Reflection for the Website – Sunday 4th October 2026 – Harvest Festival
16 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. 17 He began to think to himself, ‘I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? 18 This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. 19 Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’” 21 And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.” (Luke 12:16-21)
As we celebrate our Harvest Festival this weekend, we might initially feel rather reassured by the beginning of that Gospel reading that we’ve just heard – a story about an abundant harvest, with so much produce that new storage facilities are needed in order to accommodate it. This will surely lead into a pleasant story to remind us of all the positive aspects of today’s festival, even in a year when many farmers have been struggling with the effect of the unusual weather conditions on their crops? Well no, it’s not quite so simple as that – as we read, the parable in today’s passage develops in a disturbing, unsettling way, which prompts us to think beyond the wonderful displays of fruit and vegetables, beyond the tins and packets, and to consider what’s going on at a rather deeper level.
Just before this story, Jesus has been warning the crowd about avoiding greed – and telling them that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”. And by way of illustration, he follows this up with the story about the rich man and his bumper harvest. We hear the man in a kind of soliloquy, debating with himself as to what he should do with all of the crops his land has produced – and it’s worth noting that the man, apart from God, is the only character in the story – he seems pretty isolated, with no reference to any human associates, as though maybe he’s become closed in on himself, missing out on human contact and relationships?
And he’s missing out, too, on the relationship with God which is God’s will for each of us. His possessions have become a kind of idol for him, and he’s forgotten that all he has, even his life itself, is a gift from God, not something he’s made for himself. He’s fallen into the trap of thinking that his life is his possessions, the very thing that Jesus has been warning of, and as a result is missing out on all the things that really matter in his concern for all the things he owns.
Because of his blinkered outlook, it doesn’t occur to the man to stop to thank God for what he’s been given, or to think about sharing what he might not need himself with those who are less fortunate. He’s a living example of the greed against which Jesus is trying to warn the crowd. And he only comes to realise this when God tells him that he will die that very night, asking him: “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
Things are being put firmly in their right perspective here – and the man’s apparently reasonable decision to build bigger barns to store all of his goods is being shown to be mistaken, not because there’s anything wrong with the goods in themselves, but because they’re cutting him off from everything of greater value, cutting him off from loving relationships with God and with other people.
So as well as giving thanks to God for the harvest, and doing what we can to share what we’re so blessed to have with those in need, let us also reflect on our own priorities and our relationship with God and try to ensure that they reflect the eternal values of God’s kingdom, as this prayer from http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ expresses:
Generous God,
in abundance you give us things both spiritual and physical.
Help us to hold lightly the fading things of this earth
and grasp tightly the lasting things of your kingdom,
so that what we are and do and say
may be our gifts to you
through Christ, who beckons all to seek the things above,
where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.