Give me something to believe in

Life at the top

A couple of years ago, some Cal-Berkeley professors set up cameras at a busy intersection in their city and took note of the behaviors of drivers based on the kinds of cars they were driving. You know what they found? They found that drivers who were driving fancy high end cars were more likely to cut off other drivers at the intersection instead of waiting their turn. It didn’t matter the gender or day of time or the amount of traffic. They also found drivers of high end cars were more likely to cut off a pedestrian trying to cross the street, even after making eye contact. Their studies suggested that those in the upper tax brackets are less likely to feel compassion for or empathize with those on the lower rungs. Similar studies have shown that many at the top believe greed is good, even when there is negative benefit to those below them in the income tax brackets.

What’s fascinating about those studies is that they tend to reinforce our already pre-conceived ideas about class and the relationship between rich and poor. We all have preconceived notions. A lot of it is based on real life. I remember a few years back, a well-known sports figure was videoed burning a $100 bill at a night club. You hear stories like this and our sense of morality is offended. The backlash on social media was to be expected. But what I found funny is that all the outrage happened because it was videoed. Whoever took the video knew this would play into our stereotypes.

Class envy is a big piece of the worldview on the one side, and lack of compassion on the other and everybody, regardless of class embraces greed in some form or another. In fact, just by reading the story we just read, every single one of us has a reaction based on where we are in life. Every single one of us hears that story and before we even close our Bibles we’ve begun to form an opinion about that story and just how we are going to fit that story into our own views on politics and economics.

Jesus is pushing buttons. Jesus is pushing our buttons with a story about an insensitive rich guy and a poor guy at the other end of the economic scale. And before we get to what Jesus wants his audience to hear and understand let’s just get this out of the way, right up front. There is something to be said for what this story is saying about the way those who have means are to be treating those who don’t. There is no universe in which we can read or hear this story and think, this guy gets a pass for the way he is treating Lazarus in the story. Jesus is attacking, among other things, the health, wealth and prosperity notion that wealth equals blessing and God’s favor. Sickness and poverty equals cursing. Those are myths. Busting those myths is part of what Jesus is doing.

But having said that, we must come to this story and hear this story on Jesus’ terms. We must allow our buttons to be pushed.

We’ll start with...

What this story is not

There are a lot of fascinating takes on this entire story. There are a couple of popular takes on this story that we’re going to say right up front because this story can be totally taken out of context, misunderstood, and misapplied. First,

This story is not a systematic theology of heaven and hell

It’s popular in Christian circles, when we start describing what heaven or hell are like, this is one of the passages we will come to. But we must say this up front: We don’t get our doctrine of heaven or hell from this story, other than heaven is good and hell is bad. This story is made up. It’s not a true story. This is what we call a parable. Jesus invents a story based on real life stuff that is relevant to his audience’s lives, in order to teach his audience a larger point. That’s going on here. There wasn’t a rich man who had a poor man named Lazarus showing up outside his house hoping for some crumbs. But you can bet that everybody knew of similar instances in their culture. Jesus makes up a story to illustrate a point. And the made up story includes the things being said about heaven and hell. This story is not teaching us that when we go to heaven we are carried by angels. It’s also not teaching us about a chasm between heaven and hell over which people can have conversations. It’s not teaching us that hell has flames, though that mention here fits with other things that Jesus has said about hell. All of this is made up. It’s a fictitious story meant to illustrate a point. If I say, a man died and he showed up at the pearly gates and Peter is there at the guard house checking people in, am I suggesting that Peter and the pearly gates and the idea that Peter patrols the entrance, that all of that is real? No. There’s none of that in the Bible. We use that imagery, typically in jokes, to make a larger point. Same thing is happening here. I raise this issue because there’s a lot of bad heaven theology and hell theology out there and this story has contributed to it.

This story is not a morality tale about rich people treating poor people badly

This is not a plea from Jesus for rich people to start paying attention to poor people. Wealth redistribution. The story is about a rich man treating a poor man badly. But that’s not the point of the story. We’ll get to that in a second. This is a big, big deal because we have many popular morality tales like this in our own culture. The Cinderella story is along these lines. A poor outcast being treated badly by the rich. In a few months, we’ll entertain ourselves with what may be the most popular of these morality tales in the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a filthy rich miser who sees the errors of his ways, and becomes a benevolent philanthropist for those in economic need. It’s very easy to read Jesus’ story through the lens of our own morality tales of greed and need. And when we do that, we will completely miss Jesus’ point.

This story is not about rich people going to hell and poor people going to heaven

It’s also not about miserly people going to hell… or getting their just deserts. After all, in this conversation, Abraham is in heaven, and Abraham was the Elon Musk of his day. Absolutely, filthy rich. None like him in his world. Nowhere in this text are we told that the rich man went to hell because of the way he treated Lazarus. It’s not in this text. you can’t find it because that’s not Jesus’ point. We’re also not told that Lazarus went to heaven because he was poor and suffered at the hands of the rich man. Again, these are popular ways to read this story and all of it is being filtered through a lens based on morality and behavior.

What then, is this story about? Jesus tells us this gripping story with all sorts of emotional baggage. He is pulling us in precisely because we all have a stake in this. We all have opinions about this. He knows the religious leaders are going to be offended because it’s about them. And the outcasts are going to be outraged, because they know this scenario all too well. Jesus has us all hanging on the edge of our seats, but this story ends in a way that is jolting for all of us.

What is this story about? Would you believe it if I told you that this story is ultimately about Jesus? Go figure.

What this story is

This story is about Jesus

When it’s all said and done, the story isn’t about being nicer to the outcasts… it’s about Jesus. He’s using a story about the rich and the outcasts to bring the spotlight back to himself.

The love of money

He does this by talking about the love of money. Earlier in this conversation, Jesus has already confronted the religious leaders about their love for money. Dr. Luke who is writing this tells us, the Pharisees were lovers of money. And they have been scoffing Jesus. Jesus is now telling a story in which we find a man who very obviously loves his money. And Jesus is going to frame it in a not so nice way. He does this through a series of contrasts.

Earthly contrasts

Heavenly contrasts

Dr. Luke tells us that the rich man, who is unnamed, dress in purple, or the stuff of kings, every day. He feasted, over the top, every day. His clothing and his food are the stuff of the elite. And the contrasts are very, very stark. Lazarus is identified by name. He is dressed in sores. He longs for crumbs from the feasts of the rich man and all he gets are dogs to lick the sores. A black and white contrast. Already the rich man is not coming off well.

But then both men die and again, we have a stark contrast. Lazarus goes to heaven, ushered in by angels, and enjoys comfort. The rich man goes to hell, he’s obviously alone, and he not only doesn’t have comfort, he is in agony. The one who was in love with his money now finds that the money cannot help him where he is at.

We have these contrasts, and we tend to get all of the meaning of the story from these contrasts. The rich man is where he is at because on earth, he ignored the outcast Lazarus. This is total karma. He lived it up, had all of the best of life all of the time, and now has none of it. He has his just deserts, and all because he didn’t have compassion on the less fortunate.

Is that why he’s in hell? Is that why he wants Lazarus to go warn his five brothers so they don’t end up here? No, it’s not. If we’re going to get this story right we need to read all of the way to the end.

Jesus began all of this in a confrontation with the religious leaders over their love of money. They had been scoffing Jesus because Jesus spent his time proclaiming the kingdom of God had come near and forgivess of sins was to be had, and that Jesus himself was the promised one of the old Testament.

The problem with the religious leaders wasn’t simply their love of money. Their problem was that they didn’t love Jesus. They refused to believe Jesus. They refused to accept Him as the Messiah who had been promised to come and forgive sins. Their problem was that they rejected Jesus.

The rejection of Jesus

The meaning of this story is articulated by Abraham. When the rich man, again a fictitious story, says to Abraham, send Lazarus to warn my brothers, here’s what Abraham says:

Luke 16:29 “‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’”

Ignoring Moses’ witness to Jesus

Ignoring the Gospel

This is a total slam on the religious leaders. Jesus, time and again, has been appealing to Moses and the prophets’ testimony about himself. “Moses and the Prophets” is simply Jesus’ way of talking about the Bible, and their Bible was what we know as the Old Testament. They aren’t listening to what the Old Testament has to say about Jesus. They don’t want Jesus. They are ignoring the Bible’s witness to who Jesus is and what He has come to do for them and for humanity.

When the rich man again asks for Lazarus to be raise from the dead, Abraham again says this:

Luke 16:31 “‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’ ””

They aren’t listening to Jesus. They wouldn’t be persuaded if Lazarus or Jesus rose from the dead. They haven’t been listening.

Luke 16:16 “The good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently invited to enter it.”

Jesus’ message to the religious leaders was the Gospel. The Good News is here. The Kingdom is here, and I’m the One who will give His life a ransom for many. And the religious leaders love their money too much to pay attention. You see, the rich man ends up where he does, not because he’s been terrible to Lazarus. He’s in hell, thirsty for water because he refused to believe what the Scriptures say about Jesus. He refused to believe Jesus. And Lazarus is where he is because he has been listening, he has been paying attention, and his hope is in what Moses and the Old Testament is saying about Jesus. The contrasts show us that the rich man and Lazarus have had very different responses to what Moses and the prophets have been saying about Jesus and what Jesus has been saying about himself… the one who came to give his life a ransom for many.

This story is all about Jesus. This story is about what Moses and the prophets are saying about Jesus. The rich man couldn’t care less about Lazarus and his hunger. That’s bad enough. But over and over and over in the Bible we are shown that those kinds of actions are the result of not believing in Jesus. The lack of morality is symptomatic of a larger reality.

Give me something to believe in

And that brings us to the why question. This is the answer to “why”. Why do people act like they do? Why doesn’t life make sense? Why do rich people live it up and the disadvantaged just a block away die of starvation? Why is life seemingly unfair? Why is there nothing to believe in? The inequity should bother us. The stuff happening to those who are disadvantaged should bother us. But then again, the class envy that is so divisive should bother us. The rich want to keep their pie. The disadvantaged scratch and claw for their piece of the pie. And we come to a passage like this and we’re looking for all sorts of moral lessons that we can use against the next guy and be able to claim, well, Jesus said this. The Bible becomes our weapon in class warfare and divisive politics.

Jesus upends all of it. Jesus shocks us all. If we had been writing this story, you know what Abraham would be saying? Abraham would be lecturing the rich man on his morals. We expect Abraham to just rip the rich man a good one because he had the cushy life, he loved his money to the exclusion of his neighbor, and Abraham doesn’t go there. Abraham is talking about Jesus. Abraham is talking about the Bible and Jesus. Regardless of where we are in life, the answer for greed, the answer for insensitivity, the answer for class envy is Jesus.

We are the rich guy.

We are also Lazarus.

None of us are off the hook. When it comes to the why questions of life, we hear Abraham telling us clear as a bell that we have Moses and the Prophets and their witness to One who Rises from the Dead for all of us. We are the rich guy in need of Jesus, even when we don’t want Jesus and can’t see it. We are also Lazarus, desperate to find comfort and relief and provision and sustenance from Jesus.

There is a heaven and there is a hell. And what separates the two isn’t how we behave. It’s what Jesus does for us in his death and resurrection. Jesus gives us the benefits of His death and resurrection in the Word preached and in the Word seen and tasted in the Sacraments. Being carried by angels to see Jesus may just be a good illustration, but it does tells us this: in death, Jesus has us. We all need Jesus and the crumbs he gives us. And he always, always has is, even at the end of life.

Let’s pray.

This morning, the irony of this Table is that this Table is everything the rich man’s wasn’t. At this Table, the King gives crumbs to poor sinners. But it’s more than crumbs. He gives us the entire feast. The King welcomes us poor unhealthy souls to His table to receive all the great things He does for us. He gives us of himself here in his broken body and shed blood.