Parable: The Rich Man and Lazarus

Read Luke 16:19-31

God is good.

Sin is not.

Please choose wisely.

Because Hell is hot.

Hmmm…

Let’s start this parable with a couple of agreements.  First, we will not define what we think we know about heaven and hell by this parable.  There are some things that just don’t’ fit well if we get too literal here.

First, conversation between the two places seems a little farfetched.  How can God wipe every tear from our eyes if we can look on those in torment?  Could one drop of water really provide relief? Does our Spirit go to a temporary holding area—Abraham’s bosom—or are we with Jesus when these clay vessels that encase our spirit turn to dust?

Second, neither riches nor poverty define the heart of a person.  Don’t read or listen to this parable and think that if I have some money, then I am going to hell.  Surely, don’t think if you have little of anything that means you are on your way to heaven.

Please do not view this parable with a scarcity mentality.  What’s that?  There is only so much good to go around.  If I use it all up now, there won’t be any later.  Because you had good things in this life, there isn’t enough for you to have good things in the next.  Our God is an abundant and a generous God.  He is not going to run out of anything that he has stored up for us since the creation of the world.

Some of the very rich are among the most generous people we know; and some of the poorest do not long for God’s kingdom but for the riches of this age.  This parable doesn’t seem to be about having wealth.  That said, Jesus did remind his followers that it is very difficult for a rich person to enter his Father’s Kingdom.

Most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle when it comes to wealth, at least by local standards.  We have what we need to meet our daily requirements, and usually enough to help others.  We are blessed to be a blessing.

Jesus uses extreme contrast here.  A very rich man had everything he wanted every day.  A man named Lazarus suffered every day and hoped for scraps from the rich man’s table.  He had sores on his body.  He was surely in pain and suffering.

Lazarus certainly had some friends or family.  Someone placed him at the gate of the rich man.

At this point we have no indication of the heart of either man, but Lazarus ended up in Abraham’s bosom and the rich man—yet unnamed—was found in torment.  What happens next gives us insight into the heart of the rich man.

As it turns out, Lazarus who is identified by name, has no speaking parts.

The rich man wants relief.  He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water to cool his tongue.  There is no confession or repentance.  The man simply wants relief from his situation.  

Welcome to 90% of the conversations that I have with people who need help but do not belong to a church body.  I just want someone to take care of my immediate problem.  I don’t have time to consider my eternal situation.

This man just wants a little cool water, even a drop.  It is a very conservative request.  I would have at least asked for a Route 44 cherry limeade.

Lazarus is right there with Father Abraham.  Why not send him?  He’s just some ole beggar with nothing better to do.  Surely, you could spare him for this errand.

The reply is that you have already enjoyed the good things.  Much is not said here.  There is no admonishment for not using wealth to bless others.  There is no counsel on wisdom.  There is no statement of why the man is condemned.  There is no further explanation.

Some logistics are explained, namely, you can’t get there from here or vice versa.  So the bottom line is that you are stuck where you are and in the situation in which you now find yourself.

Now, for the first time, we see this rich man think of someone other than himself.  He is concerned that his brothers will end up where he is.  Please, please, pretty please send Lazarus to my father’s house.  If he can’t get here, at least send him back to the living with a message for my family.

The answer is that your family has everything they need to make good choices.  They have Moses and the prophets.

But, but, but if someone from the dead would come to them with a message, they would surely repent.  Now we see that the rich man knew that he had not lived well and should have repented.  His pleas were for his brothers now, but in these pleas is the revelation that the rich man knew he had chosen to be a friend of the world with his wealth.

The answer hits very hard.  If your brothers did not have ears to hear Moses and the prophets, someone risen from the dead with a message of life isn’t going to phase them either.

At this point, the story jumps from parable to prophecy but only Jesus knows that.  He is not really talking about the Lazarus in the parable, or even the one that he would raise from the dead in the 11^th chapter of John, though at that point some people might have recalled this parable.

This foretells the conditions of so many people’s hearts when Jesus was raised from death.  This is about so many people being friends of the world.

C’mon now, someone risen from the dead would get everyone’s attention, right?

Right?

Consider the moments before the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Some doubted?

Consider these last few parables.  They were given to many, but among those listening were the Pharisees.  The Pharisees liked money.  They liked the social order of the day.  They liked many things of this world, but they didn’t like the parables of Jesus.  They didn’t like Jesus.

Somehow, each of these parables put the Pharisees at odds with Jesus and what he said was right.

The scriptures between the two parables in this chapter mention how the Pharisees loved money and that now people were entering into the Kingdom of Heaven.  These words said that the law is coming to its fulfilment. 

The next thing you know, Jesus has told a parable about a rich man, who had everything he needed being tormented in Hades.  In a moment, everything changed for two men.

Jesus taught that the one who has believed in him has already passed from death to life.  There is no torment for us, but we minister to a world that will neither see nor hear.  So many refuse to hear the words of life.

They discard the Law of Moses.  People argue about the Decalogue but most don’t know what half of these most basic directives say.  They might argue to keep them on display somewhere or to take them down, but the messages contained in the decalogue are not registering with most people.

They become deaf to the prophets.  Today, if you want to hear what the ancient prophets said, you have to read your Bible.  If you want an immediate message from God, you might need to find your way to a church building.

Even the One who was God in the flesh who suffered and died and bled for our sins; yet rose again, does not register with them.

Jesus defeated death.  He defeated the grave.  He has the gift of life for us but so many are tuned out.

This parable very much takes on the same subject and attitudes as the one which precedes it.  Are we a friend of God or a friend of the world?

What is first in our lives?  I think most people tuned in right now know that God should be first.  God, his kingdom, his righteousness should be first.

But is he?

How can we who are rich by the world’s standards—and we are all rich by the world’s standards—not become a friend of the world? 

I have moved beyond the basic context of this parable to something at the heart of it.  I am talking to the saved, believers, people who said earnestly, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”

How can we not become friends of the world when have most everything that we want most every day?  That’s a very broad question, but I offer some narrow answers.

Believe—With your heart, soul, mind, and everything that makes you who you are, believe that God loves you and that his great love sent his Son into the world to die and take away our sins.  Believe that God raised him from the dead.  Believe that God’s own Spirit lives within us.

Tithe—Give ten percent to God before everything else.  Tithe means tenth.  Put him first in this.  This is perhaps the biggest truth-teller as to whether or not we are a friend of God or of the world.  Remember that Jesus said if we put God and his kingdom first that he will gives us all those things that the ungodly world seeks after—has made into their gods.  Here is a validation of that promise.  I—and none of the other preachers in this town—have ever had a tither seek monetary assistance from the church.  Why?  God provides.

You might ask, “How did we get from a parable that on the surface seems to be about heaven and hell, to the tithe?”  Remember, these areas are something of a litmus test to see if we are a friend of God or a friend of the world.

Pray—Daily with much time given to listening to what God has to say.  Don’t say “Amen” after you give God your laundry list of requests.  Listen for what he has to say to you.  Think on this.  Are we interested in what God has to say to us or do we just want our requests filled?  Is God our vending machine or our friend?

Read—God’s holy word is alive and active.  If you want God to be first in your life, put reading his word ahead of the newspaper or email or Facebook or whatever television series has you hooked.  Hey, I read my verse for 2 minutes this morning.  I’m good!  Maybe that works, but let’s try this to test that theory.  Try breathing for only 2 minutes all day.

Give—Wait a minute, you already mentioned the tithe.  Give beyond the tithe of you time, talents, and treasure.  It is all from God but will you use it exclusively to satisfy your personal desires or will you take that which has been given to you as a blessing and be a blessing to others.

Serve—In these parts we call this God’s love in action.  Do something for someone because you love God.  You may not like the person whom you help but you love God and will consummate his command to love one another. 

There is nothing in this short list that is new to anyone.  The list could be longer, but this puts us in the framework of knowing if God comes first in my life.  Am I living as God’s friend or as a friend of the world?

Do I believe with all that I am that God will never stop loving me?  Do I trust him enough to tithe?  Am I interested in what God has to say to me in my prayer time and in my reading time.

Do I give?  Do I serve?

If these things come more and more naturally, then do not be concerned if you receive greater and greater wealth.  You have placed God first in your life.  God, not the world, is your friend.

If you struggle with these, beware of receiving more and more wealth.  You are susceptible to becoming a friend of the world. How many people do you know that struggled for a while financially, did not have God first in their lives, came into a sum of money, and somehow ended up worse than they were before?

How does this happen?  The world, not God, is their friend.  Sure, they might throw a few dollars the church’s way when they hit a windfall, much like you would tip a waiter at a self-service buffet.

Jesus told a parable that put our daily lifestyle into an eternal context.  Is it all about us or all about God?  We who have followed Jesus for years, perhaps even decades know that you cannot out give God.  We are not really putting anything of eternal value at risk when we go all in with God.

The more you put him first in your life, the more he blesses you.  

Sometimes those blessings come after a time of trial or suffering, but his blessings do come.

The psalmist wrote that sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.  Our night and morning may not always be a 24-hour cycle, but joy comes for the faithful, for those who put God first in all things, for those who know God, not the world, is the only friend they need.

We could read this parable and argue over how hot hell is.  We could, but it would be to no productive end.  You are a friend of God and not a friend of the world.

Of all the things that you will know when this life is done, the temperature of hell is not likely to be among them.  If you have to know, you can look it up in heaven’s library because you will not know it first hand.

You are a friend of God and not of the world!

You take what you have been blessed with and use so much of it to bless others.  While you are rich by the standards of the world; you are not the rich man in this parable.

You know that the trials and sufferings of this age are temporary.

You know that sorrow and pain will not last.  Joy does come in the morning.

There will be a morning when we will all be celebrating.

We will not be able to see those who have perished.  If you have concerns about those who are perishing, do something now.

We will have no more tears.

And because we have lived this life as a friend of God and not as a friend of the world, we will have no regrets over any blessing that we have received.

We have believed Moses and the prophets and put our trust in the One that God raised from the dead.

We are a friend of God and not of the world!

Amen!