Being a Fool Never Feels Like Being a Fool

Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Schulz gave one of the most quietly devastating TED Talks I've ever watched. It's called "On Being Wrong," and the whole talk hinges on one question: what does it feel like to be wrong?

Her answer: it feels like being right.

That idea has stuck with me for years, and I've come back to it again and again, including when I studied the Parables of Lost Things in Luke 15 (being lost can feel like you're on the right path). But I think it applies just as powerfully to the Fools Collection, the parables of the rich fool, the unforgiving servant, and the Pharisee. So let me ask Schulz's question a different way. What does it feel like to be a fool?

Sometimes, it feels like being wise.

Three Fools Who Felt Perfectly Reasonable

Here's what strikes me about these three parables. Jesus condemns each main character, but none of them are acting like villains. If anything, they're acting the way the world tells us to act. They're doing exactly what "wise" people do.

The Rich Fool was being financially prudent. He had a record harvest, so he built bigger barns to store it and secured his retirement. It was his property, after all, to do with as he pleased.

The Unforgiving Servant was simply holding someone accountable. His fellow servant owed him money, and he wanted what was rightfully his. Nobody should go into debt with no way to pay it back, right?

The Pharisee was grateful. He fasted, he tithed, he took pride in his religious devotion, and some of what he did even benefited his community. He believed that keeping the covenant was how you earned God's favor.

Each of them was wrong, but each of them felt right. Each of them was a fool, but each of them felt wise. And honestly, we'd be foolish ourselves not to hold these stories up as mirrors to our own lives.

What James Would Say

James, the brother of Jesus, picks up this exact theme in his short, punchy letter:

Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. (James 3:13-15)

Bitterness. Envy. Selfish ambition. Sound familiar? That's the heartbeat of every character in the Fools Collection. The Rich Fool's selfish ambition shows up in bigger barns and self-congratulation. The Unforgiving Servant's bitterness shows up in his refusal to forgive. And I'd argue envy sat quietly underneath the Pharisee's prayer the entire time he compared himself to everyone else in the room.

None of these three men look anything like James's description of true wisdom: pure, peace-loving, gentle, full of mercy, without pretense. There's a real difference between being wise in your own eyes and being wise in God's eyes, and Proverbs 26:12 doesn't soften the blow: "Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."

Read that again. Being wise in your own eyes is worse than being foolish. It is better to be a fool who knows it than a fool who's convinced he's the smartest guy in the room.

James doesn't stop at a general warning either. It's almost like he wrote his letter with these three characters specifically in mind.

A Letter to the Rich Fool

James spends more time on wealth than almost anything else, so let's read a few passages with Luke 12:16-21 fresh in our minds.

Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, but let the rich boast in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of the field. (James 1:9-10)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. (James 4:13-14)

And then, most bluntly of all:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. (James 5:1-3)

James is echoing Jesus, who says at the end of yet another parable in Luke 12:48, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required." Everything we own in this life is on loan. God expects good stewardship, full stop.

It's easy to shrug off the wealth of billionaires, or the world's first trillionaire, and assume that's someone else's problem to answer for. But they will answer for it, and so will we. If God demanding the life of a fictional rich farmer felt harsh to us, James 5 should make us far more uncomfortable. It's worth pausing to think honestly about our own finances, our own business practices, and the financial policies we support.

A Letter to the Unforgiving Servant

James has plenty to say to the Unforgiving Servant too, if he'd only listen.

"For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). Mercy is supposed to be our default setting, not our last resort. And yes, showing mercy is a real risk. I'm not pretending Servant #1 didn't have a legitimate claim to what he was owed from Servant #2. But he never once considered how his refusal to forgive the debt would affect his own standing before the King. In his mind, the debt he had been forgiven and the debt he was owed were two completely separate accounts.

How we treat each other matters. It really is that serious. God has loved us, so we love one another. God has forgiven us, so we forgive one another. God has shown us mercy, so we show mercy too.

James goes further in chapter 4: "What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain" (James 4:1-2). The Servant couldn't forgive because he'd let bitterness take root and grow. He didn't ask for what he was owed, he demanded it violently. And in the end, he still lost everything.

A Letter to the Pharisee

Finally, James turns to the Pharisee, the one who was self-righteous and self-absorbed. He fasted twice a week. He tithed faithfully. But his heart was full of comparison.

I think about the Pharisee's contempt for the Tax Collector, and it echoes John 9, where the religious leaders declare, "We know God does not listen to sinners." What's striking isn't that the Pharisee looked down on so-called sinners. What's striking is that he never once recognized himself as one.

Comparison really is the thief of joy. And James doesn't hold back:

If you look with favor on the one wearing fine clothes and say, "Sit here in a good place," and yet you say to the poor person, "Stand over there," haven't you become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:3-4)

With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God's likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. (James 3:9-10)

Don't criticize one another, brothers and sisters. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)

We can perform every religious ritual correctly and still be far from God. We cannot praise him with our mouths while tearing down our neighbor. That's not devotion, that's hypocrisy.

There Is Still Hope

Here's the good news in all of this: change is possible.

The fool who admits he's a fool has a real shot at wisdom. The sinner who confesses his sin can find forgiveness. The rich man can trade hoarding for gratitude and generosity, and discover true riches in the kingdom. The self-righteous can find freedom in Christ. The tax collectors and sinners can find a seat at the table.

But none of us gets there alone. We can't just swap one kind of selfishness for another, more spiritual-sounding kind of individualism. We need each other.

James closes his letter this way, and it's as good a place as any to end:

My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)