Lazarus and the Rich Man

There was a certain rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen and who feasted luxuriously everyday? At his gate laughter and poor man named Lazarus who is covered with sores. Lazarus long to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Instead dog food come and lick his sores.

The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham side. The rich man also died and was buried

Well being tormented in the place of the dead he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side. He shouted Father Abraham have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I'm suffering in this lame.

But Abraham said child remember that during your lifetime you received good things whereas Lazzarus received terrible things. Now the other is being comforted and you are in great pain. Moreover a great crevasse has been fixed between us and you those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot neither can anyone crossover from there to us?

The rich man said then I beg you father send Lazarus to my father's house. I have five brothers he needs to warn them so that they don't come to this place of agony.

Abraham replied they have Moses and the prophets they must listen to them.

The rich man said no Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will change their heart than life.

Abraham said if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets then neither, will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead?

hearings the reading

bring up in San Antonio. I would often be flipping through the Via TV channels on Sunday mornings and And I was raised an audible just home and then didn't attend church on Sundays. Anthony into the channels, I would come across invariably.

The Reverend Hagee giving a giving a sermon from his church in San Antonio. The name of which escapes me at the moment, but I'm you can look it up Hagee Ministries and you'll find it. No problem the big mega church in San Antonio.

And remember you had this fine suit and he's standing at a Podium and there were thousands of people around listening to him.

and it was an interesting dichotomy to see between this man and the ministers and preachers that I knew in my life through the Boy Scout or through friends who lived very three basic kind of existence has no people tell you your ministry. You can administer for the money you get in the ministry because you can't not be in Ministry.

But yet there are some in Ministry who do make lots of money doing it and he was an example of that in and throw their are there many others.

There are many names that you could you could point to ministers who have made a very good living. Ministers you have private jets and fancy cars and large mansions.

Any Factor the whole? A whole theology that has arisen. around God's grace and money

This this Theology of wealth.

The Prosperity Gospel is called. and there's lots of preachers especially on television asking people to send the money because if you send the money than that will Gain, you favor or gain you? Tunde in the God's good graces, and then you will in turn become prosperous.

Things that you know are not much different than they were in Jesus's name this reading we had today. this reading

about Lazarus and the rich man or the rich man and Lazarus is taken from the The Book of Luke course, we are in the middle of loot cuz it's part of our Narrative Lectionary readings removing through Luke towards Easter and the story happens in the middle of the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees and actually I'm a little frustrated because the the part that I read you today, which is the parable of Lazarus and the rich man itself have context before it in that context is missing from the net from this Narrative Lectionary reading. all of the contacts isn't necessarily required to understand the reading it sure helps a lot. So let me go back. I'm just a few verses here and read to you the contacts before this. starting at verse 14

the Pharisees who were money lovers heard all this and sneered at Jesus. Actually, let me back up. Let me back up one more so you back up to verse. This actually maybe it's better if you back up.

The previous Peril before this is a parable about the master and the servants but we didn't read that one as part of our meeting but he's back up to verse 13, which is right right before this this part Jesus says no household servant can serve two masters either. You will hate the one and love the other are you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth

And this is what this is the the saying of the parishes are responding to you until they respond. So now we can we get the Pharisees who were Money Lover is her all this and sneered at Jesus. He said to them you are the ones who justify yourself before other people, but God knows our hearts. What is highly valued by people is deeply offensive to God. Until John there was only the law and the prophets since then the good news of God's kingdom is preached and everyone is urged answer it. Is easier for heaven and earth pass away then for the smallest stroke of a pen in the law to drop out.

Any man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and a man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

And then he begins this Parable there was a certain rich man who is closing purple and so on and so forth.

What are the point of this parable? I think I have I have lots of things I should say about the terrible. The first thing I want to say is that in context. Jesus is talking about money and he's talking about the law and the prophets. And that the gospel that he's preaching the Good News of God's Kingdom.

now the Pharisees were a group of devout Jewish folks and they were reading the law and the prophets in other words the Hebrew scriptures that they hadn't heard. It's part of their condition and what they were getting out of that one of the one of the things they were getting out of him with this idea and this can certainly be backed up if you if you look through the But we called the Old Testament you can you can see this mentioned over and over that. Those who please God. Are I made prosperous? Everything is made well for them. They're getting money in and good lives and livestock and Good fortune and that those with bad fortune have their bad fortune because they are being punished by God because they are being because they are not living up to two gods. the Pharisees saw

this person in the story not as perhaps the kind of black and white.

Character that we married into it from our modern perspective and we were the starting lineup for the obvious to us then perhaps that last that I Lazarus the poor. Beggar on the on the side of the road is, you know to be looked up to you in this particular case cuz he goes like he's taken by angels to be by your side. Whereas the rich man who's not even giving a name in the parable is to be seen as the the the bad guy in the story he who ends up being. In the end of the world of the Dead being tortured in and being in pain.

But to the Pharisees and the jesuses audience in general this wasn't necessarily true from reading the the Old Testament. You can you can take out understanding take on the understanding that the rich man because he was rich and in the end of the parable, he's very rich having purple clothes out her clothes and white Egyptian linen dinner close both tell about his incredible wealth because I purposely white clothes are very hard to come by and purple with very difficult very difficult. Dye to produce and very expensive. He's having Banquets in the family that comes by if you want to come by all the time to have been good with him. He has no no care in the world the Pharisees and indeed perhaps many of his audience would have looked at this man and thought here is a man with God's favor here is a man who is doing well and the God is taking care of And he might have looked at Lazarus full of sores and begging at the at the Gate of the rich man for scraps of food. Not even getting that but you only the dogs licking his wounds.

They might see him from the understanding as having done some horrible thing. Here is a person who has done some horrible thing or perhaps is is his family has done some horrible thing in the past and he is you know, he is dealing with the consequences of that. And so now he is he is sick. He is all this.

info that's the point that Jesus is trying to make is that there is this reversal that

even though the the rich man Mae Phim because he's Rich to be in God's good graces. Really he's not doing the thing that God wants him to do. He's not taking care of the poor. He's not sharing his wealth with those in need. And so he ends up in pain after that. Whereas the poor the poor person Lazarus tins up.

I thought that Abraham side.

and some things haven't changed that much and in fact this this Contact this is argument about wealth versus poverty about is it a sin to be wealthy. Is it is it bad to be wealthy to have the money? Is an argument that has been going on in the church ever since ever since the days of Jesus. I mean as long as they're going to church there has been discussion around this and in fact, we find it again. And again, we find it in the in the Epistles. We see in the Epistle of James that James is telling the early church and I got a couple James is one of the earliest written text in the New Testament Jesus on the church, you know, don't don't bring in the rich people and give them good feets and then bringing the poor people and make them sit on the floor. But you know, everyone should be equal in God's eyes. So this argument continues and continues we see it again, you know when the early church will see it again in the Middle Ages. We we see it when when Saint Francis Is upset with the the relative.

Ease with which monks are living when in his days and decides to to give away their possessions and then carry only you little as midget in. The New Testament free only, you know his sandals and a stick and and his tunic and that's it.

We see this kind of cycle the cycle of okay. It's okay to have money and then and then the pendulum kind of thing by the way and everyone I'll get rid of all your money. And certainly Jesus says this you know when the rich man a different rich man, come to join Jesus explains that that he's the only living as far as I can to Lodge you just tell him that's great. Go give all your possessions to the poor and come follow me and the man can't do it so he can leave and in the fifties and sixties. When when Clarence Jordan was in the south of the name of the US and was running his queen bee farms.

Co-op, I guess USA a community when people would come he would he would tell them to go and get rid of their of their Earthly possessions before they joined the group and importantly he wouldn't tell them give me your ugly position. Give me all your money and we'll put it in in in until you're common used by the group. He didn't say that he said go and give your money to the poor and then come back and and the media will take care of you. I wouldn't think is really important. Just like Jesus. Jesus doesn't say give your money to the church and come and follow me. He says give your money to the poor and come and follow me. This argument about the rich and the poor is okay to have money whenever it to you, but would she is staying here in this is I'm going to shift down to the second the second point to make what Jesus is saying here is not that it's bad to have money and and you can definitely get that from from the reading before when you said you can't love both God and wealth, right? He cannot serve both God and well well and then he says

That it's yo, what highly valuable people is deeply offensive to God, but it's not that you can't have wealth. It's not that you can't have money is that you can't serve well can't serve money. You must serve God if you have money, but you're using it for the good of your fellow person. If you're giving to the poor into the homeless, if you're if you're helping those in need if you are doing your best to live a life of generosity and and caring Then you even worry. indeed This is exactly what the rich man is not doing the rich man is using the with well for himself and his friend, but he doesn't give even to Lazareth and he meet you Lazarus is is that has been been kind of cast out at the gate hoping just the crumbs of bread from the rich man's table the rich man when he leaves his home. He must pass right by him everyday right and yet he doesn't ever give anything to the poor man. This is the problem. And Jesus was talking about this in the context of the Pharisees. He was telling the Pharisees. The feed themselves in the rich man, and the Pharisees were hoarding wealth. They were they were doing things to be seen by the people they were they were doing things to be how about the regular people and yet and they were and they were saying that they were righteous and that they were holding and if they weren't doing the real core things that the law and the prophets taught them to do take care of the poor take care of the homeless the needy the Widow the orphan. Love your neighbor as yourself.

And in the story the rich man's tell asks asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brother. And Abraham says when they had the law and the prophets they don't stay idle on the profit. And the rich man says yes, but if but if someone was raised from the dead then they would believe.

and Abraham says if they can't understand the law and the prophets then they're not going to believe when someone is raised from the dead and what he saying, it's also Jesus this thing about when he says that it would be you know, it would be harder for that would be a possible reason 1iota driven one stroke of the pen to be removed in a law. He's not saying that the law as it was understood by the Pharisees freaking what are the religious leader that today was correct. He was saying that their understanding of the law was incorrect. And uses this passage about adultery to prove that there was a line in the in the in Deuteronomy. I believe where it says that if if you divorce somebody you can you can give them a certificate of divorce and then they can be remarried and then if if that second husband dies or divorce has them the first husband cannot remarry at the wife again, because that will that will have become a Tall Tree or be bad wherever and soap. They laid out the situation because divorce is already commonplace in at the time of the book writing and later the situation where I had pointed this one particular thing if you are married and you get divorced and your wife marry somebody else and then that person dies. And then you remarry your first wife that is adultery. That was the way it was laid out. And Jesus is saying that is to miss the point of of the law that is fit to live by the letter of the law with mountain without seeing the point of the Lord. Jesus says really anybody who who who marries a divorced person is canedo 3 and I don't want to get into the parking lot divorce here. I think that's a bunch of longer discussion to preserve its own its own discussion. I think this in our modern-day that particular verse a problematic at this Academy vampal here, but I want to point out that what Jesus is talking about even here is not specifically divorce. He's using it as an example. There are things written in the in the the Old Testament that AR Missing the point. They're the living to the letter of the law is not the same as living to the the heart of the law to the meaning of the law and Jesus the saying the problem with the Pharisees that they've missed the actual commandment the myth the actual meaning there their they're overlooking the truth of what they're supposed to be doing in there instead. They're they're pointing out very specific legal loopholes and things to allow themselves to do things that are really against the idea that the the computer trying to to get across.

And I mean how Timeless is this message? There are always people who are using. religion as a way to

have power over others. instead of having power with others

by the way to excuse their own greed their own malice their own hate.

Do you know the saying to do that misses the point of the scriptures?

I know this is a concept that I always have a hard time with because to me the the Old Testament it is kind of difficult to read and there's a lot of problematic stuff in there. A lot of difficult verses that we have to Grapple with would Jesus is saying is that even in his day the people misunderstood what the real law and the prophets list was saying and we do this again and again with his friend when Jesus is

Talking to the person who is asking him. What is you what do you think of is the point of the law and the prophets and he says, you know, it's love God and love your neighbor right in that. Did I left the corps same kind of concept?

that's really the message of this of the First Methodist verses about

living not living not the letter of the law but to the attention of the law. Taking the text not as a complete literal text but taking it in, in its own context and in the context of the larger Narrative of the entire story of this is what Jesus was doing. This is why I also take this approach to biblical understanding. This is the same approach. We see Jesus taking

so now turn to the third point I want to make about this verse. Specifically about how it applies to Universal salvation.

There are a lot of problematic. difficult verses in the New Testament even if we discard the Old Testament verses in the New Testament There are many difficult verses around salvation and life after death and resurrection and torment after death. but I'm all of them. I think this is perhaps the most difficult.

And the reason for that is that the text is very clear. The text is very simple. The text is not hiding and shade the meaning and metaphor. We look at revelation. We look at. Other places I've been talking about that the wheat and the chaff in the and you know the fires and we talked about the the Lake of Fire and the outer darkness and all this week and we can get into lots of different subtleties and we can we can go around in about with with a theology. But hear Jesus is the story of these a child has a very simple and very clear because Jesus is trying to make a point.

and so I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the implications for the story on universal salvation. I think the first thing to realize is it this is a parable. It's not obvious necessarily that it is a parable. It's not it's often not called the parable of in in English translations bring it and it's made complicated because we have a name we have Lazarus and Lazarus is a person that occurs in the piers in other parts of the New Testament that Jesus have a friend named Lazarus to erase it from the dead. but my mother is a fairly common name in Jesus time in it. It is the kind of diminutive form of Eliezer. Which means God helps. Until in the context of the story. It's a make perfect sense to be the name of the character because God is helping this person.

now the reason I think this is a parable and not For example, the telling of an actual event is because first of all it starts in the same way that The Parables do their there once was a you know, it's there once was a certain rich man, you know, this is just kind of formulate formulaic beginning of Parables. Secondly it come in the middle of a bunch of Parables that he's talking to he's talking to the Pharisees.

I'm in third the basic story with well-known in the the time that you just lived the idea of there being two people who were somehow related and what in them both dying and going to the afterlife and then living treated differently. This basic storyline was well-known and in is a test it outside of the New Testament. Obviously this version has Jesus adapted for his audience present for his, you know, Jewish devout Jewish audience, but it's what it would be like Adjusting the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears or of some really commonly well-known story to match the the sermon that was being given certainly isn't something that I've done right? I talk about my own personal stories. I like I used them to the kind of relate story of the Thurman.

So the thing I want to say is it in the end in the King James version of the Bible that the Virgin the Bible that was that was authorized by a King James of England that became kind of the standard text first written in the in the 17th century and then revised in the 18th century and now you know how to copyright into often. Do you use of hear the word hell does that it says that the Lazareth with it was taken up by the angels and the rich man died and went to hell that the original text doesn't say that and certainly are translation today does a really good job of kind of getting at the idea of the original text when it says the Land of the Dead or the the the realm of the dead because of the original text actually said in Greek is Haiti's That the word is the actual word is Haiti which was known to to the Romans and the Greeks as the realm of the dead right the realm of the Dead. though and it's not maybe not completely obvious by the translation, but both the rich man and the poor man go to Hades. They both go to the room of the dead. It's just that they're they're different parts of it. And there's a Chasm between them. soap I don't think the intention of the parable was to give us an idea of what the afterlife is like. If I think that by using it to kind of say well, but here it says that no one can cross over from one to the other for example.

Is to misunderstand the purpose of the parabola of context the purpose of it was did to give a story that'll be easy for Jesus is audience of the Pharisees understand using contact and social ideas that were well known well understood in his time so that his actual message which is about doing what is right by the intention of the law instead of the letter of the law would land properly with his audience without being caught up in a bunch of other stuff that was important to the actual story.

So I don't think that the Parables meant to tell us about the afterlife and in fact, it contradicts other things in other places in the in the book in the New Testament if you were thinking of it as being about the afterlife. Also, if you want to be really picky about it, you know Abraham says no one no one can go between but it's not Abraham Who We Believe goes between but but God and Jesus who course can do whatever they want. And so there's not a there's not a gap between the good in the bad. If you will the God can't cross. I just as it's not that can't be right. So I don't think that it's meant to be a literal description of the afterlife.

What we do with it, what do we do with the story as Christian Universal swell, we need to take it for what it is and what Jesus meant to be in his contacts. It's about doing right by those around us and by those in need it's about taking what you have. However much it is a little bit or a lot and using it to make the world a better place instead of squandering it all in yourself. It's about generosity and caring for your fellow human being. It's not about the afterlife. It's not about. Did you can't have any money at all that you have to give all your money to the poor and and live in poverty yourself?

It's about being a good person and it's about saying that this idea of this gospel that the Jesus bring if not all new information. This is continuing on from what we've been taught in the law and the prophets in the Old Testament that a correct understanding a correct reading. of the Old Testament again and non-literal reading the Jesus had brings us to the understanding. That connects rivers to understanding that connects the stories and lessons of the Old Testament with the stories and lessons of the New Testament. They were not separate thing. They were not Jesus was not writing off the Old Testament and cream something new for whole cloth. Jesus was instead continuing in the teaching and then just refining them. He was saying no we misunderstood the reading he was picking parts from the Old Testament that were true that the tot the true message and discarding those parts that were They were not giving it the cry message.

So that's what we need to do our self. We need to think about how this reflects our own biblical study how this reflects our understanding of wealth and power. We look for opportunities where we can help and our own communities in the communities. We serve and places were called to do. So wherever those places are. This is what Jesus said the good news is about it's not an idea that you hold onto in your mind and pray about and then and then it get you out of jail. When you go when you're when you die. It's about changing your life. It's about living a better life now and making the world a better place for as many people as possible. Being a Christian is an active thing. It is a way of living difference in being in the world that you build up slowly over time as you study and reflect pray.

Jesus is saying that what the Pharisees were doing and again what we feel today with mini. Quote on quote religious people are doing is misinterpreting the scriptures.

Interpret them the way that promote their personal gain and give them power over other people rather than interpreting in them in a way that causes them to love and care for their Neighbours at the serve at their own expense.

Without I hope you got this week and you'll maybe read over this chapter again. It's there's so much packed in. Here we go over it again. We didn't multiple translations take a look at it and in detail and Ponder How are you the rich man in the story? What are you doing in your life? this rich man was doing and how can you be more? generous more caring, how can you live a life the way God intended to