A rich land that produced abundantly

You know how we often read our own context into a Bible story? Even when it's not there? And how that can give us a confused perspective? Yeah, we've all been there.

The thing about parables is that they are powerful little images. Hard hitting and easily remembered, they take what is normal and everyday, and use it to explain something much deeper. The trouble is, that kinda like a joke that isn't funny when you have to explain it first, parables loose nearly all their impact if you don't share the context of the storyteller.

Here's one us settled people, the descendants of agriculturalists, can easily misinterpret.

Luke 12:16 NIV

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “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. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “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?’

21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Notice with me that there is no mention of agriculture in this parable. That's right. This rich man didn't become rich by working hard preparing soil, planting and harvesting. He is not a farmer. We easily imply this context on the basis of our own experience, from the words "harvest" and "crops" and "grain", but the truth here is much simpler. These are food crops, the kind that naturally reproduce themselves on good land. The land produced abundantly. The abundance doesn't come from hard work, it comes from the land. The land itself, a gift from God, provided food for the man, and provided well. Provided more than he needed in a season, even more than the reasonable amount he could store away in his little barn in case of future need. Everything you want to infer about how hard the man must have worked to succeed in that fashion, how he earned his own riches, it just isn't there.

The thing about a parable is that the lesson is supposed to be obvious. We're supposed to easily see how that man's actions are obviously contradictory to common sense and the laws of nature. We should see that if his land always produces abundantly it is ridiculous for him to keep hoarding more and more. What a dummy! But our urban lives are built entirely on the concept of storing, banking, saving. So, we fight to defend what appears as wisdom to us, justifying, or finding exceptions so that this parable doesn't sound so much like something we do all the time. It's not going to work, because we're starting with the wrong context, which makes application tricky.

Is it easier for hunter gatherers to share? Probably not. But maybe it's easier for them to see the folly in trying to store up more than you could ever need.