand that his prosperity was a gift from God and he was just a steward .He was also under the impression that he would live forever.

We read that the gardener was pleading here for a little more time. The compassionate gardener intercedes for more time to water and fertilize the fruitless tree, and the gracious Lord of the vineyard responds in patience. The borrowed time is not permanent. God's patience has a limit. In the parable, the vineyard owner grants another year of life to the tree. In the same way, God in His mercy grants us another day, another hour, another breath. Christ is ready to lead us to repentance from sin. But if there is no fruit, no repentance, His patience will come to an end, and the fruitless, unrepentant individual will be cut down. Here, cutting down means alienation from God. If we do not build the right relationship with God within the time that is granted to us, we will be cut off from intimacy with God.

The conversation between Jesus and the brother who wanted Him to help in the division of the property triggered the parable. The greedy man’s question was concerning his inheritance (because his father had died) and the parable ends with a question of inheritance (because the rich man died). “Who will own what you have prepared?”

The rich man made at least four mistakes:

1. The rich man made the mistake of thinking he was the owner of his properties when he was just a steward.

2. He was worried about the present and forgot about eternity.

3. He was concerned only about the physical and forgot about spiritual things.

4. He valued and treasured possession more than people. He lived an isolated life

So the point of the Parable of the Rich Fool is twofold. One, we are not to devote our lives to the gathering and accumulation of wealth. God says to the man in the story, “and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So why waste our life pursuing wealth ignoring the important aspects of life which concern our life after death. The second point of the Parable is the fact that we are not blessed by God to hoard our wealth to ourselves. We are blessed to be a blessing in the lives of others and we are blessed to build the kingdom of God. . So if God blesses us with material wealth let us not fix our heart on it but be rich toward God. That is the message of the Parable of the Rich Fool.

Dr. (Mrs.) Edriana Jeyasingh