Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 14 He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 15 Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
16 Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. 17 He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ 18 And he said, ‘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 19 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!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ 21 Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”
The scene opens with a practical dispute about money. A man asks Jesus to order his brother to divide an inheritance. Jesus refuses to act as an arbitrator and turns the moment into a warning for everyone: “Guard against all greed,” because life is not measured by what a person owns (vv.13–15).
Jesus then tells a parable about a landowner whose fields yield more than expected. The harvest is so large that his current barns cannot hold it. He plans to demolish the old structures and build bigger ones so he can store grain and goods securely (vv.16–18). The emphasis falls on his inner talk: “What shall I do … I shall do this … I shall store … I shall say to myself” (vv.17–19). The repeated first-person focus shows the heart of the problem: his horizon has narrowed to himself and his goods. He thinks about capacity, storage, and years ahead, but not about God or neighbor.
He concludes that he has “many years” laid up and can “rest, eat, drink, be merry” (v.19). The phrase describes a life oriented to ease and self-sufficiency. Scripture elsewhere warns that wealth easily creates an illusion of control that time can quickly expose (cf. Ps. 49:10–12; Sir. 11:18–19). The rich man’s plan is not criticized for prudent stewardship, but for excluding God from his reasoning and treating surplus as a private guarantee rather than a trust.
God answers, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you” (v.20). Life is not a possession a person can secure; it remains in God’s hands. The question, “The things you prepared—whose will they be?” exposes the short reach of wealth at the moment that matters most. Other texts make the same point: plans must be made in light of God’s will and the brevity of life (cf. Jas. 4:13–15; Eccl. 5:9–11).
Jesus ends with the lesson: this is how it goes for the person who stores up treasure for self and is not “rich in what matters to God” (v.21). To be “rich toward God” means measuring wealth by one’s relationship with Him. In Luke’s Gospel, this includes gratitude to the Giver, trust rather than anxiety, and a readiness to use goods for mercy and generosity (cf. Lk. 12:33–34; 16:9). Possessions are not evil, but they become a danger when they claim the heart and displace the living God who gives life and calls us to love.
Lord Jesus, free our hearts from anxiety over possessions and teach us to be rich in what matters to God—being grateful, trusting, and generous. Amen.
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Sources and References:
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- The Navarre Bible: St. Luke (Faculty of the University of Navarre, 2008).
- The Paulist Biblical Commentary, ed. Chiu et al. (Paulist Press, 2018).
- The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed. Brown et al. (Prentice Hall, 1990).
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