Gospel in Art: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones

Bucks County Barn by Charles Sheeler, 1932, © Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 20 October 2025
Luke 12:13-21

At that time: Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' But he said to him, 'Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?' And he said to them, 'Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions.'

And he told them a parable, saying, 'The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, "What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?"

And he said, "I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' " But God said to him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.'

Reflection on the painting

Today's parable offers a vivid portrayal of someone whose life revolves entirely around himself. He begins as a wealthy man and grows even wealthier after an exceptional harvest. He asks an important question: "What shall I do now?" But the answer he gives is entirely self-serving. Rather than considering others or giving thanks, he decides to tear down his existing barns (already sufficient) and build larger ones to hoard his surplus. His focus is entirely on possession and preservation.

Everything is centred on himself in the language he uses: my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods, even my soul. But what he fails to grasp is that his soul was never his to begin with. It belonged to God, and when God called him home, he had nothing lasting to offer... only stored-up goods and selfish plans.

Jesus tells us this story as a caution against greed and the illusion that our security lies in our possessions. Earlier in Luke's Gospel, Jesus teaches that real security comes from listening to his words and living by them: like the wise person who builds their house on solid rock, able to withstand life's storms. In the end, it is not what we hold onto that makes us safe, but how deeply we are rooted in Christ and his teaching. Only proper roots and foundation in Him will endure.

Charles Sheeler's Bucks County Barn is a striking example of the Precisionism movement in America. Sometimes called "Cubist Realism", the style blended the sharp geometry of Cubism and Futurism with a distinctly American subject matter. The barn's surfaces in our painting are rendered with crisp edges, simplified forms, and an almost photographic clarity. Sheeler was a leading American modernist, born in 1883 in Philadelphia, trained in industrial drawing and fine arts, and also a gifted photographer. His work often sought the aesthetic in the utilitarian, finding inherent beauty in factories, machines, and vernacular architecture. In his art, the barn becomes a statement: that the ordinary, built world has its own poetry of form and purpose.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's Reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-12-13-21-2025-2/