The Mind of Christ

Luke 12:20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

If I had a dollar for every time I have heard this parable when times were lean in a church I would have to buy a bigger safe…sorry that’s a little joke because I think many miss the point. Seriously though this parable is about a man who has harvested so much that he no longer has room to store all his grain, so he decides to tear down his small barns and build bigger and better barn so he can hold all his goods and that will intern make him happy. However God responds with our verse today and calls him a “fool” because that’s not what will make you happy. I love parables because they take what is known and expand our minds with the mind of Christ. We get a certain glimpse into what is valuable, exciting, joyous, evil, deceitful…and this is not what the world believes to be truth but what God sees as truth.

The first aspect I noticed in this parable is that in verse 16 it says “the land of the rich man produced plentifully.” the point that this rich man missed is that all gifts are from God. We do not make the land grow food we simply plant the seed and God works the way God works in order to grow the food for us. This is also the way of Salvation… God elects us, gives us the the gift of the Holy Spirit, then opens up our ears so we can hear the truth, , we are granted faith and the result is we believe. Therefore salvation is all a work of the Lord but often times we feel like we want to have to have some skin in the game, or in this parable a bigger tractor in the barn. Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Romans 11:6: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. This rich man was missing the tree for the forest. He was looking to his own righteousness for his future security and not to the one who actually defeated death and now sits on the the right hand of the Father,,Jesus Christ!!!

The other point I love in this parable is the response by God in our focus verse. God says that people who trust in themselves are foolish!!! God also calls people fools in Psalm 14:1; 53:1 because they do not know him, additionally the Pharisees are called fools for not understanding the Word of God in Mathew 23. However, all this foolishness is summed up in Romans 1:21-23 where it says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Here is the thing, we so often want to look to our own hearts, minds, actions, and desires so we can feel secure about our lives and futures. God tells us that is foolish and not only that but deadly. We are told in scriptures that our futures are secure and eternity certain because it is not based on a fallen world or a deceitful heart. Rather it is dependent on one person who came as fully man and was also fully God and that is Jesus Christ. He did what we couldn’t do ourselves and that is to save ourselves. So through His death on the cross and in turn taking the full wrath of God and our sins he made a way so we could one day stand “belly button to belly button” with Him and live for eternity where we will spend our day in awe of His glorious power and grace.

To think otherwise—to believe that we can truly understand or live well apart from the mind of Christ—would be..well… foolish!