Luke 12:13-59

"There was once a man," said Jesus, as He began another parable, which is a story with a strong moral, religious, or spiritual message about God and God's relationship with people.

This time it was a success-driver entrepreneur, who owned an extremely successful farm. There was no end to the crops this person and his 'dirt land' could produce. In fact, his barns could not store all his harvest.

We can compare this story with the miracle of the great catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11), with a very distinctive difference. Peter, realizing that his boat could not store all the fish in his net, called to his partners and maybe others to come and fill their boats with fish. Peter was acknowledging that God was the giver of all that we have ("All things come of you, O Lord...") and therefore what we have should be shared for the good of all ("... and of your own have we given you.").

Not so our farmer mogul, known in the Good News Bible as the "rich fool".

That person wanted it all for himself. So instead of sharing, he decided to hoard his produce in bigger and better barns. On he went, until he realized that he had reached the saturation point. We can conclude that he had come to the end of his 'greed.' He said, 'I have enough'.

Tomorrow I will begin my life.

That night he died.

Others would enjoy his greed.

Not him.

He was gone.

Maybe he should have stopped and smelled the flowers;

Maybe he should have shared with his employees;

Maybe he should have helped his children with their homework;

Maybe he should have spent more time with his wife;

Maybe;

Maybe;

Maybe.

Jesus concluded, ‘This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight’.

Wow – what does that say about us?????????

Question – ‘what does that say about ME?'

Tomorrow's reading: Luke 13:1-17

(Today's post submitted by Rev. Hollis Hiscock.)