In Luke 12.20, God says Ἄφρων – “senseless!” – to a rich man. And yet a careful reading of scripture, Old Testament and New, cannot escape the conclusion that God has always wanted His people to be notoriously wealthy. So here is a notoriously wealthy man, and God calls him witless. What is going on?
Unfortunately it is too easy to take this out of context and say, “see, God doesn’t like people having too much money.” That is, after all, what most of the church has concluded through most of history. But that is wrong: this story is about a missing purpose, not about too much wealth.
When Genesis 12 recounts what God had previously spoken to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans, this is the formulation:
I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
Gen 12.2-3, NIV
The context is important too: in the previous verse, God has said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
In other words, leave all your natural assets of home and family and familiar culture, and go where I show you to go; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, make your name great, make you a blessing, bless those who bless you, him who curses you I will curse, and every family clan on earth will be blessed through you.
But you won’t have any money or wealth.
No, I added that #fakeverse to make a point. Blessing implies, but is not limited to, prosperity: not scraping barely by in a “spiritually glorious but physically wretched” penury.
And there is purpose here; and it is not just “bless everyone [else] on earth”.
…I will bless you… I will make you a blessing… every family clan on earth will be blessed through you.
If you read on, you discover that Abram become very wealthy in silver and gold and livestock (Genesis 13.2), as did his son Isaac (Genesis 26.12). Abram – by now Abraham’s – great grandson Joseph added power to wealth and saved Egypt and the surrounding peoples by storing up so much grain that he had to stop counting it.
So you can see it wasn’t just wealth, it was purpose; and of course the ultimate plan was running out of sight from Satan: Jesus at last was the fulfilment of that promise that “every family clan on earth will be blessed in you.” Just read Revelation 5.9 and 7.9.
So why does the rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12 get called Ἄφρων? Being so blessed in harvest that you need to pull down your old storehouses and build new, bigger ones? Not a problem. Gather all the corn and other goods in there? Still not a problem.
Thinking it was just about you? Yes, that’s a bit of a problem. This rich man is like the Dead Sea: water flows in, but nothing flows out. “I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years: kick back, eat, drink be merry.”
Fundamentally he fails to understand what the goods that bless you are for: allowing you to do good; being a blessing; blessing every family clan on earth.
That is why what God says to him is a little more nuanced than what is suggested by the NIV’s “Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
What God actually says is this:
“These things you prepared, who are they for?”
In God’s kingdom, you get to enjoy the things with which you are entrusted, as a steward; if you are going to need bigger barns or a bigger bank, go for it. But you are a steward. Don’t forget that.
