A report from half a year ago: “Oil giant BP said it has “more cash than we know what to do with” as it revealed profits near £ 10 billion while households face a devastating rise in energy bills.” I recalled it a couple of days ago when more energy companies posted their eye-watering profits, in one case a five-fold increase in the same period in 2021. At the same time, the estimated cost of energy for a typical domestic customer is predicted to reach as high as £500 a month. The contrast between an ever more financially squeezed population and sky-high profits is astonishing and, in a way, resembles the parable in today’s gospel.
Jesus seems to reject the idea of amassing wealth and of saving for the future. He tells the story of a man whose fields yielded so rich a harvest that he decided to pull down his old barns and build new ones, big enough to store all the grain and other goods, thus securing his future. Jesus calls him a fool, and seemingly condemns his attitude when he concludes: ‘So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’ There’ve been many utopian economic models built on this and on other bits of the New Testament. All those models, based on literal, out-of-context interpretation, had one thing in common: they were all unrealistic, unworkable and impractical; and all of them failed.
In ancient Palestine, as in many other places, wealth was often either inherited or amassed as a result of merciless exploitation: quite often a mixture of both. We have to remember that there were no pension schemes, no sick leave and no other welfare arrangements in place that we take for granted today. So, there was strong resentment towards the rich from the impoverished majority. Jesus’ ministry was carried out in such a divided society, and it had to address many challenges; wealth inequality was one of them. However, Jesus wasn’t a revolutionary in a political sense, leading a socialist revolt of the poor against the rich. His aim was to transform people’s hearts and attitudes; any subsequent social improvements were simply consequences of such a change of heart.
There’s a key phrase in today’s gospel; a sentence put in the mouth of the fortunate character in Jesus’ parable: ‘Take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.’ The problem of the man in question is his attitude towards his wealth, or rather, his sole perception of the hoarding of wealth to fund his personal entertainment and self-indulgence. That’s why Jesus calls him a fool. Not for being fortunate with his rich harvest, nor for building up his warehouses, nor for being wealthy. The man in the parable is condemned for not making good use of his fortune.
I think we ought to admire and respect those many men and women who take risks with their own money, creating and developing their businesses. Many of them work hard as they create jobs and make products or provide services that we use directly and indirectly every day. We should not be ashamed of saving money and amassing wealth to secure our own future, help our families, or give aid to those in need. In themselves, money and wealth are morally neutral, neither bad nor good. What we do with them can yield either condemnation or praise.
Image by Kevin Schmid from Pixabay