30/09/07 (Trinity 17)
Luke 16:19-31
Jesus had a knack of saying exactly the opposite of what people would expect. His listeners would assume that a rich man was rich because of God’s blessing, and that beggars were poor because they deserved to be. In this story the rich man ends in torment, the poor man in bliss. The rich man is nameless, the poor man is given a surprising identity: the name Lazarus means ‘God has helped’.
The parable is just a story, drawing on current ideas of life after death. I do not think Jesus was intending to paint an accurate picture of the after life, but to make a strong point: our attitudes matter, especially our attitudes to the poor; for attitudes we develop on earth may stay with us for eternity. Hard hearts developed in this life are not softened by death, and are not fit for heaven.
That was the rich man’s problem. He was not necessarily a bad man. The fact that Lazarus had a pitch by his gate may imply that the rich man tolerated his presence there, and that Lazarus received enough to make it worth staying. Maybe the rich man thought that, ‘The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate.’ The problem was that he assumed Lazarus was not his problem. He could have helped a lot, but chose not to. And in Hades (the word here translated ‘hell’ means the underworld) he still seems to regard Lazarus as a nobody who could be at his beck and call, he still seems concerned only about his own comfort or lack of it.
Jesus packs the story with irony. The rich man called Abraham, ‘Father’, and Abraham called him, ‘Son’ – but it made no difference. The rich man had achieved his goals in this life, he had enjoyed luxury and respect (he had a grand funeral), but had failed even to aim at the only goals that ultimately matter. The rich man had made his bed, and had to lie on it.
Jesus gives the story a twist in its tail. The rich man had a good attitude towards his family, and his brothers were important to him. But his request that Lazarus be sent to warn them was rejected, for the same reason that he was rejected: they were already too hard hearted. They would not listen to the teaching and commands of the Bible, and their attitude was now so closed that not even someone coming back from the dead could change it. Is that why when Jesus rose from the dead he only appeared to his disciples?
Questions:
1) Who is the ‘poor man’ at your gate? What should you be doing about him (or her)?
2) What attitudes do you have that you do not want to keep for eternity? What can change them?