NOTES for Luk 12:16-21

Jesus' parable of the rich man who gathered a good harvest is well known, and its meaning seems quite clear. Indeed, the Old Testament books contain many references to the insecurity of wealth accumulated on this earth.

Of course, the chief argument has always been the mortality of the person accumulating riches. Everything amassed—and this did not always mean material goods alone—could naturally be passed on to heirs, successors, those who would carry on the work begun: in short, to posterity. But the argument that “it all remains for others” offered little comfort. Ecclesiastes had already observed that someone departing for the next world can only guess how those very people will use what has been left to them.

With regard to the Savior's parable, one should add that, judging from His other parables, the field and the harvest signify respectively the world and the spiritual fruits that ripen within it toward the end of our age of the coming Kingdom. Evidently, this is not simply about material wealth, but about what might provisionally be called spiritual savings, which a person can, of course, also “store in a barn,” even if it is not a physical one.

Yet even spiritual hoarding is apparently no better than material hoarding. Even achievements in the spiritual field, if a person tries to keep them for himself, hold out no promise of fullness of life. The fool does not share in the life of the Kingdom; he dies like any other human being, and no riches or savings, even spiritual ones accumulated in the “right” field, can help him in any way.

Only one thing, it seems, can help him: finally to stop speaking exclusively to “his own beloved self,” to “his soul,” and to turn to God, opening himself to Him. Of course, this will also mean opening all his barns, with everything that has accumulated in them. But in return, the Kingdom will open to the one who has opened himself and opened his stores—and with it, the fullness of life.