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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 the Name of Jesus, dearly beloved:
The Christian Faith— believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior— is never something that we could acquire on our own. When we were born, we were born hostile to God. In the image of Adam, not of God. And Adam’s image is pretty bad. The first to be created. The first to breathe in the Spirit of God. The first to receive a woman as his wife. Living in Eden, a true paradise. He and Eve walked with God in the cool of he evening.
Enter Satan. He changes the whole course of creation with a simple question. “Did God really say...”
Eve fell for it. She ate the fruit because she wanted to be like God. Ironically, she already was like God, and she gave that up. She gives it to Adam and He eats. Notice that God holds Adam responsible. He is the first one to whom He asks, “Adam, where are you?” … “Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” He, of course, passes the blame unto Eve, and she the serpent. But God asks Adam first.
Why? Because God created Adam to rule over you. Ephesians speaks about this quite clearly:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Beloved, God has never rescinded this. Society has long ago rejected what the Lord clearly says and calls it anti-woman, misogynistic, and evil. No one is over me is the clear mantra today. Again, God never rescinds this. Ever.
To make this clear, as we go through the New Testament, the sin of the Fall of mankind is the sin of “Adam,” not “Eve.” Adam sinned in not stopping this. Rather he became complicit. God tells us in His Word, “For as in Adam all die.” Not Eve.
Dead. Man. Walking.
When one is dead, he or she cannot see the glories of the Lord or experience His presence and receive His salvation.
We are born blind, mute, and dead to God. As in Adam all die.
Lazarus and the Rich Man
Lazarus and the Rich Man
Today our Gospel shares with us the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus is poor, sick, and weak, attempting to eat the crumbs that fall from the Rich Man’s table. It appears that the Rich man could care less about this beggar at his gates. Even the dogs had more compassion on Lazarus than the Rich man— they came and licked his sores, cleaning them out. My dog Tillie does the same when I have injured myself in the past and have a small cut on my hand.
Lazarus dies. He is carried to Abraham’s bosom by the angels. He is beloved of God.
The Rich man dies also. All of his riches meant nothing before God. He lives for himself. He cares nothing about others, so self-centered he is. As the saying goes, “life’s a beach and then you die.” He also dies. But for him, there are no angels carrying him away. It just says “he was buried.” But the story goes on.
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.’
He is in Hades— hell. Conscious, alert, and oriented. Suffering terribly. A hell that still does exist today, a hell that God has saved you from in Christ, a hell in which the majority of the world has as its destiny. This is why we spread God’s word. This is why we witness to our faith. This is the purpose of the Church to tell everyone about the salvation in Jesus.
Yet some will remain “rich” in their own minds and have seemingly no need for Jesus. Such will be their plea as well.
Beloved, spreading the Gospel is not known as the “Great suggestion.” It is the Great Commission, and Jesus has placed this responsibility on His Church. You are a part of the Church, the body of Christ so you share in this responsibility.
One of our former Synodical Presidents was fond of saying, “time is short and hell is hot.” We see this in today’s Gospel.
The account continues:
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.’
Beloved, you have Moses and the Prophets. Even better, you have Jesus. He comes to you in His Word and Sacraments bearing life.
He does this because He Himself went to this same place where the Rich man was. He was cursed by God for you. He suffers hell in your place, because that was your destiny. We are a part of this parable in a way. The Rich Man was supposed to be your next door neighbor! Jesus took your place. No moistened finger for Him, because there will never be a moistened finger for you in that place of torment.
The Gospel for you today is that in Christ, none of this will ever happen to you. You will be received into God’s everlasting heaven because of Jesus and your faith in Him. All this parable does for us as God’s own Children is show us the glory of what awaits through faith in God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. What a glorious future and salvation that Jesus has given us, thanks be to God!
There’s a bit more to this text:
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 only way you can believe in the resurrection from the dead is by faith in Jesus through the blessed Holy Spirit. Your spiritually dead eyes only can see death. Deadened hearts are hopeless hearts. But God, in Christ, has saved you in His Son! Rejoice!
The world does not believe resurrection is possible. People are all still in their graves. Dead is dead. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. Abandon all hope ye who enter here!
Even if someone came back from the dead in some spritistic kind of way, they would not believe.
Ah, but you do. 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—”
It’s the hope that the Holy Spirit has put into your hearts. Hope through faith in the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus Christ.
When your world falls apart, so did Lazarus’ world.
When you are covered with the sores of sickness, the Lord brings healing.
When your hope dwindles, the Holy Spirit comes to you in His Word.
In our Old Testament Lesson today, Abraham struggles with his faith— and he speaks directly to God. God made a promise of a son. And the years have dragged on with no prodigy. Abraham is so down that he seeks to have a surrogate father, Eliazar. But God says, no! Trust Me. It will be from your own seed that I will create more descendants than the sand on the seashore.
Faith and trust work in God’s timing, not yours.
God uses you now. Step forth in faith. Cling to Jesus despite what even your eyes tell you and your ears hear. Hope against all odds, because this hope is good.
In the meantime, become the father/mother of all nations. Go and tell the News of Jesus that those who hear it, even from you, become an untold multitude.
And trust in the promises of Jesus, as Lazarus did.
Amen.
