The Parable of the Rich Fool

"We miss the force of the story if we see the rich man as being especially wicked... the point here, as in many another tale, is not that this man is a monster, but that he was typical–that is, typical of a class of people and typical of a whole social system. His thought-processes are normal... They are the thought-processes that exclude God and other people–who both, alike, inevitably reassert themselves at the end." –Stephen I. Wright, "Parables on Poverty and Riches" in The Challenge of Jesus' Parables, 223.