The parable in today’s Gospel reading is reminiscent of the ancient Greek myth of King Midas who showed hospitality to the satyr Silenus and was rewarded with the promise of the fulfillment of any wish.  Midas wished for the power to turn what he touched into gold. 

At first, he reveled in his ability to surround himself with golden objects. Very quickly, however, Midas came to regret his choice.  When he touched his evening meal, the food and wine transformed immediately into gold.  In short order, Midas starved to death – alone, abhorring gold, and cursing his request for such deadly power. 

The Gospel parable describes a similarly tragic outcome associated with serendipitous wealth. Jesus prefaced the parable by saying, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” (Lk 12:15)  The prominent mention of wealth, coupled with Jesus’ saying, is often interpreted dualistically as denigrating material realities and advocating for the singular value of spiritual realities.  Curiously, those who favor this interpretation tend to denigrate the material wealth of others on the basis of the value they accord to the material wealth they wish they had. 

The lesson of the parable, however, is identified in the final clause of Jesus’ response to the person in the crowd who felt entitled to an inheritance.  The lesson is reiterated in the summary of the parable when Jesus warned about failing to grow “rich in what matters to God.” (Lk 12:21) The King Midas myth can offer a helpful corrective to the common misinterpretation of Jesus’ parable.   

It wasn’t the gold that killed King Midas; rather, he destroyed himself by forgetting a fundamental truth about human life.  Midas, like many people, made a rash choice based on disordered desires.  In a like manner, the fortunate farmer in the parable was not killed by the large harvest; he destroyed himself by his shortsightedness. 

The fundamental truth that both King Midas and the fortunate farmer ignored was not that spiritual realities have greater value than material realities; rather, it is that people have more value than objects.  Both people and possessions are material realities, but the former are subjects and the latter are objects.  Jesus did not preach a dualistic religion that condemned the created world; he preached fidelity (in this created world) to God’s will. 

King Midas failed to account for the unique value of human subjects, beginning with himself.  The fortunate farmer in the parable did the same.  In fact, the farmer sinned in two distinct ways, neither of which was the result of great wealth.  His first sin was his failure to express gratitude to God for the harvest.  In the parable, he reacted to the harvest by being self-congratulatory and self-indulgent instead of being grateful to God.  It is important to note that his ingratitude derived from himself rather than the size of the harvest.  His second sin was his failure to include his laborers in his good fortune; he chose to lock his harvest in barns rather than share it with those who planted, tended, and gathered it. 

The farmer’s sins were not the result of excess wealth but of insufficient gratitude.  It was not his unexpected gains that made him a fool; his foolishness was instead the result of what was fundamentally lacking in his personality, namely, an awareness of his dependence on God and people. 

Quixotically, the fortunate farmer’s failing is considered a virtue in our culture.  We love to think of ourselves as enjoying self-made success, as being independent individuals who owe no one anything, and as being free from accountability.  These quintessential western virtues are, of course, complete nonsense.  No one is self-made; all people are born of other people, and all success depends on the society in which it exists.  Freedom of choice becomes self-destruction when it is mistakenly interpreted as freedom from other people.  Lack of accountability is another name for predatory behavior. 

King Midas and the fortunate farmer are examples of the sort of foolishness that condemns in others the behavior happily practiced by oneself.  Bullies and frauds mourn publicly their self-imposed loneliness.  The merciless are the first to complain about being ignored.  The irresponsible are always quick to demand justice for themselves. 

Jesus didn’t judge created things as being without value because to do so is utter nonsense.  Rather, Jesus judged created things as having relative value: people have unconditional value, while possessions have conditional value.  If you’re struggling with the difference between people and possessions, it is this: God and people deserve one’s gratitude and respect, possessions do not.  To ignore this fundamental truth is to embrace irrationality because the only reason one can, and must, make value judgments is that one lives in a human society. 

The treasure “that matters to God” is easy to identify and attain. (Lk 12:21)  It is the treasure that pertains to the living rather than to the inanimate.  This treasure is found in fulfilling God’s command to reverence God and respect people – all people, including oneself. 

The absence of this treasure from one’s life is equally easy to identify.  King Midas had great power.  The fortunate farmer had great barns.  The greatness they accorded to their possessions precluded Midas and the farmer from being known as great people.