New York UBF – NY University Bible Fellowship (NYUBF)

Luke Lesson 53 (2010)

THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS

Luke 16:14-31
Key Verse: 16:25

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.’”

In the wake of the catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti last week, our hearts are broken. Seeing the news reports on TV about the horrifying devastation there is heart wrenching. It’s hard to even describe how much pain and sorrows people there are experiencing now. I feel guilty even to eat hamburgers while so many people there have no water, no food and no shelter. On the other hand, I am glad that we can study today’s passage, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, so that we may learn how to help the people in Haiti and others, both for the short and the long run, utilizing our worldly wealth and any resources we have. We also must pay attention to the spiritual teachings of Jesus in this passage.

In last week’s passage, 16:1-13, we learned through the parable of the Shrewd Manager that we should use our money and worldly wealth for the advancement of God’s kingdom in the lives of others. Today’s passage is the continuation of Jesus’ teaching that what we have is not ours but given by God. Jesus taught this parable in response to the Pharisees who thought that Jesus’ teaching was too extreme and unrealistic.

Look at verses 14-15. When the Pharisees, who loved money, heard him say “Man cannot serve both God and Money”, they sneered at him. They rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. Jesus’ teaching on the subject of worldly wealth wasn’t well accepted by his audience. I think even his own disciples didn’t like it. Yet, Jesus was not affected by their rejection and reluctance. He didn’t change the subject. He kept speaking the same subject. In fact, he challenged the fundamental value system of the people, particularly the Pharisees, in the following verses. Look at verse 15. “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” Even though the Pharisees appeared to be holy and righteous in the eyes of people, they were not as holy and righteous as they appeared to be. They might have given tithe regularly and even contributed donations from time to time, but in reality they treasured and worshiped money more than God and people who were in need. Jesus knew that the religious leaders of his time didn’t believe in God. They believed in the power of money. For example, for the sake of making money, they even made the Jerusalem Temple as a market place – a den of robbers. Making money is not sinful. We need money. But for the sake of money, they made the Temple like money-making business, walked over people, even used them and engaged in a host of unethical and other destructive actions. (Mk 11:16-17)

The nation Israel was in a bad shape economically, socially and politically. It seemed that God had abandoned them. But that was no excuse for anyone to trust money more than God. When Jesus said that what is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight, it was a serious warning to all of us. This reminds us of what Jesus said in Mark 13:14, which reads, “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

Read verses 16-18. “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” These verses didn’t seem to be connected to the previous or the following passages. Why did Jesus suddenly talk about the Law, the Prophets and the good news of the kingdom of God? When we consider these verses in the context of Luke’s Gospel, we can understand better. Jesus had been mainly talking about the kingdom of God, which is the message of the gospel of forgiveness. Jesus often welcomed the tax collectors and sinners who had bad reputations for their moral and ethical behaviors. Then the Pharisees criticized Jesus, saying “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (15:1-2) In the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus’ association with law-breakers was unacceptable. However, they didn’t know that they were also law-breakers by loving money more than God, which they would never admit.

Jesus knew that nobody can keep the Law of God perfectly enough to enter God’s kingdom. The only hope for any of us to enter God’s kingdom is through the grace of forgiveness of our sins. That’s why he said, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaiming until John (John the Baptist). Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”

What is the good news of the kingdom of God that is being preached through Jesus and his disciples? It is the grace of forgiveness of sins through Jesus, the Messiah. This reminds of Romans 8:3-4, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did they sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” One of the focal points Jesus had been teaching to his disciples and the Pharisees in Luke’s Gospel is “the law vs. God’s grace”, “legalism vs. gospel” or “the good will vs. the blood of Jesus Christ.”

They say that the amount of the contribution for the earthquake victims in Haiti through text messaging has already tripled that of the support for the tsunami victims in Indonesia a few years ago. People seem to have become more generous than before even in this difficult time of economic downturns. I am so amazed and encouraged by the outpouring support and a sense of solidarity with the suffering people in Haiti. That’s good and beautiful. We should do it more and more. However, we have to be a little careful. We know that being generous is not enough to enter God’s kingdom. Why not? Because our good will, good intention, small or big contributions or even religious practices do not necessarily assure that we will enter heaven. Only the blood of Jesus Christ does. This is not easy to accept for most people. Although we live in a multi religious world, it seems that the majority of people today believe in life after death. When those who say they believe in life after death are asked where they will go when they die, 76% say heaven, 2% hell, 4% purgatory, 12 % somewhere else, and 6% either say they don’t know or refuse to answer the question. Where do you think you are going to after you die? It’s an important question. It’s surprising to see that only 2% of people say that they are going to hell. If only 2% of people are going to hell, most of us here will go to heaven anyway, so Jesus’ teachings about hell seem irrelevant. In fact, we don’t talk about hell much even in the church. After all, it’s a very uncomfortable subject. However, didn’t Jesus talk a lot about hell and heaven? Didn’t he tell us that wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life? (Mt 7:13-14) It means that most people do not know that they are on the road to hell. From Jesus’ point of view, the Pharisees were on the road to hell and didn’t know it.

What did Jesus do for them? In verses 19-31, Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus to awaken the spiritually blind people. The story has three parts: the situation before death (19-21), the situation in the afterlife (22-23) and the comments about that situation (24-31). The story goes like this: There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in a luxurious life. No doubt, this extremely rich man owned a huge mansion on the eastern hillside of a mountain, with all the amenities. He lived a pretty comfortable life. At his door, however, lay a diseased beggar named Lazarus. His body was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there he was longing to eat from the rich man’s table. I guess from time to time, the rich man’s servant threw big or small pieces of steak into a garbage can. Although Lazarus’s body was covered with sores, he wasn’t taken care of. No medicine or treatment was given to him. The rich man didn’t pay attention to this poor guy. He was ignored and abandoned by this rich man. Only street dogs would come around him and licked his sores. By looking at this picture, it seems that life is so unfair. But the situation is completely reversed when both of them died.

Look at verses 22-23. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him, not his body but his soul, to Abraham’s side. When Lazarus walked into heaven, escorted by a host of angels, so many citizens of God’s kingdom cheered and threw a huge welcoming party. Even though he was poor in this world, he still loved God and lived by faith, longing for God’s kingdom. The rich man also died and was buried. I am sure his coffin was a well decorated and expensive one. His funeral was very impressive. But the angels did not come to carry him to heaven. He went to hell directly instead, where his soul was in torment. It’s scary. In hell, the rich man looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. What a contrast it is! Many people may think that if we die, we die completely. But that’s not true. There is life after death, which is a real and eternal one. Some people might think that life is unfair. But we learn that God is not unfair. Jesus’ main focus in his teaching is the kingdom of God and life after death.

Look at verse 24. The rich man called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” Obviously, the rich man supposed to be used to hot sauna. But the fire of hell wasn’t anything close like that. He was in deep agony in the fire of hell. When he saw the poor beggar Lazarus by the side of Abraham, he immediately asked him to let Lazarus to assist him to ease his agony. It almost sounded as if Lazarus was his servant. He never had any respect for Lazarus’ life both before and after death. All his life, the rich man despised the poor beggar. He never thought of Lazarus as such a precious and important person, who bears the beautiful image of God and would sit with honor and glory right beside Father Abraham. Here, we learn something very important. It’s easy for us to judge people based on their financial status, skin color, and racial or ethnic backgrounds. Those human conditions are given by God. All men and women are created equal before God and have inalienable rights to pursue their life, liberty and happiness. Therefore, we as God’s children ought to respect the life of any human beings on earth. But the rich man who ignored the poor beggar actually ignored God himself.

Look at verse 25. “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.’” Here, we should not think that Lazarus was comforted in heaven simply because he was poor in this life and the rich man was in agony in hell because he was rich in this life. Being rich is not sinful and being poor is not something we can brag about either, and vice versa. However, poverty is often considered as God’s curse and wealth considered as God’s blessing in the world. Some people think that the US and European countries are rich because these countries are Christian countries and Korea is becoming rich because there are many Christians and many missionaries are sent from Korea. It may be true. But that’s always the case. What about Japan? Japan is the second richest nation and the second and third largest economy in the world. In terms of religion, Japanese are idol-worshipers. What about China? Of course, it is God who can make us rich or poor. But when we begin to measure God’s blessing in terms of material blessing, we become like the Pharisees in the Bible. Yet, we must not make mistake in this: God’s intention and purpose in making a person rich is to make him a steward of his wealth so that he can share it with others and everyone’s need is met.

I want to give two examples in the Scripture. First, the Lord said to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 15:1-4 reads, “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelites. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. However there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you.” This is God’s promise of blessing for the covenant people Israel. In the land of God’s promise, God wanted his people to work hard and live in prosperity and peace. God wants His people to share their wealth through their love, mutual respect and accountability. So integrity, accountability and compassion are required from each citizen, so that there may be no abuse or mistreatment of others. Most of all, the cancelation of debt is like the grace of forgiveness of our sins. We also notice that foreigners were excluded from the blessing of cancelation. I thought it was unfair. But that’s the point. If foreigners want cancelation of their debt, they need to accept God’s covenant.

This common wealth idea is found also in the early church, described in Acts 4:32-34. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” When I read and studied these passages, I said to myself, “Wow! How idealistic but unrealistic it is! How is it possible to do that in this day and age?” In fact, most Christian communities, except the early Christian community in Jerusalem and a handful of Christian communities in history, do not seem to practice the principle of common wealth. Jesus wasn’t preaching the idea of capitalism, communism or socialism on earth or any particular Christian denomination or religion on earth. He preached the kingdom of God, in which all people worship and love the Lord Almighty, our Father and love one another. And it is possible only in heaven through the grace of forgiveness of sins. That’s why he said that he was going to the Father to prepare the place for us … and no one can come to the Father, except through him. (Jn 14:1-6)

Look at verse 26. “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” There are many bridges and tunnels between Queens and Manhattan. But this verse clearly reveals that there are no bridges, tunnels or channels between heaven and hell, so that travel between hell and heaven is not possible. Once you are in hell, you cannot be transferred to heaven and you will have to spend eternity in hell. So before you die, you have to make sure that you are going to heaven. The main point of this parable isn’t about who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. But it’s very important to think about it. Jesus said to Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he or she is born again. (Jn 3:3, 5) We need to be born again spiritually by repenting of our sin and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. However, the problem is that we cannot intentionally save ourselves because salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Salvation is God’s gift. If God does not save you, you cannot be saved. But we need to repent and believe the good news. In fact, God can put us into hell or in heaven. We all deserve to go to hell because of our sins. But we don’t have to go to hell if we accept the grace of forgiveness of our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verses 27-31. The rich man pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his brothers because he knew that they were coming to where he was. Then Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. “No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Here, we learn that the main reason people reject God’s truth is that they love darkness instead of light. (Jn 3:19) The rich man represents the Pharisees and his five brothers. They were going to hell, not because they were rich but because they as God’s chosen people disobeyed the Law of God. They had a chance to repent and accept the grace of forgiveness of sins, but they didn’t. Time was running out. No one can enter the kingdom of God except by the grace of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ who became the ransom for our sins. The cancelation of our sin is given to us as a gift. In fact, all we have is given by God, money, material wealth and the gift of God’s salvation through the grace of forgiveness of sins. We are to share these gifts with others.

Now, what should we do in the wake of such a terrible tragedy of our brothers and sisters in Haiti? We should pray for them, send material and financial support as much as we can and share their pains together. James 2:14-16 reads, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” 1 Timothy 6:17-18 reads, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” Of course, we don’t go to heaven simply by donating a lot of money to the poor. We should not also think that by giving money we have done our duty. Giving money is not the real point. The point is God’s compassion.

What Jesus was trying to say through the parable is that God’s children should be compassionate and merciful toward one another. God cares for each individual, the poor, the rich and the middle class. We are to be merciful toward one another. Poor people should not think that they are entitled to be helped by rich people simply because they are poor. We all need God’s mercy so much regardless of our physical and material condition. We might happen to fail to show mercy to our immediate neighbor. There are plenty of people around you who need your merciful care and love from you. There are plenty of people who are crying out for your attention, love and care. Let’s pay attention to them and show our love and care. If you do, you are living a truly beautiful and wonderful life.