The Rich Man and Lazarus
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was customary to tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve. Hence, in the song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, we hear the words, “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” Because Christmas was so close to winter solstice, the shortest and darkest day of the year, it was the superstition that this was the time when ghosts would roam the earth. It’s also why Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in which Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by his deceased business partner Marley and then by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and yet to come. And the hope in the ghost story is that Scrooge will be confronted with his miserly ways and his heart will change. And, of course, that is exactly what happens.
This morning, we are looking at a passage that may remind you of A Christmas Carol; it does me. But these are not the same story. There is no happy ending to this story and no ghosts, or in this case resurrected people, make things right. This is a story of faith without works and knowledge without understanding. And as we study this parable, I want us to see three moments of time that are given to help open the eyes of the Pharisees who love money. There is the present moment for compassion. There is the pitiful moment of consciousness. Finally, there is the passing moment for comprehension
The Present Moment for Compassion
The Pitiful Moment of Consciousness
The Passing Moment for Comprehension
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried,
and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
The Present Moment for Compassion
The Present Moment for Compassion
The first moment that we come to is the present moment to show compassion. We are presented with a rich man and a poor man. We don’t know the rich man’s name, but the poor man Jesus called Lazarus. Lazarus is the only man in Jesus’s parables that is named. This has led some to believe that this is not a parable at all, but a real story. And it may be that this was based off of a true story, but the way that it begins makes this more likely to be a parable that Jesus was speaking. Jesus starts off many of his parables about people the same way he did this one. “There was a certain man,” or in this case, “There was a certain rich man.”
But what we have is that Jesus showed that this rich man had every chance to show compassion. Instead, he showed none. Instead, what we see is that the rich man used his money to elevate his own lifestyle. He wore purple, which was the most expensive and luxurious type of clothing. There’s a reason why we often see royalty depicted with purple robes. Only the richest of the rich wore this clothing. Even his under garments were fine linen. We’re talking about Rye 51 and Burberry where a polo shirt costs between $300 and $650. It’s that type of clothing here. The average person would not be able to afford such luxury, let alone a poor man like Lazarus.
Lazarus is depicted as a beggar sitting at the gate of this rich man. While the rich man feasted on his fine food, Lazarus was starving and just hoping for some crumbs off the floor. He was in the company of dogs. No doubt they were with him waiting for those crumbs as well, but while they waited they feasted on Lazarus’s sores.
The contrast is as stark as it can be. Rich man and poor man. And the idea then is that the rich man had the opportunity to show compassion with his money, day in and day out. And the implication is that he never did. Never! We can’t help but think back to the good Samaritan who saw a man who had been beaten and stripped naked while he was making a journey to some unknown destination for business. He saw the guy one time and immediately felt compassion for him, and he took him and cleaned him up, bound his wounds, set him on his donkey, and took him to an inn and paid all his medical expenses. Here is a rich man who saw the same poor man over and over again just outside his own gate. He did nothing. Rather than clean his wounds, he let the dogs do that. Rather than binding them, he let them ooze. Rather than feeding the man, he let him go hungry and probably would fight the dogs for anything he got.
There was a time for compassion. Multiple moments to show it and he would not. Just a few verses prior to these, we see Jesus telling the Pharisees that they cannot serve God and wealth. They would hate one and love the other or to put it another way, they would be devoted to one and despise the other. This was a chiasm. If you’re taking notes write down a big X. On the top left, write Hate. On the Bottom Right, write Love. On the top right, write Devoted. On the bottom left, write Despise. This is a chiasm, the letter X in Greek is Chi, from where it gets its name. And the idea is saying something one way and then flipping it and saying it again. That’s what Jesus did there. And the point was that the Pharisees, who loved money, could not serve both God and wealth. They were, by far, choosing to serve money, thus showing their separation from God.
Of course, Jesus told another parable just before this about an unjust steward. And the point of the parable was that as followers of Christ, we are to use unrighteous wealth to procure friends who will receive us into our eternal dwellings. And now this parable shows what happens if we do not heed his words.
The Pitiful Moment of Consciousness
The Pitiful Moment of Consciousness
And that takes us to our next moment in time. Jesus informed the Pharisees and all who are reading Luke, that there is a present moment for compassion with our wealth. But if we let that moment pass, we end up in a pitiful moment of consciousness. That moment happens as soon as we hit eternity.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried,
and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
Both of the men die. We don’t know if there was any time-lapse between them or if they died on the same day. It doesn’t matter. What matters is where each ended up. But notice that Jesus did not mention that Lazarus was buried, but he does mention that the rich man was. Again, this shows the difference of wealth. The rich man had procured a burial place. Lazarus wasn’t able to afford one. Instead, he would be been buried in a mass, unmarked grave. It’s how they dealt with the poor dead. Often times today, cities or towns will have something called Potter’s Field for those who were poor and could not afford a burial and who had no family to make arrangements. They get buried in the town’s cemetery for the extremely poor. This would be a similar way of dealing with the extremely poor. But the rich man had a tomb; he made sure of that.
The point though was not how they were buried, but where they ended up. Lazarus ended up at Abraham’s side while the rich man ended up in Hades. And while this is a parable and we can’t make a one to one comparison of everything, there are attributes of Hades that are consistent throughout Scripture.
The first is that it is a place of torment. Here in Luke, it states that the rich man was tormented. In other places, it tells us that there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Think of how back in the Civil War soldiers would be given a stick or a bullet to bite down on when surgery was being done so that they didn’t bite of their tongues. The pain and misery would cause the teeth to clinch and grind. That’s what Hades and Hell are like. So it is a place of torment.
But it is also a place of consciousness. Again, one can’t be in torment if they aren’t conscious of the pain and agony around him/her. There is consciousness, not annihilation, not a soul-sleep. A person will be conscious of the torment, but also of what he is missing.
You will notice how the rich man lifted up his eye. He not only saw Abraham but he saw Lazarus. The guy whom he had ignored for who knows how long, he no longer could ignore. In fact, he seeks Lazarus to do what he was never willing to do himself: to relieve his discomfort and agony.
How pitiful it must be to seek mercy from the man or woman for whom we never showed mercy. But worse yet, to hear that mercy will never be given.
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
As Jesus tells this parable, I wonder if the words he had just spoken were ringing in the ears of his listeners.
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
The rich man, who had money to burn never used it to make friends who would receive him. Neither Abraham nor Lazarus was there to receive him into eternal dwellings. Yet, he sought Father Abraham and poor Lazarus to ease his suffering, but it was not even that they would not. It was that they could not. There was a vast, impassable chasm that would not allow anyone to pass from one side the other. Those in Hades could not pass into heaven and those in heaven could not pass to hell. Incidentally, this shows that our eternal place is set from the moment we die. There is no purgatory of waiting, purging, and then release. It’s hell or heaven.
But the pitiful consciousness that I am really referring to is not the torment of the fires of hell. But the consciousness that one’s actions in this temporary world had eternal consequences. This rich man would live for eternity knowing that though he was physically a child of Abraham, spiritually he was a child of the devil and it showed by how he treated his fellow-man.
You see, as a Jew, this rich man would have claimed to believe in God. He would have claimed to believe in the law and prophets and the oral traditions that had been passed down. He would have been a man of faith, but as James tells us:
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
John would put it another way,
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Beloved, many a Christian has asked herself if she is truly saved. How can I know if I love God? How can I know if I truly believe? The question comes from the fear of not having seen God and of sinning and messing up. If I loved God I wouldn’t have done “x.” But the truth is, we can know our salvation is sure, our faith is real, by looking at how we treat our brothers and sisters. Our treatment of our brothers and sisters is the work of faith; it is the evidence of love toward God.
Do we take the present moments for compassion and give that compassion. Not that we are perfect at doing this. We will have our bad days; we will war against the flesh at times and miss these moments of compassion. But ask yourself, is there evidence of love for the brothers and sisters in my midst? Or do I ignore their plight, their suffering? Am I like this rich man? If so, then I need to come to a realization now and repent than wake up to a pitiful and everlasting consciousness.
The Passing Moment of Comprehension
The Passing Moment of Comprehension
Finally, we see that it is not only a present moment for compassion and a pitiful moment of consciousness—that moment we wake up in eternity and realize that our temporary acts affect our eternal dwellings, but a passing moment of comprehension. The rich man wanted his brothers to have A Christmas Carol-like moment.
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
Maybe Lazarus can’t get him a drop of water because of the chasm, but there was no such chasm between he and the earth. Send him down and warn my five brothers. At least the rich man is finally thinking of someone other than himself. Even so, Abraham rejects his request.
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
In other words, they have the Bible. They can read it for themselves. They should read it and comprehend it while they still can. The moment to read and comprehend is passing away. We don’t have forever. We live in a tension. We know that we will one day all die and yet we pretend as if that day will never come. We pretend as though we are not quickly passing away. And yet we are.
How often have we said that time flies and that time flies faster the older we get. When we were five, time seemed to creep along. By the time I was 30, I was saying, “Wait! It’s December already? Just yesterday it was June!” And yet, we keep putting God and his Word on the back burner. When we have time, we’ll get to it. Rather than getting up first thing in the morning and spending time with God and his word so we can comprehend who he is and who we are, we put it off until later in the day and too many times, we never get around to doing it. And suddenly we realize that the last time we really sat down with God in study and prayer was weeks ago. The moments are passing us by.
Abraham said, the Word of God is sufficient for them to understand the torment that awaits them. It is sufficient for them to see the way to Abraham’s side. It’s all there if they will hear them. Listen to them. Obey what is written therein. But they are speeding along through life and the moment is passing them by.
And the rich man objects,
And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
Marley and the Christmas ghosts can change the heart of Ebenezer, but in real life, it doesn’t work that way.
I remember watching a debate with Christopher Hitchens, who was known as one of the four horsemen of New Atheism. He has since died, but in that debate, he was asked what it would take for him to believe in God. He said that he would have to see a man who had lost both legs regrow his legs and then he would have to run faster than he ran before losing his legs. And then he added that even then, he probably still wouldn’t believe.
That’s the reality. The rich man doesn’t seem to recall that he himself would not have believed. From his perspective at that moment, in a pitiful moment of consciousness, he could see clearly and and surely if someone from the dead were to rise, everyone would believe. But Abraham understood that the spirit of man was dead.
He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
In this moment, Jesus was making a fascinating statement. First, the Law and the Prophets can point people to salvation. How? By ultimately pointing to him. We will see after his resurrection, Jesus tells those on the road to Emmaus:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
And then soon after to his disciples.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
So we see first that if someone has what we would consider to be the Old Testament, they can find Jesus. Even the Ethiopian eunuch was nearly there and he was just reading it probably for the first time. But the second fascinating statement was his pointing to himself for he would be the risen one, and we know that countless people have rejected the risen Messiah. If they will not believe the Word of God, they certainly will not believe the Son of God.
Brothers and sisters, we say with Paul:
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
But we not only proclaim Christ crucified, but Christ risen from the dead! While some will stumble and some will say its folly, some will believe if we proclaim the truth of God’s Word. Let us not have a defeatist attitude, but one of faith that believes the same as God promised Paul about Corinth that he has many in this city that are his people. As the Getty’s say
The power that raised Him from the grave
Now works in us to powerfully save
He frees our hearts to live His grace
Go tell of His goodness
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish with this parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we have seen that in this very moment of our, we have an opportunity to put our faith into action. While there are times when all we can do is pray (and that is the most powerful thing we can do), there are many times when we can also act—being the very instrument that God uses to answer our prayers. We’ve seen that those who may claim faith or think they have faith may one day awaken to find themselves in a state of consciousness regretting and suffering for their neglect for the love of brothers and sisters. Let us love one another every chance we have. Finally, we saw that we live in a moment passing us by in which we could grow ever nearer to God through his Word. Not only is it sufficient for telling us about Jesus, but as Paul would tell Timothy, it is sufficient for making us men and women of God, equipped for every good work.
So let me ask this, are we participating in loving others with our unrighteous wealth? Or are we being negligent to make friends who will welcome us into eternal dwellings?
Are we utilizing the time we have to spend time with God in his word and in prayer that we may grow in our love for him and love for neighbor, that we may be men and women of God, equipped for every good work? Or are we letting this moments to comprehend his message pass away?