Luke 12:17 Meaning and Explanation

Luke lets us overhear the man thinking. His question — what shall I do? — is the question of a soul at a crossroads; Scripture elsewhere places it on the lips of people about to repent (Luke 3:10; Acts 2:37). Here it turns only inward: he consults no one, thanks no one.

Notice who is absent from the deliberation: God, who gave the harvest; the poor, who could have eaten from it; even a single friend. Abundance has not enlarged his world but shrunk it to the size of his storehouses. The problem he names — no room — had other answers close at hand: the open hands of his neighbors. They never cross his mind.