...the Truth and Only the Truth

Truth, Fact, and Parable

The Way, The Truth, and the Life

Lindsey Graham - January 16, 1999

Intro - we are going to be speaking, over the next three weeks, about what Jesus says He is. Since we follow Him, it is good to know what Him really is, right? And Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life. And today, we will look at the truth.

That is the heart of the text for this morning. It is sometimes an unwelcome and uncomfortable question for us all.

What is the role of truth and fact in our life?

I ask that because the story today hints at that. You see, the story we will walk through today is a parable. Or maybe it isn’t. It is hard to tell really! And Jesus doesn’t tell us that it is, although it for all the world looks like one. It comes seemingly directly on the heels of the three parables we have been reading the past two weeks. This discourse, though, is aimed at his disciples now, and not the Pharisees, but of course, they were still there and still listening. In fact, you can read in this 16th chapter when Jesus finishes the first pseudo parable - to coin a phrase - that the Pharisees overhear everything, and are pretty mad at Jesus. I mean, it can be hard to listen to truth. It makes us shut down, or get angry, or start coming up with reasons to think the person delivering that truth is crazy or misguided.

So naturally, Jesus replies to them with something that seems completely off-topic, and follows that up with something else completely off topic!

It is almost like He is challenging them to rethink what they know. To take what they believe to be truth, and allow God to come alongside it to illuminate a greater truth in them. Just as He asks us.

He goes from there to our story today. A story that for all the world seems like it could be a true story even though we all would believe it is a parable. And it is there, in that dichotomy - that tension between fact and truth - that I want to begin. After all, parables are not factual at all, right? They are made up. They are stories that express an idea, sure enough, but you would never say that they are factual. No, they are not at all factual, but even there in the midst of their unfactualness - their fiction - they are truth. They possess no facts, but they possess endless truth! And that idea is very important to dwell on, especially for the times in which we are living.

We live in an era where our truth becomes truth because it’s ours. We ignore facts, in fact, if they don’t fall in line with whatever truth it is we want to perceive. Now, this can be about anything, obviously, and not just the Bible, but that mentality is prevalent there too!

Just this past week, I read an article that quoted the pastor of First Baptist Dallas. It was actually an article about global warming, but in that article was this quote that I found to be an illuminating point given it was a response - at least in part - to Greta Thornberg and her speech at the UN. In it this Pastor said that global warming had to be fake, it all had to be a lie because God said he would never destroy the earth - he would never kill all humans - with a flood again. And he then offered the rainbow as proof of it.

Now, this obviously raises a lot of questions about not only his theology - after all, God calls for us to care and tend this garden we live in, and even goes so far in to remind us that He will come to “destroy the destroyers of the earth.” A not so subtle reminder that we must ultimately pay the price for the destruction of His creation. But more important for us all to confront today, it also raises questions of his - and at times our own - critical thinking skills. After all, couldn't God kill the earth with fires from raising temperatures and dry conditions, the lack of oxygen due to a collapsing ecosystem that would normally take carbon dioxide out of the air and give us oxygen? Maybe the world dying of starvation because of our food sources completely vanishing from the earth. The list can go on and on. Those aside, this article is a reminder of a familiar moment. A moment in which his truth runs counter to other facts. Where his reality and his desired prevailing thought or actions supercede any other logical and provable points. And worse than that, not only does it run counter to other facts, but his truth is also being pushed off as the truth! Using the Bible - at least a part of it that is tangentially connected to his context - as the proof of his desires rather than the source of the questions we must ask ourselves. And that is where we are as a people about a good many things I’m afraid. We often think that because we view something as truth means that it necessarily is! And in so doing, we take the place of God.

Now I say all that to set up this text today and this idea of parable or not parable. Fact or truth. Can it be both? Does it have to be one and not the other. And ultimately, to consider how the stories God tells us, the facts and truth scripture relates, how all of those, and our circumstances, should affect us and open our hearts to the questions offered by the one who claims to be the truth for all creation.

Does scripture, and as important, do our lives need to be fact or truth?

PRAY [walkthrough style sermon]

Luke 16:19–21 ESV

“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.

[read verse 19]

[There was a rich man…]

[There was a rich man…]

Clothed in fine linen and feasted everyday.

That is us!

[vs 20-21]

[who is at our gate?]

This phrase implies a deeper question, not unlike a parent asking where were you last night young people…

And that question is what are the problems that we see around us? What are the things that we are being asked to take care of? What or who is at our gate that we are looking beyond because it is too uncomfortable to look at, or would somehow cause us to have to change, or that would make us have to reevaluate our precious worldview?

Those people, those issues, that long for someone to just do something! They long for the crumbs off our table! The proverbial least we can offer! But we, like this rich man, don’t even offer that sometimes.

Luke 16:22–23 ESV

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.

22-23

22-23

[read]

Like all things, eventually the problems go away, don’t they? No matter what we believe, no matter what we think is truth, the fact is starving people die of hunger. Homeless people die of exposure. And to be clear, all people die when we ignore the problem of our misuse and lack of care and concern for God’s creation.

But notice here the point Jesus is making. All die. Good or bad. Rich or poor. Wise or foolish. But those who die wanting will be filled - just as Jesus has said before. But those who die having been filled, and then not using those blessing to care for others, to solve the problems that are at their gates, those people will be in torment.

And that truth is so easy to brush aside, isn’t it? To think that it is for someone else, and not us. But we must allow God to speak His truth into our hearts so that we can be changed. We must give God all the room needed in our hearts to test our truth and allow it to be overcome by His truth!

Luke 16:24–26 ESV

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.’

24-26

24-26

And that is what the next few verses explains. [read] Just the same, I think it explains the torment that will come from us knowing that we willingly ignored problems that we could have helped in our lives.

Just imagine seeing your children, or their children, having suffered from the same inaction - but having to deal with the consequences? Imagine the guilt of knowing that people suffer and die because we simply can’t ask ourselves to do something helpful!

That is what the torment for this rich man really is, I think. Knowing - or realizing - that he had failed to live like he needed to, but seeing it all too late.

Luke 16:27–28 ESV

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.’

Luke 16:

27-28

27-28

And so realizing his mistake, he does like us [read]...

If I messed up, if I can’t be saved, at least send someone, send Lazarus - the problem I ignored, the one I looked past, the one I forgot to value and love, send him to warn my family - people I loved enough to provide for, but never loved enough to listen to God fully.

I know it sounds harsh, church, but that is what Jesus is saying here. He is warning us, that our lives matter. Our actions matter. Many will cry to me, Lord, Lord, but I - that is Jesus - will turn away saying I never knew you.

If we know Jesus, we will love and live as He does. We won’t ignore problems, but rather see them as an urging to understand His greater truth.

Luke 16:29–30 ESV

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.’

29-30

29-30

[just read]

We have that too. But to accept the warning, we must read it. Not just the parts we like, I know how that goes, I like to do that too. We must encounter and allow the entire counsel of scripture to mold and shape our hearts and minds! Our lives, our opinions, our truth, must be shaped by all that God has offered - from the hard parts to the easy.

Luke 16:31 ESV

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.’ ”

31

Here church is where the truth for us must be found. I don’t care what the issue is, church hiring practices, purchases, dinner plans, community events, politics, global warming, the finer points of theological debate - whatever it is we think we know so much about - to those Jesus reminds us that we have all the answers and ALL THE TRUTH we need!

But when we apply the idea that what we are doing is holy or right NOTHING can convince us that we are wrong! I say that because that is EXACTLY what this rich man was doing!

He lived his whole life feeling so righteous. So blessed. So in control. Everything was the way we want our own lives to be! He is rich. Well-fed. Didn’t have to miss any meals any day. I mean, wouldn’t that be nice? Wait...I forgot for a second...we don’t miss meals. We have fine clothes. We feast sumptuously.

And even though all throughout scripture God tells us to not do that. We don’t listen. This man didn’t listen! He didn’t, and we don’t, because we have decided that we are right with God, which through Grace, praise God we are, but in that rightness, we have decided that all we do must then be right as well! And that is exactly what this rich man was doing!

And even though all scripture calls out to us, we don’t see it! Even though time after time we hear it from God’s Spirit, from this pulpit, and for me that voice that is screaming at me inside my head to get my mind right! Even though we hear it we never listen!

[picturebeatitudes?]

Just think of what a luxury it is to have the very words of GOD IN FLESH to listen to. I mean, you don’t need a preacher. You don’t need a fancy degree! At the root of it, you just need the words that came out of God’s mouth!

I mean, how often do we forget that we are blessed to be poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, merciful, and peacemakers? How often do we turn the other cheek, when it is so much more satisfying to turn tail and run, or to burn the whole thing down since we didn’t get our way? How often do we pray for our friends - MUCH LESS OUR ENEMIES! How often do we bless all those who come to us without asking for anything in return? How often do we give people anything - much less all we have - just because they want it? Time after time, God challenges us with His words, and we turn them aside as if they weren’t the truth!

We parabolize, and hyperbolize the very utterances and example of God in flesh, while literalizing ANYTHING that supports the truth we want in our own hearts.

[lazarusinhell]

We don’t have time for that, though, church. We weren’t made for that. This picture we see today of this rich man isn’t meant to be our destiny! This is exactly what God DOESN’T want for us!

The truth is bigger than us. It is bigger than our lives. It is bigger than what we want! It is so big, in fact, that while it can be seen throughout scripture, and even on into the world, that sometimes we don’t want to believe it, even if Jesus, our Christ, God in flesh, rises from the dead to tell us! And make no mistake He speaks to us through scripture, but also through ancient and modern prophecy! Ancient like we read in the Bible, and modern through science, through reason, through compassion for those in need. Through an openness of heart that sees things from another point of view first.

And that, church, is why facts matter - but bigger than facts God matters! His Spirit matters! The fruits of that Spirit - which are the tangible representations of that Spirit in our lives, they matter! So to live in the truth is to live with love! With Joy! With peace! With Patience! With goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness! With Self-control! To live with kindness!

That is how you get to the truth! That is how you live in truth! Church if this rich man had even ONE of those things he would have given Lazarus food. He would have changed his reality. He would have seen beyond his comfort and wanted that same comfort for another. He would have solved problems and fought battles for all those around him - just as Jesus did. And likewise, if we live in truth and have even the smallest fruit of the spirit in our lives, we will live out lives that reflect God’s truth!

And in that truth, we will never be blinded by our own desires. In that truth, we will never fight for a truth that would destroy another, or put anyone at risk. When we live in the truth of Christ, we will abandon the deeds, thoughts, and schemes of darkness and live a life reflecting all that He is.

[be thou my vision]