Living inside the parable of the Rich Fool: The world’s first trillionaire

There is a lot to unpack about what it means that one person now holds more wealth than nearly half the world. As I think about how I am to think about this as a follower of Jesus I am drawn to the parable of the rich fool.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. ”Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 

He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

I have often thought that without the label of “the parable of the rich fool” we might be, at least initially, confused as to how to view the parable’s main character. Especially without Jesus’ helpful warning at the start – be on your guard against all kinds of greed: life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

The story seems to be about a hard worker who is looking for a way to retire and enjoy life. This is responsible, this is reaping what you sow (quite literally), this is protecting your investment. This is the American Dream?

Apparently, Jesus is not a fan. He admonishes our hard working wise investor in no uncertain terms and speaks through the millennia to warn us how it will be when we build storehouses instead of being rich toward God.

What does richness toward God look like? Jesus ends his exposition of the parable with these verses:

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

As with much of Jesus’ teaching this is simple but so very far from easy.

In 2026 BFJN has chosen to focus on cultivating a prophetic imagination which we believe, and hope will help us see the ways in which we have been formed by nationalism, capitalism, consumerism, racism, materialism and even where we have mistaken this formation for our Christianity. We want to build a community that imagines a world where everyone can thrive and that actively seeks to journey beside our brothers and sisters in Christ.

One way to do that is to be curious about how we got the place where one man can amass such wealth with so many celebrating it is as a historic achievement and not a deep, obvious and dangerous injustice. Below I share some books I have read over the years that have helped me reform my conceptions of money and the economy and have challenged me with the very hard reality of what the Bible has to say about wealth, the wealthy and our obligations to one another as believers.

One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse argues that the characterization of the US as a Christian nation was the result of an “unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics. His explication of the way businessmen and organizations promoting business interests allied with pastors and churches to tell a specific story about what the gospel did, and did not require, in order to defeat the New Deal is compelling and enlightening. It can inform how we understand the present-day marriage of free-market capitalism and American Christianity and hopefully help us discern what is gospel and what is the American dream instead.

Wealth as Peril and Obligation by Sondra Ely Wheeler is an older book (1995) that I would argue should be in the library or on the TBR of any Christian seeking a genuine understanding of how the New Testament in particular calls us to consider and engage with wealth.

“Instead of antimaterialism or a generalized “hostility to wealth” we find specific theological and moral rationales for the attitude toward material possession in the writings of the New Testament. Material wealth is problematic because it is often a hindrance to heeding the gospel; it is dangerous because it is a temptation to the sin of idolatry; it is suspect because it is frequently the result or the means of social injustice; finally, its disposition is a matter of great moral weight, as the response to human needs is a sign of the advent of God’s Kingdom and a test of the love that identifies Jesus’ followers.” (134)

“Questions about justice in the accumulation, use, and distribution of wealth can also be addressed to the public institutions which Christians participate in and thereby help to support. Of particular concern in both Testaments is the potential of wealth for fostering corruption and inequity in the political and judicial structures of society.” (141)

All Riches Come From Injustice: The anti-mammon Witness of the Early Church & Its Anti-capitalist Relevance by Stephen D. Morrison. The title and subtitle give you a pretty thorough glimpse of this book. It is a hard read in how it challenges some deeply held assumptions many of us have about wealth and power. The author walks us through our faith-ancestry and shows how our forefathers and foremothers thought about money, wealth and possessions. Spoiler: they did not think the accumulation of wealth and the luxury and extravagance that can some with it at all compatible with following Jesus.

*we will be reading this book in our November fall book group!

“To be content with enough is a revolutionary act in a world of rampant consumerism.” (97)

“It is impossible to proclaim “liberty to the captives” or “good news to the poor” without saying something politically subversive about an oppressive, exploitative society.” (137)

In the end, a trillionaire is symptom of the disease and not the disease itself – although an admittedly acute symptom indicting the disease is getting much worse! As Christians we need to be challenging the systems that allow such gross inequality and to find ways to align ourselves again and again with the gospel, being formed and reformed by Biblical truth and the holy spirit pursuing the richness Jesus calls us to and not the richness we are urged toward by much of the world around us.