Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Today we hear a parable of Jesus of a man who has nothing and a man who has plenty. Yet, this dynamic does not play out how you would think.
On the one side, we have the rich man. This man lived in luxury, adorned with beautiful clothes and eating wonderful food. On the other, poor Lazarus, a man with no food, no home, and nothing but the comfort of feral street dogs to help him. Poor Lazarus waits outside of the gates of the rich man’s estate hoping for just a small morsel from the rich man’s feasting. But that mercy never comes. Which would you say is the one with plenty, and which is the one with nothing?
Things become clearer as the story goes on and takes a surprising turn straight into Hell. We see that, while in life the rich man had plenty, the rich man has gone on to the place of eternal suffering, whereas the poor man, who had nothing, is taken up to heaven and is in the presence of the righteous saints like Abraham. That being said, it’s in the story for the reason of teaching, so what is it saying?
I’ll mark here for the sake of all who are listening what this parable is NOT saying: that is, that the parable is not told for any sort of look into what the afterlife is like. It is not told to infer that we are actually able to see from heaven into hell or that hell can see heaven. Jesus provides these elements in the story as a tool for teaching about the life of a Christian and highlighting the dynamic between our two main characters.
The rich man, now in hell, sees Lazarus and Abraham in heaven, and calls out to Abraham for help: “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.” Here we see that the rich man knows Lazarus’s name. While Lazarus was before him on earth, the rich man did not give him attention or any mercy, but now that the rich man finds himself in need, Lazarus suddenly is worth something to him. Abraham reminds the rich man that he received his plenty on earth, while Lazarus had nothing. Now, the rich man has no comfort and Lazarus finally receives the comfort he never received on earth.
But even hearing this and suffering in hell, the rich man does not repent. He instead asks Abraham for another favor: to warn his brothers about the coming suffering, essentially to turn them from the ways that the rich man lived in. Abraham says that they have Moses and the Prophets to tell them this already, but the rich man presses further “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
Abraham replies to the Rich Man: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” This word is striking, but it is true. In this parable Jesus points out that the Pharisees of His day did not truly listen to the words of Moses and the Prophets, even though they claimed them as the source of their knowledge. If they had, they would have known that Jesus was the Messiah promised to these Prophets of Old. These people who stood against Jesus would not even come to faith after Christ raised from the dead. Jesus is very clear in the words of this parable: if you reject the words of Moses and the Prophets, you reject Christ, and if you reject Christ, you cannot truly believe the words of Moses and the prophets. All of scripture confesses Christ. All of scripture, beginning to end, is about Jesus, and just as it is written in John 1: Jesus IS the Word of God incarnate!
This parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus teaches us the importance of trusting in God’s Word. The Pharisees that Jesus addressed when speaking this parable had their trust placed in many places, but none of them were truly the right place. They trusted in their money and possessions, living in their wealth and not sharing it mercifully. They trusted in themselves, in their knowledge and traditions and their ability to uphold them, believing they could earn their way into God’s good graces through their own works. They trusted in their heritage from Abraham, believing that their lineage granted them favor with God rather than their trust in God’s promises. Yet, even as they claimed to follow the words of Moses and the Prophets, when Jesus stood before them as the full fulfillment of these words, they rejected Him and His teachings. The rich man was not in Hell because he did not help Lazarus. The rich man was in hell because he did not have faith and would not hear the Word of God. Lazarus, who had faith in God and His Word, was taken up to be with the Lord in all joy and comfort that awaits us in paradise.
We know from this parable of Jesus that God’s kingdom makes ours look upside down. From the perspective of an average human being, we would normally believe that the rich man had it made. Feasting on the finest meats, drinking the best of wine, acting like every day is a feast, the rich man is living what some would even say is similar to the American dream! It’s the kind of sky-high fantasy that people might imagine when they think of going off and making it big in Hollywood or winning the lottery. After all, from our perspective, wouldn’t you want to live rather than just survive? Yet, this road of self-indulgence and self-idolatry ended up leading the rich man on the road to hell. It led to his rejecting of the Word of God and trusting only in Himself. Lazarus, however, who had nothing during his time on earth, is received into the glory of God not because of anything that he did, but because he trusted in what God had done for him. While it is unusual for a character in one of Jesus’s parables to have a name, Lazarus’s name reinforces it’s theme: His name means “God has helped.” Where the world looks inward for its help, God turns the faithful toward Himself and promises to be that help. This Great Reversal still applies to us today. While we Christians are not under open persecution as the Christians of the Ancient Church were, we still do not gain earthly things by being a Christian. More and more every day it is less advantageous to be a Christian in America than it was 100,50, or even 10 years ago. But even if tonight Christianity was outlawed under punishment of death, you would still have everything that you truly need. The things of this world: our wealth, our status, our comfort, our lifestyle, these things all pass away. Whatever wealth you have this side of eternity means nothing next to the wealth we will receive when Christ calls us home.
We can often be like the Pharisees, trusting in our own ability or in our wealth to get us through life. While we must repent of this, it is important to remember how you are not like these Pharisees. As a baptized, repentant Christian who comes before the Lord to hear His Word and receive His forgiveness, you are one of those who has heard from Moses and the Prophets the promise of the Messiah, and have seen that promise fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. You are one whom God has helped and will continue to help. No matter what possessions we have in this world, we hope and pray to be more like Lazarus, and less like the Rich Man, not in terms of earthly wealth, but in terms of faith. We pray that God would continue to make His dwelling with us and that He would grant us the full faith and forgiveness that only comes to us in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Even right now, we prepare our hearts to feast on the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood, given to us as a gift that we receive in faith for the forgiveness of sins. Christ has come and has fulfilled all that Moses and the Prophets spoke of. In this, we also are convinced by the one who has risen from the dead. While the rich man and his brothers would not hear, even if one was raised from the dead, we know the truth of Jesus, the one who remains risen, and live out our lives rejoicing and giving thanks for the true hope we have in Christ’s death and resurrection. Thanks be to God that He is the one, true source of our life and help.
In the Holy Name of Jesus + Amen.