The Real Feast
NL Year 3 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I honestly don’t know where to start with this text so let’s jump right in and see what all is happening. In order to get to most out of it though I think we need to go up a few verses and take a look at what Luke tells us about the Pharisees.
In Luke 16:14-15 we see Luke tell us that the Pharisees were lovers of money. Now obviously Luke points out the Pharisees particularly, but I think it’s important to note that they are specifically talking about those Pharisees that were gathered there and were ridiculing Jesus. So it is this particular subset that Luke and Jesus are talking about specifically. But it is important because it is this statement that leads into his next parable about the rich man and Lazarus.
Jesus goes into some pretty deep details about what is happening by providing some very descriptive imagery of both the rich man and Lazarus, so with this idea of this displeasure between this greedy group of Pharisees and Jesus let’s dig into those details because I think the fact that they are there is good reason to pay attention to them.
Let’s look at the rich man since he is the first one mentioned in the story. He was dressed in purple and fine linen. We haven’t finished the first sentence and we already have a lot of information. First and most obvious is that the man is rich. He is so rich in fact that he can afford the most expensive color of the time which is purple and is traditionally word by royalty. Then it says that he was also dressed in fine linen which according to scholars likely means that it was imported from somewhere and was better and more expensive than what the average person would pay for their normal clothes. In other words, he has fine silk underwear.
Then it tells us in the same sentence that he also feasted every single day. A couple of things that we can take away from that is that he liked to eat. Or he had enough money to just throw feasts every day whether or not he really ate it all or not. It also could mean that he didn’t observe the Sabbath of not cooking which means that he didn’t follow the Law as it should be followed.
In his death he even has a funeral which means that there was likely a huge multi-day feast and time of mourning in remembrance of him. In his death things are done extravagantly. Obviously it is sad that the rich man died, but the picture that Jesus and Luke portray about this rich man is that he had all the good things in his life and even at the remembrance of his death.
Lazarus on the other hand didn’t have nearly the things that the rich man had. Lazarus wasn’t rich, he was poor. It would seem so poor in fact, that he didn’t have money to buy food because he sat at the rich man’s gate waiting for scraps to make their way from the table to the gate to eat. One of the commentaries I heard this last week even made the very disturbing but true observation that while the rich man had both the most expensive clothes and underwear, because Lazarus was covered in sores didn’t even have that to cover his whole body. And that it was the dogs that took pity on him by licking his wounds to try to help him out. Something the rich man didn’t try to do.
While the image of the angels carrying Lazarus to Abraham makes for a beautiful scene, it also shows that when Lazarus dies he doesn’t get the funeral that the rich man had. These men had very different lives. Polar opposite if you ask me. It is, however, the interactions after they die that really help us as readers understand just how much this dramatic pair of opposites goes beyond the material that is set up for us in the first part of the story.
Now while we will take a look at some of what it said, I want to look more closely at what we can learn from what is said more than just what words are spoken, much like we did while the two were living. This time though I won’t necessarily go in order of how it happens in the text. The first thing I want to point out is that the rich man knows Lazarus by name! The whole time that Lazarus was at the gate hoping and praying for food. Having his sores open and hurting. Having no one caring or looking after him, this rich man knew his name but did nothing about what was going on in his life. If he knew his name he knew where he spent his time and he knew that he had everything he needed in his gated place with more than enough food, but didn’t bother to pay attention to the man.
What seems just as telling about his ignoring Lazarus in life is the way that he wants to treat him in death. He wants Lazarus to bring him water to cool his tongue. Then he wants to send him on an errand to warn his other brothers so that they don’t end up i the manner that he is now living. He doesn’t seem to care what became of Lazarus he wants him to be as a servant to him even in death. He even goes as far as to argue with Abraham about all of this by telling him no. The rich man seems to be no different in this life than he was in the life that he lived.
Finally I want to point out that multiple times he calls Abraham, Father Abraham. This is important because he recognizes Abraham as the patriarch over all of Israel, and yet he completely fails, in both life and death, to recognize Lazarus as his brother. For if Abraham is his father then he is also the father of Lazarus and then they are both children and connected through that family, yet he never once makes that connection.
I feel like reading this story doesn’t seem that intense but when we dig into it, it really says volumes about what it means to follow God and Jesus and live a life filled with the Holy Spirit. While this story may seem like a conviction of all of us who don’t always pay attention to those who are less fortunate than us, and that should be noted, but I think even more importantly it is about taking a look at ourselves and making sure that we are living out the calling to be family to one another. To focus less on the possessions we have and more on the people we have in our lives and the people we could have in our lives. And more importantly in the care and life of God our creator.
I know I have used this quote from Martin Luther before, but it seems to fit itself into so many situations. “I have held many things in my life, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” The rich man placed his trust in his possessions and there was nothing that in life or death that changed his mind about that.
Pay attention to God, listen for God, listen for those around us. We need to all open our eyes and hearts to the needs of others so that God can work change in each and every one of us. God offers us an eternal feast that is far better than any one we can throw ourselves, and it lasts for eternity. God gives us clothes to wear that are finer than any purple or more wonderful than any silk underwear we could buy. They are the clothes we were given in the waters of baptism. They are clothes that will never wear out. So live into the blessing of those gifts and make sure to extend an invitation to the everlasting feast to those who are in most need of it, for God extends love to each and every person in this world; rich and poor, young and old, male or female, anyone who exists in this world, because it is truly meant for all. Amen.