First Sunday after Trinity

Today we hear and consider Jesus’ story of Lazarus and the rich man. This has been the custom of the Church catholic on this First Sunday after Trinity for at least twelve-hundred years. But as these words are read today, I wonder how many people across our country might want to refashion them to say something that Jesus does not say. Yes, there is a rich man and a poor man in this story, but rich or poor is not Jesus’ concern. No, this story is not about social justice or the evils of capitalism. Being rich does not make one wicked, nor does being poor make one righteous. This story is about faith and unbelief.

The rich man appears without a name, while the poor man is given one. It would seem that the rich man’s name was not known in heaven. We could say that in the kingdom of God, there is only one family name, and it’s not Rockefeller. All who are adopted in the family of God through holy baptism leave behind their old identity and receive a new name: precious child of God, bought and redeemed with the blood of Christ, heir of all things. That is your name, and you will never find a better one. The name Lazarus means “God is my help” and marks the poor beggar as one who put all his trust and faith in God. When Jesus tells us this man’s name, it is as though he had looked into the Book of Life and found his name written, but as for the rich man, his name could not be found.

The poor man was thrown, or dumped, at the rich man’s gate. He would have been impossible to ignore, lying at the entrance to the house. Perhaps the rich man had to step over him every time he went in or out. But once again, this is not a story about sharing your wealth. This is a story about faith, or rather, the lack of it. And without faith in Christ, the rich man did prove unable to love his neighbor. Salvation comes through faith alone, but faith is never alone. Where there is faith, good works always follow. The poor man longed to eat from the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, yet his only company was the wild dogs who licked his sores.

Everything said so far is simply setting the stage and introducing the characters. The real story begins, as it will for all of us, at the moment of death. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (Lk 16:22). Nothing is said about his burial. It’s likely that his body was dumped into an unmarked grave, but his soul was borne into the bliss of heaven by God’s own angels. Abraham is the father of all believers in Christ, thus Abraham’s bosom has come to be a name for heaven, the final home of the children of God.

Whether sooner or later—it makes no difference—the rich man also died and was buried. All the pomp, all the ceremony, vast mourning, hundreds of friends, great display and honor. But no angels. How little our world values what actually matters. Someone might ask, “How then did the rich man’s soul get to hell?” Those who get there know the answer.

And now in the torment of hell, the once rich man sees Abraham and Lazarus afar off, and begins to beg for the tiniest bit of mercy: “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” (Lk 16:24). He calls Abraham “father”, but Abraham is the father of all who believe in Christ. Any claim the man might have had to Abraham’s lineage through birth means nothing in the kingdom that can only be entered by the second birth, and the time for mercy is past.

Hell is where the mercy of God is not. Some people think they are living in hell already. They’re wrong. However terrible someone’s life may seem, every living person is nevertheless surrounded by the mercy of God in ways that are beyond counting. Every breath and every heartbeat is gift. Even the most desperate and hardened sinner, so long as he lives, is a candidate for God’s mercy. But there are no second chances in death. And now the tongue that once tasted the finest wines now yearns for a single drop of water.

Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things” (Lk 16:25). It would be wrong to think that having good things in this life means you can’t have them in the next. Those who are baptized into Christ inherit every good thing that he possesses, unimaginable blessings in eternity and also countless blessings in this life. But the rich man cared for nothing of eternal consequence. He had lived only for earthly treasures. These are what he had valued. These were his “good things”, and had received them in plenty, but now their time was over.

With no hope for himself, he said, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus 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” (Lk 16:27–29). Moses and the prophets refers to the Scriptures which call sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. The Word of God alone can make us wise to salvation. But the rich man, suddenly fancying himself an expert on church growth, calls for another method of salvation. I wonder how many such programs found their origins in the bowels of hell.

“No, father Abraham, the Word of God will never work for my brothers. We cannot count on the pure doctrine of Christ to cause the church to grow. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Lk 16:30). Now at last we see the root of the man’s unbelief, and the reason that he is in hell. In death, just as he had in life, the rich man despises the Word of God. And his plea for another means of grace, one invented in hell, is actually an accusation against God. “Give my brothers something that I was not given. Give them an amazing miracle, some sort of spectacle from beyond the grave, anything other than the Word of God. Then they will repent and believe!”

But there can be no salvation except by the words of Jesus. Man shall not live by bread alone—though the rich man had plenty of that—but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut 8:3). These are the words that this man rejected through his life, and too late he discovers that has rejected his own salvation.

This story serves as a warning, even to Christians. How quick we are to turn our gaze from the promises of Christ onto the passing pleasures of this life. At the end of your time on earth could it be said of you, “You have already received your good things”? Or do you, sharing the faith of Abraham, look with expectation for that city whose builder and maker is God? (Heb 11:10). To God the Holy Spirit let us pray, for the truth faith needed on our way, that he may defend us when life is ending and from exile home we are wending. Lord, have mercy!

When you reach the end of this mortal journey, only one thing in this life will have any lasting value: your faith in Jesus, who opened the gateway to heaven for you with his broken body and poured-out blood. No other treasure matters. You could be the poorest beggar on earth, yet if you have Christ, you have riches beyond comparison. And then, after the joys and sorrows of this life are over, when your final hour comes, according to his promise, our Lord will send his holy angels to bear your soul into the eternal joy of heaven. Amen.